Big Bear with the Delgados - Day 1

Wednesday afternoon I took the Delgado's up on their offer to join them on vacation at Big Bear. I arrived in time to enjoy a juicy hamburger grilled by Oscar. We ate on the deck of the cute little cabin where they were staying overlooking the pines. They spent the evening showing me around the cabin and filling me in on their adventures earlier in the week. Then, we played some fun games with the boys downstairs in the game room before going to bed. The first activity of the day was the Alpine Slide at Magic Mountain:
I left my camera in the car and stuffed only cash in my pocket since I knew we would be riding little sleds down these cement runs. It was so much fun...even for a grandma! I took pictures, but on Jocelyn's camera which I'll post later. These are from an advertisement. You have to be 6 years old or 48" which ever is first, so Nathan was the only kid who could go by himself. All you do is push the lever forward to go and back to stop. We took turns staying with Levi. (That's when I took pictures.) They LOVED it! Jared was so cute. He couldn't go fast enough, and screamed in delight around every corner. We left with the boys still wanting more to get to our next adventure, boating, lunching and fishing on Big Bear Lake:
This was Oscar's favorite activity of the week.

He loved being "skipper" of our pontoon boat.

Jocelyn and Levi loved it too.

Levi was not overly fond of the floatation vest.

We enjoyed the scenery, wildlife and watching other boaters.

Spencer did a little fishing.
Jared applied both kinds of my chap stick, just to make sure he would not end up looking like a clown...i.e. he liked eating the stuff.


One interesting place to go at Big Bear Lake is the Solar Observatory, which unfortunately was closed while we were there. They are installing a new telescope. Apparently Big Bear experiences over 300 days of sunshine a year which makes it an excellent place for one of six solar observatories in the world. It is just east of the observatory that we turned off the boat to drift and eat our lunch. With 15 minutes to get back to dock, we found the boat would not start. So, we called and explained our predicament.. We drifted further east until help arrived, and enjoyed the extra time on the lake! After returning to the cabin for rest and dinner, we headed on to the Bowling Barn, another first for the boys!
We all had a blast. Each boy had their own style of bowling and it is way more fun for them with the bumpers up so they can't get gutter balls. (I wish I was young enough to qualify.) Jared was the most entertaining. It is so cute when a two-year-old bowls. In fact, all the surrounding bowlers were cheering him on! I didn't get very good pictures, because it was bowling league night and no flashes are allowed. I got in trouble for my camera flashing when I thought I had turned it off, so I quit taking pictures. Jocelyn got the best score, 114. Three of the boys were asleep by the time we got home to our cozy cabin.