Headed home

Looks like Melissa is coming down with something... hoping it isn't the flu. Another great trip. Thanks Grammy and Grampy!

Down on the bayou

Saturday was eventful for sure. Grampy had the excellent idea of an air boat ride in the Everglades!

Gramp seems to like his new hat...

Syl too...

After 45 minutes or so we turned into the final bend, uniformly disappointed at the lack of gator sightings... only to find this MONSTER directly in the path of the boat. I actually pulled my feet up onto my seat!

Aquatic

Nobody could ever say Grammy isn't a sport when it comes to accommodating her granddaughter. While I sat in a conference room and Melissa enjoyed the pool at the Ritz, Gram spent the whole day in the ocean and in the pool with Sylvie.

When we finally got to the house it was only fair for me to take a turn.

Looks like I'm off the hook for teaching Sylvie to drive.

Florida Day 1

It was nice to fly away from the ZERO DEGREE WIND CHILL in Boston this morning, to the 85 degrees and sun that greeted us in Naples.

Before heading off to my work event, we enjoyed lunch with Aunt Joann and Uncle Jeff at Grammy and Grampy's house.

Off to Florida!

The pilot is planning on harnessing the electricity from Syl's head to power the plane. 

 

(Last?) Snow Day

The "major storm" that shut down most of MA today didn't turn out to be as much a thing as expected, but it was still enough to keep Syl and me home from school and work, respectively. We had a nice time. Bonus: we got the first and hopefully last snowman of the season built!

Dog Sledding

The other really cool thing we had the opportunity to do in Tahoe was dog sledding - with a great group of very young athenistas, and a really fun pack of enthusiastic sled dogs!

 

 

Melissa's First Ski Lesson!

On Friday morning, I dropped Melissa with Linda, an intensely nice and enthusiastic ski instructor at Northstar Mountain, Lake Tahoe. Then I headed up the mountain for what I expected to be three and a half hours of getting my ski legs back, before meeting Melissa for lunch. Around 10:00 it occurred to me to go check on her. Just as I arrived at the ski school area, I got a text: "This is miserable. I think I'm done."

 

I found Melissa and Linda, Melissa at her wits' end from having fallen so many times in the past hour. Luckily, Linda is a "never say die" kind of instructor, and Melissa's class was a great cheering section. I stuck with them, and by the end of the lesson more or less had the hang of the "pizza wedge" method. She was even enjoying herself! I was so proud!

 

 

 

This is the indefatigable Linda.

 

To my amazement, this is our first--but not our last--chairlift photo. At the end, Melissa felt good enough to believe we'll do this again! Now to get Syl going...

 

And I did get a great afternoon of skiing in too!