easter in mammoth

we spent easter weekend with my brother & sister-in-law in mammoth.  my brother's company owns the mountain & inn, so we had a great hook up for a place to stay.  i love that in california you can go from 70 deg weather to 15 deg's in 6 hours.  j had the opportunity to ski for free, so i stayed in the warm lodge with r.  it was beautiful up there, and our first time checking out the area.  the last night we got over 2 feet of snow.  it's amazing how 95% of the drive, the roads are clear and it's just the last part that has crazy amounts of snow - it was up to the roofs out our window.  i've been to tahoe & lived in utah, and this is more snow than either of us had ever seen at one time. 

this was not a typical easter.  ro was too little to participate in the egg hunts (although they were out on the snow - how fun!) and everytime i took him outside he made a face like, are you kidding me mom?  the wind was up to 65 mph 2 of the evenings. it was crazy. 

 

j got to join my little brother's ski team by default.  j isn't super good, mind you.  he first learned in indiana (no mountains) and then my brother initiated him into the family by taking him straight to black diamonds in utah.  he was pretty excited to join the team - they even had their own coach.  they lost, but they looked good, which is really the only part that matters.

i love ro's toes in the photo w/j below. 

this image below is on the drive out.  you'll see it goes from lots of snow in the mountains, to none on the ground at all within an hour or so. 

these last 3 photos were taken by j while i fed ro in the car.  the drive is really beautiful - it has a lot more of utah's landscape than i knew california had.  (hint: if you haven't been on this drive, add this to your list)