Taos, New Mexico

This is beautiful country! Big sky, tons of stars at night and lots of fresh powder for skiing. Andrew and I have been on the slopes while Ryker is in their camp (which he loves). I put him on his skis and he was dying to go up the lift so he could come down the hill. He needs to learn to stand on his own first. I'll enroll him in the ski school for a class and see how that goes... We went tubing in the afternoon and with the 3 of us tied together, we went really fast. Still, it wasn't fast enough for Ryker. Andrew had to haul the tubes up the hill and I had to drag Ryker up.

Bay Area Discovery Museum

This is one of Ryker's favorite places to go. We went for Chinese New Year and it was SO crowded. Ryker ran ahead of me and when I finally caught up with him, I had to tackle him. In doing so, I sprained my ankle and ended up on crutches. Andrew's TLC and ice water baths healed it in no time. We went to the museum again for "Irish dancing" because Ryker LOVES Irish music; he asks for it every time we get in the car. Still, his favorite things at this museum are the boat he climbs on and the ramp he rides the Tonka trucks down, over and over and over.

Alpine Meadows, Tahoe

Ryker finally got a chance to try out his new skis on snow! It had been pouring in SF (which means SNOW in Tahoe). They got something like 4 ft of the stuff last week. Ryker and I were recovering from colds so not in the best of shape, but nothing was going to stop us. The ability to ski in Tahoe is one of the reasons I moved to SF afterall. We hired a babysitter for our two days who was great with Ryker and while expensive, great for us to hit the slopes. Andrew snowboards and I ski, but neither of us had been for 5 years so we were a little rusty. There were no injuries and it was lots of fun. We put the skis on Ryker and pulled him around a bit. He's not quite ready to stand on his own. Perhaps Sandy will join us in Taos next month and succeed in teaching him?

PS I'm the one in the green jacket. Andrew is the other person pulling him along.

Skiing

Ryker got skis for Christmas from Santa Claus. Tahoe is being hit by a very heavy snowstorm over the next few days (we don't think we could get over the Donner Pass), so we're making plans to go this coming weekend instead. We managed to find all of our gear: boots, snowboard, skis, helmets, gloves, long underwear, jackets, pants. It is a lot of stuff! Ryker tried on his boots and skis and did NOT want to take them off. We're ready Tahoe!

Aquarium by the Bay

We have a membership since Ryker LOVES fish. Yesterday we went with some friends. Ryker loved petting the starfish and rays. He couldn't get close enough to the sharks, but I got him a little shark toy to attack everyone with...

Christmas with Keelin

Keelin came for Christmas this year (actually Andrew had to fly there to pick her up and drop her off). We had a wonderful time together. The kids just love playing together, even when it ends up in tears. Ryker even gave up sleeping in KeeKee's bed without any complaints. It was such a busy trip with the Nutcracker, Cirque du Soleil OVO, Bay Area Discovery Museum, hula lessons, ice skating, trips to Krispy Kreme and the park, art projects, cooking together, tickle games, etc.

Bay Area Discovery Museum

I finally took Ryker to the museum today. It was a drizzly, dreary day here and we had a great time. The museum is for kids 8 y.o. and younger and it is all touchable and interactive. Ryker got to jump in the pond (a kind of waterbed), help plastic fish swim up stream, crawl through lots of tunnels, make waves, steer the boat, climb the pirate lookout. We will definitely go back!