Summer at Northstar

To kick start our Labor Day Weekend, we decided to head up to Northstar at Tahoe, for their annual Blizzard tent sale.  Figured we'd do some shopping for some used ski equipment to prepare for the winter and make a day of it on the mountain.

We asked the Eimer's if we could bring Alyssa with us for Nate to have someone to play with and they obliged, so we brought her along.

In addition to the tent sale, Northstar had this guy on stilts making balloon animals. Although he made what looked like a basic ribbon, something I could even do, and handed it to Alyssa.  She got all excited about her ribbon and that's as far as he got in making a "animal"

On the Gondola to mid-mountain

Here you can see the amazing balloon ribbons, along with Alyssa's flirtation with the camera. 

At mid-mountain we walked over to the chair lift to take us closer to the top. You can see all the downhill bikers , many in full battle armor.  Looked fun, but very dangerous.  

From the lift, grabbed this shot of one of the bikers heading down.

Maria and Alyssa stayed behind while Nate and I hiked the remaining 400 vertical feet from the top of vista express to Mt Pluto, which rests at 8160ft.  With the low altitude it was very tiring.

I was super proud of Nate, he was a real trooper to make it all the way up.

We took a few breaks or photos

You can see one of the ski runs here

Nate got to take some photos of me at the top.  Looks the same and very different from many ski photos we took from the same spot. 

Maria and Alyssa watching Nate as he hopped on the bounce/bungee machine. Alyssa had her turn while Nate and I were hiking.

Nate on the bounce machine.  I think it's his third time trying it. He's getting much better, doing lots of flips and things now.

We finished the day at Northstar with some frozen yogurt for the kids. then hopped int he car and headed home, where we met Tonya and Barry at Mikuni for sushi dinner.  As we were waiting for the table, The slaters showed up int heir new car and joined us.  Great way to end the day.