Welcome to 2009.... and a little snow

Like most of you saw via email, we headed up to Mt. Lemmon yesterday for a little outdoor fun. We hadn't been up there since Sydney was 5 weeks old and right before the fire that pretty much burned the entire top of the mountain up. We, Tucson, got a little snow the day after Christmas. It was a long, pretty snow that left nothing but dead plants and wet roads down here, but left the mountain loaded. According to one of the newspapers, there was over a foot of white stuff left up there from that one snow. I'm pretty sure it had snowed prior to that day so it already had a good start. The slopes were opened and skiing had begun for the season. Yeap, that's right... just an hour from my house there is snow skiing in the wintertime. Sydney LOVES the snow and had been begging us since the snow day to "play in the snow", so off we went. Loading up the car with lunches, stroller, extra clothes and a camera we headed up to about 9000 ft to the white stuff. It was insane up there... a gazillion people and tons of cars all over the place. We got to the top around 10:45ish. Ate some lunch, drove around some more then started the drive back about 1:00. Surprisingly, it wasn't cold at all. In the sun I was fine in my tanktop, but it was a little chilly in the shade. The snow was a good mix of fluff and ice so they were able to play pretty easily. The kids had a blast! On our way down, we stopped and played for about 30 more minutes. Fun times by all. By the time we got to the base the Sheriff's Dept. had closed the road up because of all the congestion. Our plan is to go back at one more time before the winter ends. Should be better the next time we go back - a weekday. Will have a sled next time!
Ryan:

Sydney:

Rick & Ryan:

Rick & Sydney: