Big Bear

Ahhh . . . Big Bear. Every year my parents take their great big motorhome up to Big Bear for at least a month. My mom stays there and my dad goes up on weekends and they have different company come visit them. This year was Jeremy's first time to stay there with his Nana all by himself. Cassie has gone with my parents alone many times and Jeremy has gone with Cassie, but never all by himself. He was very excited. He left with my mom on Monday and I joined him there with Eliza on Thursday. My dad brought Cassie up on Friday after her "Harry Potter" Girl Scout camp.

We love going to Big Bear every year. My parents stay at a great RV campground called Holloway's Marina. It's right on the water just around the corner from Boulder Bay (for those of you familiar with Big Bear). They have an adorable playground, ice cream socials, crafts for the kiddies, boat rentals and of course the ultra cool Pirate ship sets sail from their marina.

This year my parents bought a really cool inflatable kayak. I like it much better than a regular kayak because it has flippers under it. Instead of paddling you pedal it. It is sooooo much easier to work especially with two people because I'm not that talented at paddling in sync with other people. It is so easy to do that Cassie and Jeremy can both help out with the pedaling. We launched it from the boat launch and pedalled around the bay. The motorhome was right on the water and we could pedal around and yell "AHOY" and then someone would come running out and take pictures. The kids really love being out on the water (so do their mom and grandma).

We did something this year that we've never done before in Big Bear. We rode the chair lift up to the top of Snow Summit. Wow what a view from up there. It's an elevation of 8600 feet and a 1200 ft ride from bottom to top. At the top they have a BBQ stand with mighty tasty burgers and hot dogs and picnic tables to eat them at.

There was a lot of mountain bikers there. The bikes went up on the chair lifts alone and then the people followed. It is a 15 minute ride up and loooong way down on the trails. Some braver souls even hiked down. I'd like to do that with the older kids, but I was afraid of falling and squishing Eliza as we tumbled down all 1200 feet. It's hard to see where I'm going with her in her Baby Bjorn in front of me. We'll definitely do that next year.

The view was fabulous.

I know I've said it before, but I'd love to get a picture with Jeremy looking half-way decent. He's such an animated and fun kid, but it doesn't com across that way in pictures.

Jeremy is such a good big brother. He wanted to hold Eliza all the time. He loves giving her kisses and always includes her in any conversation he's having. She certainly loves him too. She seems to save some especially big smiles for him.