Vail, CO Part 3

We are up early in the morning to get ready for Day 2 of skiing and Reece and Drew are so excited that they get to ski with us and not have to be in the ski school! Reece says several times…”I can’t wait to get back on my skis.” I love it! The weather is opposite of yesterday and it’s snowing hard, colder, and visibility is dicey. I prefer yesterday’s weather for sure!

We spent some time on the practice runs and almost lost Drew a few times. This guy just goes his own way and hops on the chairlift by himself without a care in the world. Meanwhile, I’m forever scared that Reece is going to fall off the lift because she just gets right to the edge and leans over and holy cow…she’s going to give me a heart attack! It was pretty cold and my gloves are from Target (I should probably invest in a better pair of gloves!) so we had to make a pit stop to warm up and get our routes down for the day.

Drew already slammed down the entire lunch we had packed for him for the day and it was only 10AM! Jake is forever ready to skip any kind of eating to get back to the slopes. There is no wasting time in his world. Later he will be so starving that he will eat everything in sight. I nick-named myself snowball because of my full white ensemble. It’s new and very warm (unlike my gloves) and the pants are 2 or 3 sizes too big – by the end of the day I was literally carrying them with both hands while they fell to my knees. I guess maybe I didn’t ever try them on when I bought them? We got quite a laugh that I was the shape of a teapot. I’m a little teapot…short and stout…here is my handle…here is my spout…you know that nursery rhyme!?

We got back out on the slopes and had lots of fun. I’m so impressed with how good the kids are already with just a couple times on a mountain. Here are a couple you tube video clips…

What I’ve discovered about Vail Mountain is it’s probably not the best place for beginners. The trails aren’t super well-marked (or maybe it was just so snowy we couldn’t see them!), and the minute you get off track you are on a black run with no greens in sight. Reece was pretty proud of herself for going down a few blues and maybe a black (completely by mistake of her tour guides…yikes!). She is determined to be the next Lindsey Vonn. This girl does not like to do anything good, she wants to only be the best and I love the drive but it’s hard to explain to her that you can’t immediately be amazing at everything you try!

Morgan would be an amazing ski instructor, she is so patient and helpful and she’s skiing like she has been doing it for years. Way to go MoMo!! And we know skiing isn’t a fashion show, but we’ve decided she has the coolest coat on the slopes! She got quite a few compliments.

Jake is definitely a cool snow-boarder dude and I picture him bumming around on the slopes with friends every chance he can get (start saving your money now Jake!). Whatever he decides to do, we are super proud of his dedication to learn snow-boarding.

Drew & Reece have really picked up skiing well after trying snow-boarding last year. According to them, it’s a lot easier than boarding! The greatest fun for me is watching them do their thing and also saying a hundred times a day how cute all the kids are on the slopes (right, Morgan!?). Their little snow gear and seeing them as they follow along their instructors in a little line – absolutely precious! I’m mesmerized by the kids for sure!

We found some really fun trails down the mountain but ended up off track somehow and we ended up at the base of the mountain on the opposite end of where we intended to be! Jake and Brian went up the gondola without us and the rest of us were trying to find a bus to get back to Lionshead Village where we were more familiar. As we are trekking through the village, I’ve got two sets of skis and poles over my shoulders and 3 kids trailing behind walking in those super heavy and uncomfortable ski boots. Keep in mind, it is snowing crazy! We got a few laughs and stares along the way as Reece had to take breaks often and Drew was having no part of her needing a break! My bangs were iced down to my face and I just had to giggle and press on. We made it back to our familiar village and by this time it was getting close to the lifts closing and Drew was ready to be done. So I pointed Reece and Morgan in the direction of the right gondola so they could get in one last run and Drew and I turned in our equipment. Apparently it was quite an adventure back down the mountain with those 4 as Reece had lost her stamina for the day and drive to be Lindsey Vonn.

This was the view from our room with the beautiful snow falling…

As you can see, the visibility on the slopes was pretty low so that can be a little challenging but overall, a really fun day! Morgan spent some time with the littles doing smores and the pool/hot tub and the rest of us went souvenir shopping! Morgan had her sights set on a cute sweatshirt and we searched all over looking for her size and/or trying to find an alternative. Of course she was snap chatting with her friends to decide which one to get. This girl cannot make a decision! Jake got a really cool sweatshirt, Drew got this shirt,

and what!??? How did Reece end up with this hat!? I thought we escaped it!? Apparently Brian promised it to her to get down that last run. There was no going back on that promise!

We played our last night of family games and went to the Bully Ranch for dinner. It’s a major hot spot in Vail in the Sonnenalp Hotel and it was Saturday night so we had to wait for over an hour. We walked around Vail Village and picked up some postcards for Reece and Drew’s teachers (isn’t that sweet!?) and almost got this CUTE hat for Morgan. In the end she decided she never wears hats so we saved ourselves 25 bucks 😉

As we waited for our table Jake was ready to dive into a plate of sliders and I was just purely amazed at the size of the lamps!! Have you ever seen such a thing?

We had such a fun last night in Vail and I am so thankful for the opportunity to have these fun adventures with my family. Thank you Brian for working so hard! Reece wrote a very nice note to Brian thanking him for her crazy polar bear hat…

We all made a deal to get up at 5:15AM to get on the road back home. It started out at 7 and kept getting earlier and earlier. We joked that Brian was going to make us get up at 2AM to leave!

We ended up a bit delayed because the Marriott lost our van. Huh!? How do they manage to lose our van!? There was apparently no record of it being checked in, they never charged us for valet, and couldn’t find our keys! Oh boy, this was about to throw Brian into a frenzy but we tracked down the lost Toyota Sienna and got on our way without having to pay resort fees or parking. Ok – maybe that accident was worth the $200 savings!? We had a snowy drive out of the mountains and Reece slept several hours out of the trip. It is positively the most boring drive! The only excitement are those crazy gigantic windmill things…

We stopped in Hays at Gella’s Diner for lunch because Reece remembers it from last year (really only that the kids meals come in cardboard cars) and just cannot call the trip complete without stopping there!

We stopped for gas a few hours from home and Morgan went in for a bathroom break. Pretty soon Brian is heading back out on the road and Jake says….”ummm are we going to wait for Morgan because she isn’t in the car!” Whoa now that is not a parenting moment to be proud of! We whipped back in the gas station before she noticed we had left her but there was no playing it off. We were laughing too hard and she had noticed that our van was now facing a different direction! Oops!

Finally, we are about to Lawrence and my phone starts alerting me that Reece has a 6PM soccer game! Oh crap, can’t we just pretend that we aren’t home yet? We were giving Reece the choice to go or not and she without hesitation was ready to go! She wanted to move her legs – we had been in the car for 10 hours. Back to reality in the blink of an eye!!