Family Ski Trip

 

Second (annual?) ski trip with friends is officially in the books and we're making progress towards Ryan's dream of making us a "ski family".  This year we rented the same house we rented last year with Jamie and Zach/Chris and Brenna but we changed up the group a bit and included Betsy and Pat (and, Lauren and Brian were going to join us too but COVID...blah!).  

We pulled the kids out of school after lunch on Friday (they loved that!) and made our way up to the house in the Dells area for an evening of swimming and Friday night fish fry!  We learned last year that the pool area was perfect for the kids - big enough that they had room to get the wiggles out and nearly empty on Friday evening.  We had a few Spotted Cows pool side, ate some fish and headed back to the house in time to catch the opening ceremonies of the winter Olympics.  Betsy and Pat came up a little bit later - it's harder to pull the teachers out of school early than it is to pull the kids :)  

Saturday was COLD - I'm talking -2 actual temp when we woke up on Saturday morning.  We weren't sure how long all of the kids would last out on the ski hill, but we fixed up breakfast and packed up sandwiches for lunch and headed out for a day of skiing.  Betsy and family had just returned from a trip to Colorado a week or two earlier and we hoped that Bradley and Brennan's confidence would rub off on the girls.  Having been to the same ski hill the year before we were 100% more prepared and informed for how things went meaning that we knew where to park (or rather, where NOT to park) and where to plop all the kids while us Mom's picked up the lift tickets.  It probably saved us at least 45 minutes of screwing around trying to get everyone ready and moving which was SO much nicer this time around.  

We skipped ski school this year too, figuring we could do a better job ourselves, or, at a minimum we'd wouldn't be WORSE teachers than the college kids they had last year.  We did 3 or 4 runs down the bunny hill (using the magic carpet) and then decided it was time to rip the Band-Aid off and see how it went on a real green run!  I took Hazel in my chairlift (and Bradley but he just jumped in for moral support for Hazel) and she was all about it until she realized that she wasn't just going to ride the chairs in a circle and that we were getting off the lift and skiing down.  Hazel, of the two, is the braver, more fierce kid!  She's usually willing to try new things and much more of a sport when it comes to conquering her fears - but, today she was not in the mood and no matter how hard we tried (and how good she actually was at it), she cried herself down the entire hill, and it only got worse when she took one tiny tumble and "twisted her ankle" and, in that moment, I knew she was done for the day.  

Abby on the other hand was a champ.  Afterwards she told me she was most nervous about the chair lift and once she'd gotten off without incident the first time, she wasn't really even that afraid of that anymore.  I have no doubt that having the Cunningham's along helped play a role in her confidence and willingness to try new things.  The boys were such good sports helping her and Stella long during the day and I know that Betsy spent more than a little bit of time giving Abby pointers and helping her along.  I'm so grateful that they were willing to come along on this trip.  

Lucy didn't fair well either - she did a few runs on the bunny hill but by 11 am she and Hazel couldn't continue with life without a snack (mind you we arrived around 10 - LOL!) so Jamie and I took the two littlest girls back to the car and gave up on making them try to ski this year.  Before leaving we drove to the closest parking lot, right near the bottom of the runs the group was on, and delivered everyone lunch (and a few beers).  We hung around, let the kids warm up in the car for a little bit and then Jamie, Lucy, Hazel and I went back to the pool and waited for the rest of the group.  I'd have never guessed that they'd make it all the way until 4pm but the adults said the kids were having a great time and I know it was good for their confidence for future trips.

I'm not sure how we didn't manage to get a family picture of the Cunningham's!  Betsy - how did we let that happen!?  Next year we'll fix that!  All in all, I think the weekend was a success.  Funny because we had this very "winter" activity last weekend, and, just 6 short days later we're headed to Disney!  January was quiet for us...but February is chalk full of fun family goodness.