Day: March 14, 2009

Saturday we attempted to get to Castle peak again. Or at least to the pass… but we had a late start, and hit he slopes – or better the uphill part – after an early lunch. Leilani walked the first 2 miles or so, we were impressed. I told her a lot of fairy tales, and we shared ski poles.

The sky was actually bluer without the polarizer. It was unbelievably clear and crisp.

This is Castle Peak. We hiked to the top (without snow) 5 and 6 years ago, but never since.

If you look closely, you can see the sparkling snow flakes falling off the trees.

It was Christmas-postcard-pretty.

Leilani’s endurance surprised us. She wants to be an astronaut when she grow up, and she knows she needs to be very fit (and good in science.). She also told us we could ride in her spaceship with her (yes I did watch a lot of Startreck, Babylon5, Voyager… while I was pregnant…)

Andy picked her icicles off the trees, they had the slightest hint of pine flavor…

Eventually she gave up and wanted to be carried, shortly before we had to turn around. She stayed in the pack during the entire downhill (which makes it hard to ski, Andy says).

Sunday we (actually only Leilani) went skiing at Donner again. We had slept through the breakfast at our hotel, because we forgot about daylight saving time, and arrived there around 11:00 or so. She had lots of fun, and I didn’t manage a single video… but Andy got a few photos.

Nice turn, but I think she was falling off-balance here. Still, notice her cool new helmet and goggles. We got those after someone almost ran into her last time.

She took a break and Andy built this snowman with her while I let of some steam on the phone with a non-paying client (and did some Dynamind and meditations afterwards to calm myself down again)

The lift closed early (at least relative to our schedule), but we stayed a little longer and went sledding on the empty slopes). After a near crash, we found it was best (and a lot less tiring) to ride down with her.

Andy got his workout (at 7000 feet, 2100 m elevation) pulling her back up the slopes. She liked that part too.

The mountains across the valley were so pretty (yes I know, there are 3 photos of that mountain in this post…). Andy thinks that is Mt. Judah on the left.

On our way home from skiing we stopped in Auburn, Andy saw the beautiful sunset colors on this house

Leilani loves to take flower pictures. While watching her with the camera, the photographing seems very random, but some of the photos turned out great.

We’re actually not sure what kind of flower this is:

I took this one of a camelia:

We drove on to Folsom and stopped at Sutter Street and checked out the – closed – antique stores.

Has nothing to do with the rest of this post… Leilani is very intrigued with dinosaurs. She can even draw them now. This one is a Triceratops: