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| Aaron, Caden, Caley, and Austin |
These are the 4 grand kids on this side of the family. I'm sorry, but who is the tall kid in the back?! Why does he look like a giant in this picture??
Anyway, after lunch we were on the road again (minus Willie Nelson because I would rather CRAWL to Colorado in silence than listen to his music). After about 2 hours of driving, Austin proclaimed that he wished he hadn't been born yet so that he wouldn't have to go on the HORRIBLE trip with us.
He is my drama KING!
My parents were coming in their car and they had 2 of my nieces and 2 nephews with them. We stayed in the same hotel in Amarillo and met them in the lobby for breakfast Saturday morning. After breakfast, we drove out to Cadillac Ranch, which is where several Cadillac's are buried in Amarillo. It was COLD. And even though you are allowed to spray paint the cars, it was too cold to even try to mess with. We just took a few pics and got back in the warm car. We still had about 8 hours of driving to do before we would get to the condo.
I did manage to get a pic at the New Mexico border, but not the Colorado border...
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| Brandon, Luke, Aaron, Kaulyn, and Austin |
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| Our condo |
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| Racquetball |
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| Austin was up to his waist in snow, just outside our condo |
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| Nothing like a little help from dad... |
On Sunday afternoon, those of us who were planning to ski went to the ski shop to get fitted.
We are all ready now!
Monday morning, we loaded up our car and my dad's van and headed to the mountains. We skied at Wolf Creek, which I keep getting mixed up with Great Wolf Lodge, but not mixed up enough to know that I needed to be in warm ski clothes and not a swimming suit. And that's a good thing because BABY, IT WAS COLD OUTSIDE!
I grew up going skiing just about every Christmas and many spring breaks, but Robbie and the kids had never been. This is where ski school comes in handy. Robbie, Aaron, Luke, Kaulyn, Jennifer and Brandon spent their Monday in ski school. Austin started with their group, but was soon talked into going to the 'Wolf Pup' ski school that is just for kids. They told him that there was a magic carpet ride that was just for kids and he was SOLD. After I got him checked in there, I decided to go up a lift and find out how much I remembered about skiing. I got in the singles lift line (I couldn't find my dad and Craig hadn't gotten there yet) and went up alone. I worried all the way up that I may not be able to get myself back down in one piece. But y'all. It was like riding a bike. It all came back to me as if no time had even passed. I was so relieved.
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| Kaulyn, Aaron, and Austin...on our way to the mountain! |
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| Me and my dad |
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| Jennifer and Kaulyn |
After I made a few trips up and down the mountain, I decided to go check on all of the ski schoolers. The older crew all seemed to be doing well, but when I went to check on Austin, he was no where to be found. When I finally did find him, I realized that he had somehow gotten lost in the mix of the kids and hadn't learned much. When he saw me, he said "Mom, that carpet is NOT magic!" (It's basically a conveyor belt that the kids stand on so it can take them up the mountain a little bit so they can ski down.) He was not a happy camper. Or skier. Whatever.
I made him go up and down a few times so I could see how he was doing, but he just wanted to go eat lunch and forget about all of this skiing stuff. Which was disappointing for me because I learned at his age and never forgot. It's just easier to learn when you're little.
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| Austin on the 'Not so magic carpet' |
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| Lunch time...finally!! |
During lunch, my dad and I talked Austin into going up the lift and skiing down the bunny slope one time, hoping that he would just 'get it' and take off. That didn't turn out well. He got on and off the lift fine, but did NOT want to put his skis in a pizza shape at all. For those of you that have never skied, that's the shape they need to make for you to SLOW DOWN. So I tried skiing in front of him with him holding onto my pole, but he got to going too fast and just ran into me. Then my dad decided he was going to ski the entire thing going backwards to help Austin down.
It will go down as one of my favorite Daddy memories.
We ended our Monday with chicken and dumplins that my mom made for us while we were gone, followed by snow ice cream that I made later on in the evening.
Tuesday was Christmas Day. Except it didn't seem like it at all. In fact, there were no presents opened. No Christmas tree or lights. But it was the best Christmas Day I can remember having in years. I got to sleep as late as I wanted, and then a group of us got together to go snowmobiling. I've never got to do this before, so I was super excited.
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| Ready for snowmobiling |
When we first got on our snowmobiles, the guide began to go over all of the rules. When he said that they would flip pretty easily if you don't lean and use good judgement (and that any damages were your responsibility), I went into FULL PANIC MODE. I had my niece, Kaulyn, riding with me and I didn't really feel like being responsible for either of our deaths. On top of that, there was a very thick fog setting in and I could barely see the mountain we were about to be riding on.
But after a quick assurance from the owner (who probably just didn't want to refund my money), we were off! Brandon and Luke were riding right in front of us, and not even 5 minutes into the ride they flipped their snowmobile! It was actually non-eventful because it just fell over on the side, they fell on the ground, and the guide person picked them all back up, and they were off again! That was the first of 2 turn-overs they had, but no harm was done. After we got up in the mountain a bit, the fog went away, the sun came out, and it was just beautiful. And FUN!
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| Robbie and Aaron |
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| Our group headed up the mountain |
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| Kaulyn and I |
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| Austin got to ride with a guide! |
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| Our group after it was all over |
I think all of us that went really enjoyed it and would go back in a heartbeat!
When we got back to the condo, Craig and Kassie had made it to the condo, and my mom had cooked a big Christmas lunch for us. We had chicken and dressing, corn, peas, green beans, salad, raw veggies, etc. It was so good! After we finished eating, the kids all got in the hot tub again for a while, and then around 8 I made snow ice cream for everyone again. I could get used to 8pm nightly snow ice cream.
On Wednesday, we were back on the slopes, minus a few. Robbie decided that it was in his best interest to no go back, as did Luke and Austin. So instead of skiing, they went swimming at the condo.
Meanwhile, on the slopes...
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| Aaron and I |
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| Kassie, Craig, Kaulyn, and Jennifer |
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| Jennifer and Kaulyn had a little run-in ;) |
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| Taking a break! |
The kids were all doing really well for their first time to be let loose on the slopes!
On Thursday and Friday, we decided to ski 1/2 days in the afternoon. It was a really good decision. And Austin decided that he wanted to go back and try it again (which made me happy!), so that made it even better. I was so proud of him for getting over the fact that it was a little difficult to learn and just went for it. By the end of the day Friday, that child was in full control and was skiing faster than the rest of it. And Aaron was teaching himself how to parallel ski, which was awesome because most people don't even think about doing that on their first week!
On Friday morning, I looked out the window and saw something large being blown up. I thought it was a bouncy house or something, but then realized it was a hot air balloon. I'm not sure why this happened just outside our front door, but it was pretty neat to watch...
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| Up |
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| Up |
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| Up |
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| Up |
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| And away!! |
We left for our trip on December 21st, and returned home (with NO injuries!!) on December 30th. It was one of my favorite things we've done together as a family and I hope that we can go back again someday before the boys are grown!
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