Focht Family Blog

Yesterday we hit the slopes at Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe. I had a hard time finding lessons for the kids that wasn’t a day care. I now understand why people leave their kids in ski school for the day. We signed the kids up for the mid-day session and Nathan and I made 3-4 runs down the slopes before Samantha had to be picked up. Because Samantha didn’t have any other kids in her age and ability group she had a one hour private lesson instead of the two hour session. I was very proud of myself. Although we only did beginner slopes I made it down without falling each time. When we first arrived we took the kids to the ski school and got all of their equipment. Unfortunately we didn’t know they were going to require eye-wear so my mom had to make a run to the gift shop to get sunglasses for all.

The ski school staff helped them with everything including getting their ski bibs on around the boots. Here is Timmy and Josh and Samantha as they were starting their lessons.

After the kid’s lessons were done we had lunch and then went back to the kiddie slope. It was the strangest thing I have ever seen. It has a conveyor belt that you stand on that takes you to the top instead of a lift or tow rope…

Here is Nathan helping Josh down the slope…

It was the first time Nathan had skied backward. However, Josh made a run later backward himself. I think he actually did better going backward then forward because he tries to do his wedge the wrong way. :) Nathan got more practice later when he took Samantha down the beginner slope. He said she would get scared and fall so he ended up skiing backward down the hill with her holding on to him. Here is Timmy, Samantha, and Josh while they were on the kiddie slope.

The last few runs down the kiddie slope I figured out a good way to help Josh that was a lot of fun for both of us. I crossed my poles in front of him and put my skis on the outside of his skis and we went down as fast as the small slope would allow. I meant to have my mom get a picture but she was helping Timmy get to the lodge to take off his skis and boots because the slopes were closing. Oh well… another day without me in the pictures. We had a lot of fun so we have decided we may have to look for more slopes on our travels. :)

After leaving the Grand Canyon we headed towards Las Vegas. We had planned to go to the Hoover Dam during our time there but decided if we could find a parking spot we would take a tour of Hoover Dam while driving through. Here is a picture of the parking spot we found…

So it was a little walk to the tour. :) Here is a picture that I took from the RV.

This picture shows how low the water level is right now. The white areas are usually under water.

We decided to take the power plant tour because the Hoover Dam tour doesn’t allow kids under 8. While waiting for the elevator to take us down to the bottom (very fast), I took a picture of the Dam from the window.

The tour takes you down into one of the bypass tunnels that were built to divert the Colorado River while the dam was being built. Here is a picture of one of the tunnels that the water still flows through at 80,000 gallons a minute. You could feel and hear the water rushing under your feet.

This is a diagram that shows where we were.

Then they take you to the room that has the power generation turbines. Here is a picture of them.

Here is one last picture that I took while we were driving away…

I was a nervous wreck the whole day. It was extremely terrifying to see my children anywhere near the edge. Our first stop was to walk to the information center. We could have taken a shuttle but it seemed like a nice day. Here is Nathan and the boys playing king of the hill.

At the information center, we got books for each of the kids so they could become Junior Rangers. Here is a picture of Samantha and Joshua doing an assignment in their books at a safe distance. Timmy was sitting on the rock ledge with Nathan giving me a small heart attack. :)

Here are two pictures I took while I was making sure Timmy was okay.

After finishing all of their assignments except attending a ranger class we stopped for lunch at a cafeteria. The food was not very good. While waiting for the shuttle Timmy started a snowball fight with Nathan and he thought he was well hidden behind something. Nathan threw one and it accidently hit Timmy on the cheek. Timmy wasn’t happy…

The shuttle took us to the Yavapai Observation Station where the kids took part in a class taught by a ranger about the geology in the Canyon.

While she was explaining the path the river takes she let Josh help with the demonstration…

After the lesson, the kids were sworn in to receive their badges…

Here is one last picture of the Canyon and a picture of the family in front of it.

Well, we arrived at the Grand Canyon and I called to find out where our mail was since it showed as being delivered. They gave me directions to an office a bit of a drive away from the campground. Since we had to drive to get the mail anyway, we put the kids in the car and drove on the scenic road and stopped to look at some of the overlooks. It is terrifying to realize how close you can get to the edge. Either there isn’t anything blocking you or there is a 2 foot rock ledge or a pipe railing with large openings. Here are some pictures from the first day.

While at the campground we looked out the windshield and saw two deer feeding. They started butting their horns together while we watched but the picture I took had too  much shade in it to see well. Here is one of the pictures of the deer.

After the zoo we drove to the Gateway Arch. Parking was fun. Apparently people line their cars 3 or 4 deep on the edge of the Mississippi as a parking lot. We were afraid that when we left that we would be blocked in so we parked on an outside edge. Here are Samantha and Timmy at the edge of the Mississippi River. Samantha and Nathan both touched the river…

Here is a view of the Arch as we were walking towards it…

Here is Samantha and Timmy “touching” the Arch…

Here is the view looking up as we were going in. It is pretty amazing when you look up and realize that you will soon be standing at the little windows….

Once we were inside Timmy started getting scared about going to the top. I have to say I wasn’t too sure about it either when I saw the tiny pods that was supposed to be our ride to the top. I would guess that with our society expanding that there are a few people that can’t get into the pods. Here is a shot of the kids in a pod that was at the ticket counter. If Nathan wasn’t in the middle seat he had to keep his head down to avoid bumping the ceiling. All 6 of us were in one of these pods…

Once at the top Timmy was happier. We looked out the window facing the RV Park and we were able to point out our campsites….

Here is a picture of the kids sitting up by one of the windows…

And here are views from both sides of the Arch….

After the Arch we went back to the RV to eat dinner and wait for the fireworks. At 9:00 the children’s fireworks went off at First Night across the town and we could see a few of them between the buildings. However, they do not have fireworks at the Arch on New Year’s Eve. I guess that is only on the Fourth of July, so at midnight we saw a few between the buildings from First Night but that was it. Oh well! :)