Silas's view of Tahoe

there are so many great photos from this trip thanks to the efforts of Grandma Jane, Auntie Nicole, Aunt Cookie (aka Karen) and the newest photographer: Silas. Kevin and I took none - how relaxing.
You can see Nicole's awesome photos in other places (which I currently can't figure out how to link to). Karen's are likely on facebook. And luckily the ones on Mom's camera were downloaded to our computer before she left. A bunch of them were taken by Silas. Such as this one while snowshoeing in the woods near the west shore of the lake:
here he is in action
We stopped by Squaw Valley and Silas was surprisingly interested in the bungee jump. This photo was taken somewhere in between the "uh oh what have I gotten myself into" face and the "weeeeeee!":


And this is probably the best picture ever taken of two old people from such a low angle, must be the love we are shining down on the photographer:


We got Silas his own pair of snowshoes. Then we marched him around for miles with no food and nothing but snow to eat/drink in a winter heat wave. His stamina was amazing.

He spent much of the time throwing snowballs at us.

And taking pictures of our feet.


And he does love a sunny beach
The next day we took him sledding.

Compare this year's photos to previous years'...
2010
(either I didn't post in 2009 or I just can't find it... should have been tagging the posts all along)
our first year visiting: 2008

the budding photographer takes tea

We enjoyed tea at the Crown and Crumpet in San Francisco with Grandma Jane in January.

Apparently 4 year olds are obsessed with strictly categorizing everything: good/bad, love/hate, girly/boyish, pit viper/non-venomous, oviparous/placental ... it goes on and on. Sometimes this tendency makes him sound smart (like his obsession with animal classifications) and sometimes it makes him sound rude or narrow minded (he declares pink is for girls, so he hates pink) But my re-reading of Becoming the Parent You Want to Be and my current reading of Your Four Year Old: Wild and Wonderful comforts me with information that most 4 year olds think this way; it's the way their brains are trying to handle the enormous amount of info coming in. Classify, group, eliminate uncertainty, no gray zone.

So I try to keep the categories a little bit open ("Actually, lots of men do like pink.") without expecting him to loosen up much, at least not during this stage of development.

But apparently going out for tea (aka: tiered trays of sugary treats) in a very pink setting is no problem.

He's obsessed with taking pictures now. Sometimes it works out that he even agrees to pose for a few... or sometimes he only wants to take photos of his hand.

or of Grandma Jane's feet.


But there is a perk of parenting such an enthusiastic photographer... I am reappearing in the family photos!
Taken by Silas at the SF Maritime Museum:

and after tea and photos... back to the dirt pile.