Tyler spends the weekend with his grandparents while we go snowboarding! (week 89)

Hi everyone!

What a busy week this has been! Will and I headed to Mammoth for the weekend and my in-laws came over to our place and watched Tyler for us. Tyler loves his Yeh-Yeh (Grandfather in Chinese) so we felt really comfortable leaving him with them. We really missed him though - and it seemed like he had grown so much while we were gone!

Tyler really has grown up so much recently! He's talking so much more, and understanding so much more as well! Before, I knew he could understand a lot of words, but now he's actually repeating them back to us more and more. And, even crazier, I can reason with him and he'll listen! For example, Tyler wanted to drink some soup from my bowl on the kitchen table but I wanted him to sit in his high chair first. He was really upset because I wouldn't give him the soup and refused to sit in his high chair - but when I told him that he could have the soup once he sat in the high chair... he gladly got in it! Little things like that, where before he would just not listen and throw a huge tantrum. Tyler is growing up!

We'll start out with some pictures from Tyler's weekend with the grandparents. Here's Tyler playing with his Yeh-Yeh and all his Elmos! I think I did mention that I got them all ridicuously on sale, right? Elmo Live! only cost me $20 on clearance at Walmart! I had bought a few toys recently for the grandparents to bust out just in case Tyler became too much of a handful. I love buying stuff on clearance! Anyway, Tyler had enough toys to keep himself occupied. :)

Bath time with Yeh-Yeh! The last time we went away, my father-in-law actually sat in the tub with Tyler - it was the only way they could get him to go in! Thank goodness he didn't have to do that this time. Tyler's pretty happy in the tub as long as there's a little running water from the faucet for him to play with. He'll yell 'Wah-wah!!' (water).

Ooh, while we were gone, the in-laws helped Tyler develop some bad habits! I can't really complain though, since it's their job to let him get away with stuff? I think? One of the worse things - letting him watch TV to fall asleep for bedtime! Ack! We had a tough couple nights already trying to get him to realize this is NOT allowed! He sure is cute asleep with Will's dad though...

Another no-no: letting him sit on the kitchen counter and playing with his snacks. Gasp! Also, I think it's kind of funny how my in-laws always put Tyler in so many layers of clothes. He's like a little old man with his vest and stuff. :)

And one more bad habit - letting Tyler play with his toys incorrectly. I'm pretty sure that's not the correct way to drive his car...

Overall, Tyler was great with the in-laws... up until Sunday. My in-laws said that he really started missing us by then and was not very... agreeable. We'll have to make sure our trips are a little shorter in the future!

Ok! On to pictures from our Mammoth trip! We had a ton of fun ones but I had to really cut them down to fit into this blog post. We headed up Thursday afternoon with our friends Trina, Mariam and Frank up to Mammoth. What a long drive, especially with traffic! Here we are when we got to our condo complex (walking distance from Eagle Lodge) Aspen Creek. There hadn't been any new snow up there for a while, so the snow around was all dirty!

This next picture is out of order, but I wanted to put it here so you could see the difference. From Thursday night - no new snow (above picture) to Sunday morning when we left - 2 feet of new snow (below picture!). What a difference!

We did two days of boarding at Mammoth and had a blast! I had forgotten how much I loved and missed snowboarding. Plus it helped that I've strangely improved so much! I can't wait to go back! Here's the girls at Eagle Lodge on day 1. Look how sunny it was!

I was lucky to bump into Mammoth resort's mascot that day as well on the top of the mountain.

Here's a shot of our little group before we hit the slope that day. We were all so excited, and got there right when the lifts were opening. Unfortunately the first run of the day was SOO icy, I was worried it was going to be really bad since there hadn't been any new snow for a while. Thank goodness the ice started turning slushy after a while..

Here's Will and I on a lift on that first day. It was so warm that I didn't even wear a beanie or goggles. Will took an advanced snowboard terrain park class that day to learn cool new tricks - that's why he's wearing a helmet! It was a really beautiful day, there were lots of butterflies flying around as well. Super warm though.

Here's Will and myself with our married couple friends Mariam and Frank. We all had a great day of snowboarding!

Fast forward to day 2 (Saturday). The weather forecast had predicted snow Saturday night/Sunday morning, and I was kind of bummed that we were going to miss out on snowboarding on fresh snow. But we got lucky! What started as light snow Saturday morning soon turned into a full blown blizzard! It was CRAZY snowing and hailing! A totally different experience the second day vs. the first day! Here's Will and I on day 2.

Here's me and Trina. It was Trina's first time snowboarding this weekend and I was totally blown away by how quickly she learned. She took a full day beginner class the first day and learned, seriously, what took me like 4 years to learn. Crazy huh!

By the end of the day 2, we were all happy and exhausted. Happy since we got to snowboard in awesome new snow, but exhausted since it was SO cold! (There was nearly a 30 degree change in the weather.) We even met up with more friends that day on the mountain as well.

After 2 days of boarding, we were ready for some relaxation! It was nice sleeping in Sunday morning, since Will and I never get to sleep in!

Our condo was really cute, it had a loft also. Each morning we had yummy breakfasts - totally better than picking up something at McDonalds - which is what we usually do!
Sunday morning, before we left, it was still snowing hard! Everything was covered in white! Here's me, Mariam and Trina being silly and making the letters of our names. :) Look how much snow there is!
We had great luck though, right when we were heading home, the snow let up! Whew! We even pulled off the side of the road for a quick last group shot. There are mountains in the background of this picture - but they were so covered in snow you couldn't see them.
My favorite picture of the weekend - Will and I! It was definitely nice having a mini vacation and hanging out with good friends. :) Hopefully we'll be able to plan another smaller-scale snowboarding trip before the season ends.
YouTube is down at the moment for maintenance or I'd totally post some videos of Tyler. Check back tomorrow! Have a good week everyone!