Memories from our Ski Trip

"Short but sweet" - that's how I would sum up our trip to the mountains last weekend. We spent two nights at Snow Mountain Ranch - a YMCA camp in Frasier, CO. We stayed in a cabin - where we can cook our own meals and the kids have a nice area to play while we take turns skiing. We had fun being together in the cabin and the weather was gorgeous for outdoor fun too! We skied two days and had a chance to take the kids sledding. The camp has groomed trails to ski on in varying difficulties. It's a great place to learn to ski and to also be challenged by one's husband as he takes you on black trails (most difficult). A face plant was part of my first day of skiing. :-) Even though I dug it pretty bad, I secretly enjoyed being up where you can hear yourself breathe and your heart beat - it was so quiet and serene. I was reminded why people use the phrase - "this is God's country".

The kids (big and little) enjoyed building lego towers. Nana brought lincoln logs and a safari set for the kids to play with too.
We had fun coloring, reading (a book called Pinkalicious became a favorite on this trip), watching Luke become more and more mobile (he was commando crawling most of the weekend), and challenging their bird knowledge with the notorious bird quizzes. Jacob has an amazing memory -- and can recall many obscure bird names as he sits with Nana for an hour at a time looking and listening to birds. Nana has to put a limit to the number of quizzes per day or Jacob would do quiz after quiz. Often the first question of the day from Jacob is "can we do a bird quiz, Nana?" He is going to be a stellar birder!

Hannah and Jacob both love sledding! Hannah is a big girl -- pulling her own sled up the hill.

Here are the girls!
Here are the boys!

Nana had a test of patience -- and she passed with flying colors! Originally the plan was to take Jacob to Winter Park for his first chance on downhill skis. But we decided to try out cross country with him instead. It was a good decision. He has his Mom's fear of falling and fear of being out of control/going fast - which makes skiing a challenge. Jacob made progress -- and actually allowed himself to move a little faster at the very end.

One last pic -- had to get Luke on the blog entry....