March 2021 - from the snow to the beach!

March brought more impressive structures, fun times at home and outside. 

Both kids loved their spring pigtails!

yes, that's a real sunset!

We started getting more adventurous about doing daytrips on school days.  One cold afternoon, we heard there was snow on Mt. Diablo, so we all packed into the car and went east!  An hour later, we found out that good conditions for snow require very cold air. Kids were not too happy about having to get out of the car, especially when we found out we had a 15-30 min walk uphill ahead of us before we would see any patches of snow.   We did pose for some pictures and start up the trail a bit, but eventually, we returned to the warmth at sea level. 

"Kids, look at the amazing rain behind you!"  "but it's too cold to move!"

Once everyone warmed up a bit, we got some cute pictures: 

Ella's face when I tell her I can't carry her anymore. 

When we drove down from Mt. Diablo, we decided to spend our pent up energy at Heather Farms Park.  The kids had a wonderful time here, despite everything being soaked by the recent rain.  The trip was so successful, we returned many times in March and April. 

Our trip to Mt. Diablo inspired us to go find some real snow.  We managed to scrounge together a decent set of borrow snow clothes and headed out to the nearest, fasted snowy area in the Sierras. The first part was spent in a snow park. Though Ella was excited until we got there, the cold snow (and the people) were a bit overwhelming.  We went down a few bunny slopes on the sled together, before she gave up and decided to just rest in the snow. Auggie had a lot of fun on an innertube and sleds.  The whole family then enjoyed warm mini donuts and hot chocolate. 

After the snow park we decided to drive in search of lunch and suddenly ended up on a Lake Tahoe Beach.  The kids were suddenly no longer cold...or dry.  Fortunately, there was more hot chocolate to warm everyone up. 

We had so much fun in the snow, we decided to drive back up the next day - again!  This time, we went to the first area that had snow.  It was a small snow park, off the side of a gas station parking lot  Auggie had lots of fun sledding and tubing, while Ella preferred to lead us on walks through the snowy forest. Afterwards, we built a few snow people together. Ella wasn't sure she wanted any part of it. 

On our drive back from the snow, we stopped by some Sacramento old haunts, ate lunch and enjoyed a new playground. 

On our drive home, Auggie wrote his 1st grade teacher a letter. 

Within a few days of being in the snow, kids were nearly naked and building all sorts of fun things out of furniture. 

painting is most fun without clothes

And not to much leter, Auggie, Ella and Evan took their first dip of 2021 in Dziadek and Babcia's pool - temp ~55F. 

With the weather warming up and school still virtual, we were able to capitalize on a weekday of minimal work and spend a fun afternoon at the beach in Bodega Bay.  Ella liked running to and from the small waves, while Auggie spent most of the day collecting shells and other -less esthetically pleasing - sea life remains. 

Having found out that some of our funnest friends were going to be fleeing California for the bipolar climate of Chicago, we upped our frequency of evenings in the back yard.