Auberry trip day two

Today's big plan was to play in the snow a bit. Today's big plan did not involve being jarred awake at 5 AM with snow sliding from the main roof to the porch roof.

I probably should have been a bit more alarmed since the van was parked under the porch roof, but 5 AM is early to be worrying about such things (it turned out that the snow was just piling up on the porch roof, so there was no reason to worry after all).

Last night we had Kemosabe the cat stay with us. I probably don't need to tell anyone about what a night with a cat can be like, but it wasn't that bad outside of the walking on the keyboard thing. The Boy loves this cat though, and has spent a lot of time humoring it.

The first outdoor event turned out to be riding the ATV to some rock formation that may or may not contain a black bear family (none were seen - I'm telling you, these people out here are from a hardier stock than me). Note that this ATV is designed to seat one person.

We then hiked up to their pond, which was partially frozen over. The Boy and Nermac (yes, I did misspell her coded name yesterday after all) spent a lot of time throwing whatever they could find onto the ice to either punch a hole it or to make it ring with these awesome noises you normally only hear in a Star Wars movie.

By this time Nermac was the only one still throwing stuff on the ice. Murphy was recovering from an adventure when he bizarrely decided to walk out onto the ice (maybe he saw a dead penguin on the other side) which naturally caused the ice to break up and ended up getting him soaked.

While waiting to load up and head to the snow, Nermac naturally wanted to swing. Two things to note: 1) She has her boots on, but that's only because I put them on her - minutes earlier she was completely barefoot; 2) To torment her a bit I tucked in one pant leg and put the other over her boot. If I wasn't such a good swing pusher that kid would haul off and smack me. (And I'd deserve it.)

After stopping for pizza, we finally headed up to some serious snow.

Here is Nermac going on the first saucer ride of the day.

This is shortly after that. Inexplicably, her mom (Yram) was the one covered in snow. The Boy is getting ready to make a run on the Widowmaker Toboggan. We have had this thing for a long time and it is the fastest, most out of control thing on snow. Naturally, it is our favorite.

Nermac, Yram, and Mrs Notthat made several injury-free runs on it.

I'm not sure I can explain this picture. The Boy was determined to ride his snowboard down this snow mound. It was difficult, however, for him to get strapped in without slipping and falling. So Yram and Mrs Notthat held the board while The Boy posed for Snow Stud of the Weak.

The Boy has had this snowboard for at least two years and has never been able to use it for one reason or another (mostly due to knee surgeries). Today was his chance, and while these weren't world-class hills, he looked pretty good shooshing down them.

Mrs Notthat posing by the snowperson she finished (which involved most of us to put together). There was a lot of snow, but it was not easy to get it to pack well.

Speaking of packing snow, these guys filled the truck bed with snow and hauled it back to Fresno where their kids could play in it without it being so cold. Californians: We Want It All!

Our van with the implements of snow destruction.

The Boy trying to find the snowboard path with the most rocks, trees, and other things that make snowboarding difficult.

And lastly, my little weird snow sculpture sort of thing.

It was a great day with almost no frostbite. The only bad news is that I seem to be coming down with a cold. I'm not sure what is on tap for today (Friday) other than packing up and heading home. Hopefully we will get to have a bit more fun before then though.

That's it - move along...