winter vacation

9:00 PM

10pm on new years eve was a sad, sad time. the holidays were officially over. we had already done our 9pm nye countdown. sent our lovely guests home and put the girls to bed. it was right then that i could feel the dark clouds of post-holiday sadness start to drift over our heads.

so what did we do?

packed up and get the heck out of dodge!

we woke up at the crack of dawn on thursday and headed west! this was a true family vacation. just the six of us and we loved every minute of it! it was equal parts snow, skiing and relaxation.

this is basically how we woke up every morning. a little milk, a little cartoons and a lot of snuggling.

the little girls and i did a lot of hanging at the house.

on friday morning we stayed in, watching the skiers and keeping warm by the fire.

we ventured out after awhile to go check on those big sisters of theirs who were killing it at ski school.

found 'em...

may was not a fan of the cold this trip. that darn binky was a permanent fixture all weekend long.

(i'm happy to say it is officially gone now. more on that in another post)

that afternoon i took the littles back for naps while dan took the bigs back up the mountain for a little tubing fun!

i think it's safe to say they had a good time.

the next morning the girls took the day off ski school because the temps were suuuuper cold. we're talking negative wind chill. not worth the money to have them frozen...breakfast in the club was a much better idea.

sledding and playing in the snow all afternoon was an even better idea!

then we headed down to the village for a little family carnival they have every saturday evening. cute little game booths...the girls loved it!

we got our fair share of "wow, 4 girls?" and "you guys sure have your hands full!" comments while walking around the village with this crew!

it started snowing pretty hard for a bit while we were down there. annie didn't seem to mind the snowflakes on her long baby eyelashes!

we rounded the night out with ice cream...because even in the freezing cold, ice cream will always make this chick smile!

sunday morning was back to ski school...

the girls moved up a level and were able to take the gondola up and tackle the big mountain! dan found them while he was out taking a few runs!

(lilly is 2nd in line...pink pants)

i was so proud of them and amazed at how much they improved this trip. they both really loved skiing. i'm so happy they are able to learn when they are young unlike their mother! they are not both better skiers than me.

we enjoyed a family lunch at our favorite village mexican spot.

that afternoon dan stayed home with the littles so i could take the bigs tubing again. this is without a doubt their favorite activity. i was super excited to give it a try this year since i couldn't last year.

we timed it just right to snag cookie on our way to the gondola.

i can't begin to tell you how fun this was...we must have taken at least 10 runs in the hour we had up there. i could have easily stayed for another hour. so fast and so fun!

no afternoon is complete without hot chocolate at the club!

we took it easy on our last day. we just relaxed around the house, packed up our bags and messed with annie's hair.

that night we hit up the blue moose for some pizza and took a spin around the rink!

i don't even think she realized she did this...but lilly nailed her first spin! watching this girl smile as much as she does on the ice makes me think we should really get her some figure skates and put her in lessons.