Tree hunting continued

Hannah Gray checking out our tree and Ethan getting the job done…

Family picture with our tree and Hannah Gray dragging it down the mountain… or a few feet.

Nana, Papa and Tenley-girl and our jeep ride!

Nana and Papa come to visit!

The first weekend in December, Ethan’s mom and dad came out to visit. We had so much fun with them as we got to see and do some many things. We went to a tree farm to cut down our own tree and had a great time wondering in the forest of Northern CA. I do think we got jiped though… the owners of the farm explained that are primarily two types of trees that grow out here for Christmas trees (at least at their farm) and that one kind was off of one path and the others were off a different path. We took the jeep to the top and just got off and started looking. They all appeared to be the same; very, very thin but perfectly straight truck and branches that are so spread out it’s reminiscent of Charlie Browns’ tree. I was leery and Ethan explained to me that it’s just the type of tree that people get out here. So we cut down a big tree and took the top portion of it (which they told us to do). Once it fell, we began to walk back down through the forest and noticed a ton of beautiful, full, lush trees.  We couldn’t just tape our tree back to it’s stump, so we decided to head home with it, and be excited about our genuine “Californian” tree… We had a great time, and it was a gorgeous day, a success all in all!

Family pictures in Tahoe

We just had our family pictures taken in Tahoe last weekend and we just got them back the other day. Here are some of our favorites!

“Tenley go get ready for your bath…”

The other night, I asked Tenley to go get ready for her bath and to take her shirt off and this is what I got… She walked around the house like this for at least 5 minutes. Silly girl.

Post Turkey snow hike

We headed up to the Tahoe Rim Trail today to get a hike in. Tuk had a BLAST running through the snow. We took him swimming in Lake Tahoe afterwards. I’d pretty much say it was his favorite day ever.

The Start of a New Tradition!

We headed up to The Resort At Squaw Valley for their annual Christmas kickoff celebration. We started the night with a sleigh ride pulled by a beautiful, huge horse.

 

Hannah Gray and I were petting the horse, when apparently, he decided he didn’t like it. We were caught on camera jumping out of the way

Hannah Gray actually WALKED up to Santa and Ms. Clause with me, I think probably because Ms. Clause was there. But she sat on her lap and TALKED to them!!! They asked her her name, how old she was and what she wanted for Christmas. She was a mouse up there, but we were so, so proud of her!! You can see how excited she was and proud of herself in the second picture too. She planned to tell them that she wanted a “pink ski helmet with blue goggles”, but clamed up a bit so Santa asked her if she wanted a baby doll and of course she said yes. I took Tenley up there too, but she went ballistic, so we didn’t push it. However, when we went back up to get HG, Santa asked Tenley if she would give him a high five and she did so without missing a beat, she wasn’t scared at all. She just didn’t want to sit on his lap. I guess I can’t blame her.

 

This was HG on Santa’s lap the last time she visited him back in 09…