Snow Trip

We went up the Palm Springs Aerial Tram a couple weekends ago to enjoy the snow. I love going up the tram because it saves us from having to do mountain driving. Plus, it is such a beautiful ride and the kids have a lot of fun.

The kids enjoyed sledding and luckily all four of them fit on the sled.

Of course, Elysha and Sam wanted to be pulled back up the hill, much to Chang's annoyance.


The little snowball in Joey's hand eventually became the head to this snowman...


It was a group effort but Joey really put in a lot of work to get the snowball to this size.



The snowman was bigger than Sam. When I say "group effort," I mean that we had to work against Sam. It might look like he's trying to put in the snowman's arm, but he actually kept pulling everything out.

Our cutie pie Elysha...and Sam, behind her, pulling out the snowman's hair.

Ta-da! Okay, Sam is blocking the snowman and Elysha's face is covered by her snowball but I tried to take a nice group shot and after 30 takes, this is the best one...

Our Day in the Snow

We went on the Palm Springs Arial Tram a couple of weeks ago to play in the snow. It was a perfect day because the snow was fresh and it wasn't absolutely freezing.

We tried to build a snowman but the snow was too powdery and it wouldn't compress into a snowball. So the girls just made a big pile of snow and a few snow angels.

And then in a random act of kindness, someone gave us their sled on the condition that we passed it on to another family when we were done.




The only bad thing about coming here for the snow is that after the kids are pooped and ready for hot chocolate, you have to walk back up this long, windy ramp (a good 125 yards). The whole time the girls were whining about being tired. We just kept enticing them with hot chocolate so that they would keep walking.

Overall, it was a lot of fun. We are hoping to go back again to the snow a few more times before the season is over. And with all the rain we have been having, I realize how good we usually have it here in LA.

Our Immigrant-like Day in the Snow

We drove out to Mt Baldy to play in the snow. Originally, I figured the girls can ghetto it up by wearing jeans with leggings underneath, a rain jacket with a sweatshirt and sneakers...you know, just like their mama did during those church winter retreats in which we would actually encounter patches of snow. I didn't own any real snow gear until I started skiing in sixth grade.

Anyhow Chang went to REI earlier in the month and got the kids (including Sam) snow jackets. At first, I scoffed at the idea but REI is having a really good sale! He got Joey a size 8 which is way too big so I went back to exchange the jacket and got suckered into buying the kids (including Sam) snow pants.

We had a blast on the little patches of snow that we found on the side of the road with the other families who didn't want to pay the $8 per person to get into the tubing park. The kids didn't need a lot of snow to actually enjoy it. What made Chang and I snicker is the fact that there were a ton of ethnic people at the make-shift free snow park. It reminded me of my childhood.

I want to rent a winnebago every summer and drive around the US to different landmarks. It may sound cheap but it is still four star compared to the one family vacation I had as a kid. My dad converted an econoline van into a motel with a couple plywood planks, some sleeping bags and a propane portable stove. I have no idea where we bathed those few weeks we were on the road, but we got to see the Grand Canyon, Mt Rushmore, Old Faithful and some ginormous statue of Paul Bunyan in some state. Am I weird that I really want to fight the "Jefferson's" mentality of movin' on up? As I wrote before, the kids need to "slum" it up more...get some ethnic upbringing into their memories to balance out the good life that they are living.