I have to say that every year I really look forward to spring break with my family. One of our favorite places to go is Pagosa Springs so that we can enjoy the great spring skiing. This year was no exception. We actually only ended up skiing for one day, but we really enjoyed our days at the condos, with friends and with family. So here is our recap of events.
Sunday, March 11th – We went to church at the La Cueva ward with Kevin and his family and my other brother Chad and his family (Chad was in town for Cameron’s wedding – I will have to post something on that later). We wanted to leave town at a reasonable time on Sunday, since we had not even started packing, so we decided to go to an earlier ward. After church, we came home and Chad and Allie left and we continued to pack. It took us a while since I had to pack all of the ski clothing and sleds, etc. My boys really helped a lot and we got on the road at about 2:30. We made good time and checked into the condos before 6:00 and settled in.
Monday, March 12th – This was our day for a new adventure. John and Maggie and their family were also going to spend the week in Pagosa and they arranged a snow moblie outing for us on Monday. John, Maggie, and Cassi went, along with Jake, Stacy, Corey, and Eric. Jared was kind enough to stay behind and watch the kids. Jared is kind of my non-adventurous kid and he seemed to be happy to stay behind and let Eric take a spot. Eric was so excited. We drove up close to Wolf Creek pass and got ready for our 2 hour outing. I have to say that we had a great time. The weather was great, in fact I was even hot. We followed the tour guide on a fun route of trails that took us to a large valley. In the valley, the guide took us around a huge loop and told us that we could now have free time riding around. He even said that the kids could drive as long as the adult was on the back. Well, Corey was so excited about that. He hated the fact that he was not old enough to drive on his own, so he just couldn’t wait. Eric was riding with me and I asked him if he wanted to drive. He told me, “No way mom, I am only 8, are you crazy!” I couldn’t believe his answer. I thought that Eric would love to try, so I was surprised and kind of relieved to hear his answer. So I drove Eric around and we took all sorts of bumps really fast and I felt like I was going to fall off into Eric, but it was lot of fun. Then Jake switched with me so that he could drive some more with Eric and so that I could sit behind Corey while he drove. Corey did a good job. He couldn’t take the bumps too quickly since the snowmobile was back-heavy. That could be a problem. I do have to say that riding on the back of a snowmobile is not really that much fun. I did not like the feeling of not being in control and I was getting a little queazy in my stomach. Then Corey went through a little area where there were two small lanes curving off to the opposite sides of a little tree. Corey did not quite make it this time and he ran us into the little tree. “Ran” is probably the wrong word. He breaked and we really just tapped the tree, but now we were stuck. One of the guides came by and helped me back out the machine so that we could get back to it. Then it was my turn to drive again. We went back on some trails and went down this tiny, steep trail, where I was breaking quite a bit just to stay on track. It was pretty cool. We continued riding and stopped at a great view spot where we could take some pictures and have some snow ball fights. All in all, this was great fun and we decided we would love to do it again. Thanks to Maggie for making it all happen.
We then returned to the condo and had a rousing round of pictionary. It was a lot of fun, but Jake is way too good at this game and it is hard to play against him. John and Maggie are also quite awesome. Then we ate a quick bite and went to play wallyball at the rec center. We brought all of our kids, which was a mistake, but we still had a good time. Nate and Reagan kept coming in and out of the courts since they were a little scared of all that was going on inside the court. Then we came home to watch the last few minutes of the BYU game where they were down by 25 and came back to win. I am glad we missed most of the game and just got to watch the fun ending.
And I almost forgot the most important part. This was actually Eric’s birthday. So we enjoyed some striped delight (Eric’s favorite), and opened presents. Eric got a wii game that he wanted along with a ninjago lego set and some gum. He also got some money from grandparents and he was a very happy boy. Writing about this day just makes me tired. This was a big day and we enjoyed every bit of it.
Eric was whooping and hollering with screams of delight the whole time
Corey never got to ride completely by himself, but I had to get off to take the picture.
At a spot for pictures we stopped, and of course our group decided to have a snow ball fight.
What a view!
Eric got white-washed quite a few times.
Cassie and John got in on the fun!
Corey did not stand a chance against his dad, but he always believes that he can.
Wallyball time
This is not soccer!
The problem of our entire night.
Hard to believe that he is 9 years old.
Striped Delight is his favorite and he was happy that his mom made it even though we were on vacation.
We did not forget the presents, but we did sure forget to wrap them.
Tuesday, March 13 – Well, we were a little tired after the events of the previous day. We slept in a bit and watched a little TV – a novelty for the kids when we are on vacation. Around lunch time we decided to go swimming. We did not stay too long, but enjoyed our time. Eric was hanging all over John and happy to have someone in the water playing with him. I was running all over to make sure that our 2 non-swimmers were safe. Nate is almost there, but he still needs some practice.
We then hurried back to the condo to get dressed in our ski gear so that we could go sledding. Pagosa was very warm and there was not a lot of snow on the ground, but up on our snowmobiling trip, I spotted a great place and we headed out for it. We had to hike in a bit, which was very tiring in the deep snow, but it really was worth it. We started on one easy hill and then ventured off to the hill I had spotted the day before. I was actually afraid to go down this hill. This hill had places that I could not even see from the top, since it was so steep. My kids were more brave than me and they started us off. I eventually went and it was so much fun. I had to use my hands to break me a bit because I was flying so fast. Everyone was having a blast. The only bad part was climbing up the hill once you got down. It really was a steep hill and it took a lot of effort. Reagan loved sledding down with Jake, but the climb up was very hard for her. Jake ended up carrying her up the hill many times. Finally, Reagan told me that she wanted to be a big girl and go down by herself. I helped get her on and pushed her down. She was going so fast. She fell off at the end and got a little banged up. Probably not such a good idea to have her going down by herself, but she did survive.Soon, we were all dead tired and we headed out – which was another adventure – climbing back to the car.
This was Reagan's favorite place to be.
She loved sledding. I think she will be ready to ski next year.
Eric decided that head first was a great option. Who cares if you bang your head anyway?
Poor Jake! Here I am taking the picture on top of the hall while he carries Reagan on his shoulders carrying 3 sleds. I did run down to help after I got some pictures.
Needless to say, we were pooped. And then we went off for another wallyball session. This time, Cassi and Suzy watched the kids, so that Jake, Corey, Jared, and I could all go and play with Maggie and John. It was nice to have an evening without the little ones running in and out of the wallyball court.
Wednesday, March 14th – This was our ski day. Spring break week can be pretty busy at Wolf Creek, but we have noticed in past years that it generally tapers off near the end of the week. We needed to check out of the condo on Friday, so we thought we better ski on Wednesday so that we could also go on Thursday if we wanted to. Reagan stayed with grandma and the rest of us piled in the van to go skiing. We got Nate set up as a wolf-pup (a great class with other youngsters like himself). He got the opportunity to ski for his first time and by the end of the day, you would never know that it was his first day to ski. This has happened with all my kids. We put them in the ski school for one day and then they are ready to cruise the mountain – you gotta love it. After Nate was all settled, I met up with the rest of the family to get our equipment. When we were all ready we headed out. I do not know what happened, but we seemed to get separated on that first run. Corey and Jared were together and Jake and I were with Eric. I did not see Corey or Jared again until we met in the lodge to eat. Corey really knows the mountain well and he knows what he wants to ski, unfortunately, I do not think he is very patient about waiting for Jared. Once Jared biffed it and he could not get his ski back on. Corey was down the hill and could not see Jared. Luckily he waited around and they go together again. It was funny, but in the late afternoon, I lost Jared again. This time Corey was with Eric somewhere and Jared got separated from us. I just hoped that we would all meet up to turn in our equipment and make it home.
I picked up Nate at 3:00 and I took him down the bunny hill to see how he was doing. He was doing great. He had the snow plow down to an art. So we went up the bunny hill one more time and skiied down to another lift so that we could do something more exciting. I got on the wrong slope and took Nate down a more difficult run than I planned. He fell a couple times, but he was a trooper. We then headed to one of our favorite runs and he did that one about 3 or 4 times and I could not believe how fast he was going. Skiing is definitely a good thing to learn while you are young. Next year, it will be Reagan’s turn and hoepfully she will love it as much as the rest of us.
Eric had to find his ski legs.
Nate in the ski school. Love this ski school. All of my kids have had one day of lessons and then they are ready to ski with us.
Dad helping Nate get some speed on the flat part.
Notice - one of our children is dog tired. The other one never seems to be tired. What in the world can we do to ever tire this boy out?
At the end of the day, we did finally meet up with each other and we headed home. A couple of the kids conked out in the car – we were all exhausted. Jake and I went out to eat with mom and dad and left the kids back at the condo. Corey ended up playing some more wallyball and we all fell in bed at the end of the day. Grandma remarked that Reagan really knew how to talk about all sorts of things. That is the truth! When that little girl has your undivided attention, she will just go on and on and on….Gotta love it!
Thursday, March 15th – We kind of wanted to go skiing again, but kind of not, so we ended up taking it easy. We watched some march madness and saw BYU lose. The kids went in the hot tub, we played some games, and I went with mom and Reagan to go and look at a few stores around town. Of course, we had some more wallyball that evening and then to bed again.
Friday, March 16th – Check out day. We have to check out by 10:00 am, so we got to work and got out of our wonderful condo. Then it was back to a bit of reality. Our Saturday and Sunday were both packed and we were wondering where our wonderful vacation time had gone. We played hard, but we also had some low-key relaxing times and it seemed like the best of both worlds.
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