A new year... We had our first vacation a couple of weeks ago - off to the snow! Of course CA has been very low on snow this year/season... We had plans to head to Yosemite and ski at Badger Pass for the kids' 1st ski experience. Pete found us a rental in "Yosemite West" which turns out to be a housing development that I think is technically outside National Park borders but logistically is only accessible from the middle of the park - it is pretty much at the base of the turn off to Badger Pass. Great location for us although there is nothing nearby except the mountain... The Valley is 35 or 40 minutes away and it of course has services such as restaurants and stores. We drove up Saturday afternoon and stopped off around sunset at Bridal Veil Falls (ooh ahh). We woke up Sunday morning to the tail end of a little snow fall - we had 2 or so inches outside which translated to 4 or 5" on the mountain - beautiful fresh snow. The resort is relatively lightly used (due to its more remote access than Tahoe I am sure and the fact that it is a relatively "easy" mountain most likely). The weekday Winter Access Passes are total deals. For $49 on Monday I got ski rental, lift ticket, and a one on one "group" lesson. Aidan got the same for $29. Quincy had borrowed skis and thus as a 5 and under child he was totally free. One of his classmates loaned us alot of gear including full ski clothes including helmets for both kids - Will conveniently has an older brother Quinn who is only a little bigger than Aidan. We had both kids take a lesson (2 of them and 2 teachers) on Sunday. Quincy spent the rest of his 2 days skiing going down the slopes holding onto Daddy's hand. Cute! Aidan by the end of day 2 was coming down blue (intermediate) slopes faster than I was (to my chagrin). Impressive how quickly they learn! We spent our last day, Tuesday, tooling around the Valley with lunch at the historic Ahwahnee lodge. All in all a very good trip and plans have been made to return next year...