Ski Trip!

We took our first big road trip this past week. We went to Monarch, Colorado for a ski trip with our young adult class at church. I was thinking we were pretty crazy to take two small kids on such a long journey, but they pleasantly suprised us with how great they did. We left on Saturday morning at 0400 and arrived in Trinidad, Colorado at around 2pm. We only made a few stops and the kids did awesome! Thank goodness for DVD players! We stayed overnight there then left the next morning around 10am for a 4 hour trip to Monarch. There wasn't as much snow as I thought there would be during the drive. We finally encountered some snow when we got up into the mountains. We stayed at the Monarch Mountain Lodge...not the newest place in the world, but it was functional. We won't discuss the food. We skiied, sledded, and played in the snow until Wednesday night. We left for home at 0330 on Thursday morning. I think it was 28 degrees outside at that time. About 15 minutes into the drive we almost took out a whole family of deer. Mondo and I were quietly chatting while the kids slept and then out of nowhere 3 or 4 deer start crossing the road. Mondo swerved and missed them by an inch or two. We were awake then! After that we drove about 10 miles under the speed limit while we were on deer watch. Over the next hour or two we saw several more deer families grazing on the side of the road. Stupid animals! We made it home in about 14 hours with only 3 stops. Pretty amazing when travelling with two small children! Anyway, enough talk, lets get to the pictures!

This picture is pretty funny. I was trying to get the mountain of stuff in the back of the minivan but there is a big glare. Caleb is almost asleep and Ethan is looking at him like he's scared. I don't know what was going on there.

Caleb, my little dare-devil. He's always climbing on top of things. This was at our first hotel, the Holiday Inn Express. Very nice and new. He climbed on the cooler to get to the mirror then proceeded to try and rip the mirror off of the wall...and he almost did.

Here's a view from the back of our hotel.

We decided to take the kids for a hike behind our hotel to pass the time. We were hiking almost straight up. Ethan loved it! We had to stop when we got too high and the ground was literally slipping out from under us.

Here's a view from one of our hiking points behind the hotel. It doesn't look as high as we actually were.

Ethan being silly.

Ethan and Will, hiking buddies. Don't let Will fool you, it wasn't that cold.

Caleb attending the hiking session too. He probably would've walked if we let him but it was too dangerous.

We really enjoyed the Holiday Inn restaurant. They treated the kids great. They got popsicles for free after dinner. Caleb needed two since Ethan didn't eat his. See his face covered with spaghetti?

Now here's some scenery. This was when we were getting closer to Monarch. Ethan was excited to see some snow.

Beautiful.

This is at the Monarch Mountain Lodge. We stayed in the "owner's suite". This kitchen reminded me of our apartment...not much room to manuever!

We went to Walmart (about 20 minutes into town) and stocked up to have all the comforts of home.

Here's our living/dining room.

Two king size beds. Mondo and Ethan got one and Caleb and I got the other one. That arrangement had to change a little after the first night of sleeping with Caleb. I nicknamed him Flipper because he flips around so much during the night. He's like a fish out of water! Sleeping with him is not very peaceful. Mondo got to enjoy sleeping with him the next night.

Family photo...turned out pretty good. This is behind our lodge.

Ethan and Will sledding.

The mommas and the boys. Caleb was aleep in the car with Mondo during this pic.

Caleb cracked me up when I was trying to get him in the carseat. That jacket was so thick I could barely buckle him in. He looked so stuffed!

So adorable!!! But he hated being in that jacket. And he could hardly walk in the boots. He played about 10 minutes in the snow then he was done for the day.

The next day we went to plan B...this outfit worked much better.

Nothing too exciting here. Just a video of him walking in the snow but I thought it was cute.

Mommy and Caleb.

Ethan in his snow ensamble.

Here's a panoramic view of where were took Ethan to ski. It's not the main area with all the other skiiers. It's acutally a good place for sledding.

The first attempt to teach Ethan how to ski...he wasn't thrilled.

Eric showed us that it was better for Mondo ski with Ethan...Ethan was even less thrilled about this idea. Look at his sad face, he was begging not to do it. But, we didn't drive 14 hours for him not to ski!

There they go!

After they skiied down this hill he decided it was actually fun. No more tears!

Enjoying some snow.

I thought his hair was so cute after he took off his hat from skiing. It was everywhere...and he did not want his picture taken!

About 4 hours from home, the kiddos needed out of the car. We found a great rest stop. It was new and had a playground. Ethan loved playing Spiderman and Caleb walked non-stop.

He loved hopping on these things.

Brothers sliding side by side.

And then the vacation ends. No more snow covered mountains...just mountains of laundry!!! Mondo decided that we needed to wash everything we took whether we wore it or not. It doesn't even look like a lot in this pic. There were two loads already running. We probably ran about 10 loads. And yes ladies, he did help. He actually did most of it!