Wolf Mountain

Today was a fun family ski day!! Last night as we drove up and I noticed the total lack of snow anywhere, I wasn't sure if it was going to work out. But thankfully there was just enough (with some help from the snow maker). They also had a discount cause the snow was so sparce, bonus! Not too cold, not a huge resort so no worries about kids getting lost in the woods, it was great.

Here are a few shots of the day - everyone waking up in the hotel, Owen in the murphy bed. Owen! Are you ready to PaRtY!?!  (Silence...) 

Lily!! Ready to party!?! No. Silly girl, she brought her personal fan on the trip, funny. You know it's cold outside, right Lily? For some reason fans are a priority in our household, even in winter.

Looks like Daniel's not gonna be hitting the slope either.

Daniel was so cute. I love seeing little kids in big beds. It makes them look like little royalty to me. Daniel, a little prince alone in his big comfortable bed.

SO! This is how the day went. Corey and I went to an 8:30 am presentation with our timeshare so we could learn more about all our benefits for being owners and so they could try to sell us something or other and so we could get a free gift card of $100 (could be $1000, ooh!) Breakfast was provided. I ate eggs. And sausage. And I little bit of bacon. I also ate potatoes, but I'm not feeling good about myself or the upcoming holiday. It feels like life it out of control, and so my diet gets out of control. I don't want to eat sausage and bacon or eggs, but it was there in front of me and we're on a vacay and the only other option is marshmallow cereal back at the room, so might as well... I'm afraid I might be "might as well"-ing a lot over this Christmas break. doh. So, presentation was fine, we didn't buy anything, we didn't win the thousand bucks, but the $100 helped buy the kids lunch today over at Wold Mountain. We got back to the room shortly after 9:30. No one was ready to ski. We spent an hour helping everyone find their gloves and coats and mittens. You'd think things wouldn't get misplaced after less than 24 hours here, but oh well. They all went skiing around 10:30 and I stayed at the room to clean up, pack up, and load up the car. We had two rooms, our room where we stayed with the little ones was easy to pick up. The other room not as much. I'm really hoping we didn't lose any puzzle pieces! I had it all packed up by check out time at noon, and we headed over to the resort.

Lily was a good helper watching her little brothers as I went back and forth to put things in the car. She didn't want to go skiing for whatever reason. I think we have another homebody on our hands.

Owen fell asleep on the drive over to the ski resort.

Thanks Lil!

She stayed in the car with the kids while I went to find Corey and figure out the how and who of our kid swap. Natalie was skiing with Corey. She looked soooo cute. Pink cheeks, she is just adorable. I love her little voice.

The kids came to grab a snack from me (Yeah, cold cereal!)

Ethan grabbed his speaker, Joseph undressed and got ready to head home with me. Check out Joseph's good pole pass to Mel!

Wes giving me some action shots. Yeah Wes, ski champion of the world!

Corey said Joseph was a great Dad to Sophi, letting her ski between his legs, it was really sweet. Corey took a lot of photos, and videos, I'll update with them later. But he didn't get one of Joseph and Sophi, so I went over to try and recreate the moment a little bit, so we can tell Sophi next year when Joseph is gone on his mission "Remember last year when Joseph was here? He helped you ski? That was so fun." Yet another "last" for our Joseph who will soon be flying from the nest.

We decided that Natalie would come with me. Corey also decided that he would take Owen. "But he just fell asleep... if you wake him from a nap, I fear he shall be cranky for you. "No, I want to do it." I tried to talk him out of it, convinced that it would ruin the rest of the ski day, but Corey insisted. Ok, your call! Natalie came back to the car with me to swap out the skis and give Owen her snowpants. She showed me how she skis - "You put your arms out like this!"

Corey got Natalie undressed and into the car...

and I woke up Owen and brought him out to his BFF Corey. Corey downed some eggnog and now they're ready for fun! (I hope!!!)

I took a lap around the little parking lot to say goodbye to everyone again, and I could hear Owen crying, I went over to help to see if there was anything I could do. He was NOT happy. "Sweetie, are you sure about this...?" "I got it." Once again, I had my concerns, but I left him there on the mountain with a crying toddler.

Good luck sweetie!

Now we're home and at 4:30 I got a WhatsApp video of Owen skiing, it is so cute!! How about that - an hour later and Corey's skiing backwards with the camera on Owen, Owen is totally laughing. Yay! Success! He's also wearing Corey's gloves, so maybe he was fussy at first cause his hands were cold. (His were among the mittens we couldn't find). Corey, I'm totally impressed, you're amazing. I'm sure Corey got lots of cute pictures and videos, I'll try to upload/update with those later. I'm not sure when they'll be back, but I hope they soak up the snow while they can, cause it is a lot of work for our big group to have fun! Great job sweetie on making this memory happen. Joseph and I got home in time for him to just be a little bit late for call time at his concert. We got a few treats tonight from neighbors, so nice. But my resolve is not strong, so I ate too many. Natalie and Lily helped me. Luckily a big teenager is here and I made him take a plate full with him. Ah, I was doing so good. I need to try and relax and enjoy the kind gestures. Happy holidays! Christmas is just around the corner, almost there!