our time in tahoe

Sunday we made it back from our first “real” vacation with Calboy. It was sad to leave Lake Tahoe behind us; I’m still recovering from the lake’s natural beauty, which is almost stinging. Since our cabin was perched high above Tahoe City, its driveway offered the world’s best view.

I thought having Calvin along on the trip would make things more harder, and it did in some ways, but it also allowed us (because we were awake and walking to get coffee to avoid rousing others), to experience two sunrises – one, an orange and pink glow levitating over a mirror lake, and the other, a clean light bursting from the tops of blue mountains. I breathed a lot deeper in Tahoe.

Thankfully, the weather was sunny and nice for Bubba’s first plunge into the Sierras. But of course, the morning brought ice into the air. For our walks down the steep hill into the funky-cool town of Tahoe, we layered Cal up, bundled him in a thick holiday coat with prancing reindeers and burrito-ed his legs and feet in blankets, his apple cheeks and nose bare and bravely facing the nippiness. Cal didn’t seem to flinch when he burst through the front door in the stroller, chug-a-lugging down the quiet condo-lined street, my parents and Shaun giggling at his bird noises. What else would we be doing? Though, we had a heck of a time trying to keep Cal’s warm hat on his head. We all but gave up on the glove notion because of his fiddling hands.

Every morning, we hit up Sid’s Bagelry for warm muffins with pats of butter (Cal had some too!) and coffee in for-here cups. Calvin sat nobly in his wooden high chair, trying to grab for our hot drinks, twirling in his chair and banging cups around. He studied new customers who came close to our table waiting for a moment of shared connection in which he’s smirk at the stranger and proceed to stare holes through him or her. Friday morning, Shaun spotted a burley beaver in its dam of sticks floating on the creek. Cal saw the beaver just in time before it exited under our toes on a roadside bridge. That was his (or her) only appearance.

Going down the hill, it was amazingly steep and hard; the area at the top with the dynamite view Aunt Beth named Lover's Leap. By the time we were plodding back up hill, it’d be Cal’s nap time and he demanded more and better entertainment to keep him fueled, so it was also challenging; and pushing that stroller up and up perhaps sculpted our behinds like no other exercise before. I was sore, but a good sore. It felt good to bust my butt a little.

Back at the cabin, parties were had, good food eaten. The whole weekend was hybrid Halloween and Ryan’s birthday. At one point, we played a game of who could stretch their elastic, neon skeleton the furthest, complements of Ggma. Millie wore neon-nail gloves and her and Matt carved pumpkins.

Nana bought a toddle toy for Cal at the local consignment store and we gave it to Cal and watched him blaze a trail across the living room. He alternated between wanting to play with the front of the toy (it looked like a cartoon slot machine) and steamrolling everything in his path. He’d go back in forth behind his “walker” smiling huge and big and bumping into people and things. Then, we'd turned him around. He giggled so much on the trip it makes my cheeks hurt thinking about it!

And let’s not forget Apples to Apples marathons with the world series streaming in the background. Mostly, I was just watching between walks and getting Cal down for naps (and walks to get Cal down for naps). This particular word game seems to be all about who is judging and how to judge how the judge will judge. Saturday night by the game’s end, some of the elders had crashed on the living couch and floor, even to the sound of pitched laughter.

When it was time to go, we said our good byes and Cal waved good bye at the crowd of departing family members (he's been doing this sporadically, but never for this long). When Shaun had to fix the car seat, Cal kept on waving good bye. We laughed at his resolve to master his beaty pageant wave for the crowd. It kind of melted us a little and it also made saying good bye to the crystal lake a little easier.