Every single day of Christmas Break, Nathaniel said he wanted to go to UMe. He kept asking if we could go. I kept telling him that I was happy to take him there but I wouldn’t play with him so was he ok playing by himself. Then he would ask David, who said no. Then he asked Jake, who didn’t want to say no but you could tell it pained him since Nathaniel often runs around like a crazy person and it’s really hard to play with him when he’s there. But he also doesn’t like to play alone.

So days passed and we never went.

Then, on the very last day of break, David decided he would go play with Nathaniel (anything to postpone having to do a bit of Algebra) so I took the boys and they ran around and played while I read my book. It was really fun to watch them play together even though it was pretty clear they were both too old to be there. Even Nathaniel. All the other kids there were in the 1-3 year old range.

But the boys didn’t seem to care. They ran around, they played, they were smiling the whole time. When I told them it was time to go home, they asked if they could build a fort before we left. I relented and they spent the next few minutes building a fort out of foam blocks. There was so much laughter, so much cooperative work, and so much fun that it made my day.

I was very glad to have made Nathaniel’s little wish come true and even more glad that David chose to share it with him.

Grateful for these two boys.

Stories from 2016 is a year-long project for 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.

At the beginning of Christmas Break, Jake mentioned that we really didn’t go skiing at all this past year. We had one very dismal attempt early in 2015 and it ended up being such a disaster that we never went back. He was quite upset that we let the whole season pass without doing anything.

This month has been an exceptionally good month for snow and Tahoe has had many many inches just in the last few weeks. So the Saturday before school was to start, we decided to have one final adventure. We all woke up at 5am and headed out the door to Kirkwood (which was around 3.5 hours of driving.)

When we got there, we all rented snowshoes and went on a 2.5mile hike. It was stunning and painful. It would have been hard enough for me to walk on flat ground for 2.5 miles, let alone doing it uphill/downhill at high elevation in my snowshoes. We all whined a bit (well, except Jake!) but we all did it.

After we were done with the hike, we drove to the ski area and had lunch. Jake and David then rented skiis and a half day pass to go downhill skiing. Nathaniel and I sat in the cafe a bit longer and then played in the snow for an hour or so. When Jake and David came back, they were super-excited and had an absolutely wonderful day.

Since it was already 4:30, we headed back home and made it back in about three and a half hours. All in all, it was a lovely day with lots of fun sports, fresh air, and family time. We decided that day trips to Tahoe is something we want to try more often. It feels less stressful to not have to worry about packing/scheduling anything even if it means we have to get up early and drive a bunch in one day.

Here’s to more snow-time in 2016!

Stories from 2016 is a year-long project for 2016. You can read more about my projects for 2016 here.