Is it winter yet?

I see photos on my sister's blog of kids (okay, just my niece) outside in bathing suits this winter, so I know it's not just here that the weather has succumbed to global weirding. But it has been a very strange winter. Every delightful sunny summery day, I feel a tinge of guilt for enjoying it so much when I know we need more rain in the rivers, more snow on the mountain. It's hard not to enjoy the warmish evenings that are warmer even than the evenings we get in the summer when the coastal fog settles in, and the ability to plan outdoor weekend activities with little fear that they will get rained out. But the lack of snow in Tahoe has been a serious disappointment to us this winter, so we were obviously overjoyed to hear about the winter storms that came through this week, and rearranged everything to make it up to the cabin. Unfortunately it's so warm up there, too, that most of it had melted by the time we got there. And what was left had gone through so much freeze-thaw that it was more likely to cut you than oblige a snowball-making effort. BUT: there was enough snow left on one particular hill near the cabin and the consistency was perfect for sledding.



There is the perfect little snow hill two blocks from the cabin, which doesn't sound very far but apparently feels very far to a toddler when it's 45 degrees out, which doesn't sound very cold but apparently feels very cold to a toddler who's wearing rain boots because his silly parents have not bought him snow boots. Hence, daddy gets talked into carrying Jack a lot even though he's already carrying Sadie. (Why doesn't mommy carry Jack since daddy's already carrying Sadie? Because mommy's philosophy is: toughen up, kid! Or it was until I found a hole in one of his rain boots that was making his feet all wet and felt terrible about it for the rest of the weekend and then when we got home immediately went out and bought him snow boots.) I'm not sure Jack really knows what to make of winter yet, and this has been the weeniest winter! It's a gorgeous sunny blue-sky snow-melting "winter" but he says it's too cold and seems a little uncertain about why we would purposely want to be in snow. I feel like a failed Minnesotan. And I guess I kind of am, since I moved to California. He may enjoy sledding, at least he seemed to while he was doing it but then right after both runs he took down the hill he threw tantrums about snow being cold, which I think had more to do with needing a nap than snow actually being cold, but we'll have to try it again on more sleep and see. Oh, Jack. Luckily my daredevil Sadie is impervious to cold in her big marshmallow suit and wants so badly to eat snow that she will try to jump out of my arms while sledding. She's quite a gal.

And luckily both kids had lots of fun indoors. The cabin is so much more fun than our house because there are stairs (that Sadie likes to climb about 200 times a day, and Jack likes to chase after her without actually being helpful), and playmates. This week featuring Elise (6 months Jack's senior) and Gabe (6 weeks Sadie's junior): best playmates yet.



There was lots of footy-pajama romping. And some not-so-footy-pajama romping, too. Nothing excites children like nudity, and nothing bums them out like being told to put clothes on (see above, bottom right).

My favorite part of Tahoe was the drive home. I know, that sounds absolutely crazy, but that's when this happened:



So stinking sweet!