Off the grid

Boys, from the back of the car on the way home from the mountains: "We want ice cream!"

Jeanne: "I have an idea. There's this place I've been wanting to go to that's supposed to be amazing, and it's in Pomona."

[Pause for a few minutes of Googling and phone-mapping]

Jeanne: "OK - it's here - Dr. Bob's. This Yelp review calls it 'the best ice cream on the planet.' But you're supposed to call because it says the hours are 'irregular.'"

Dave: "Let's do it."

[Dialing phone; calling the place; confirming that they are open.]

[Driving, driving, driving...past the address and we're going past the abandoned L.A. County Fair facilities (they're only open in the summer) but there's no ice cream place in sight. Dave pulls over and gets on the phone to Dr. Bob's again.]

Dave: "OK, so they are on the fair grounds. The guy told me to head on in and tell the guard at the gate that we have an 'appointment with Dr. Bob.'"

[Driving up to the gate. Apparently the guard is convinced by the 'appointment with Dr. Bob' line. We zig-zag through abandoned stalls and stands, all the way to a large, nondescript building in the back of the fairgrounds. On the front window there are signs that look promising: 'Single scoop...double scoop...hot fudge sundae...banana split...' but the building is completely locked down. Then we catch the eye of some guy inside and he signals us around to the back. We clamber around the building and through the delivery entrance into a warehouse-type room with large freezers and boxes ready for crating.]

Ice cream lady: "Hi! We're not scooping or anything today, but I've got lots of different pints I can sell you. Here's a list of what I've got in stock."

Luke, reading down the list: "Salt caramel. That's all I want."

Dave "Black raspberry - that sounds good!"

Zach: "Where's chocolate?"

Ice cream lady: "Well, we have this thing called 'Works.' It's three different kinds of Scharffenberger chocolate..."

Zach: "That's what I want!"

[We finally settle on pints of salt caramel, Works, black raspberry, and chocolate mint. The lady is apologetic; there's nowhere to sit and eat it. But we improvise by finding some logs next to an demonstration garden and a duck pond. Sitting there with four giant pint containers, we nearly break the plastic spoons on the hard-frozen ice cream, but once we get a taste of it, we all agree that it's pure heaven. And then we have a good laugh about people who just go to, like, an ice cream store at the mall.]

Cold snap

Here we are, up in the mountains in our cozy cabin. Zach is excited because we were able to light a fire: "This is the first time I've ever sat in front of a litten fireplace."

Luke is excited because there is a lot of snow and ice to chop and throw. And of course, sticks to collect. Our cabin is up in the treetops; beyond these trees there is a spectacular view of our ski slopes.

We went sledding at a big public park today, and the sledding was a little bit rough (and crowded). But the boys found a big "hut" created by some overgrown trees and vines, where they spent most of the time inside. Luke, giving a tour of the place: "This is the living room. Here's the smithing room [with a big stone table for forging weapons]. And over here's the crafting room."

Then Dave found this enormous felled tree. Once he made a commitment to count the rings, it was hard for him to stop. Suffice to say that the tree was over 300 years old.

Snow kings. Yeah, we're cool like that.

Swingers

You might actually look at these pictures and think that the boys do something other than ask for screen time, 24-7. If only that were the case. But still.

 Luke at his golf lesson. He's a natural, according to the coach.

Zach warming up for the baseball season. He's a natural, according to the "coach."

Cave explorers. Yes, we have caves near us. L.A. has everything - did you know that?

Hiking up near the Hollywood sign. This was a great afternoon because we did the Hollywood hike and then we went to see the kid-friendly comedy show at the comedy club in Burbank after that. A real L.A. afternoon.

We ski! Even me!!! We are currently up in the mountains enjoying a total Southern California ski weekend. Saturday was a day full of ski lessons for me and the boys while Dave hit the slopes. Guess who's a natural at skiing? All of us!

Luke, surprisingly, is a speed demon. He seems to not care if he falls down, so he flies down the hill and picks himself up right away if he topples over. He now has the swagger and confidence of a lifelong skier. Zach, on the other hand, had confidence going into it ("I don't need ski lessons - I already KNOW how to ski!") and quickly proved himself a standout in the "Little Bear" classes. The instructor told us, "He has an incredible sense of balance. There were about 20 different times when he should have fallen over but he somehow managed to stay standing up."

And I, who had the least amount of confidence going into it, was a standout in my beginner class. Turns out, skiing is just like rollerblading, and I'm all over that. I voluntarily moved myself up to "advanced beginner" just so I could get off the beginner flats and onto the bunny hill. Of course I'm no black diamond skier, but I had a great time just getting out there. My favorite moment of the day was riding up the ski lift and then doing a run down the mountain with Luke. Me and Luke skiing together - who woulda thunk?

Another factor that helped was the warm SoCal ski weather. Of course it's 12 degrees at night, but in the daytime it warms up to mid-fifties, which makes for perfectly comfortable ski weather. We peeled off most of our layers by mid-day; then the layers went on by the time we headed back to our cozy cabin for dinner.

Apropos of nothing - Dave was trying to give the boys (technically just Zach) a semi-serious lecture about how once you use toilet paper, you put it in the toilet, NOT the trash can: "Once you use the toilet paper, do you bring it into the kitchen? No! Do you put it in the mail and send it to someone? No! Do you fold it up and put it in your drawers? No! Do you send it to the moon?... "

At which point Luke interjected, "That'd be one small step for man, one giant wipe for mankind."

Vacation happenin's

Cookie makin'

Crystal growin'

Machine buildin'

Pizza cookin'

Stella pettin'

Birthday celebratin'

Cake eatin'

Sleddin'

Shovelin'

Snowball fightin'

Burger nommin'