Weekend Recap: we went skiing!

The highlight of my weekend was that I got to go skiing for the first time this season.  Friday morning we woke up to a bunch of snow.  It was weird because we got snow at our house, but on my way driving into work, the sketchy roads seemed to stop halfway there.  Apparently down by my work, they only got rain.  It did turn to ice so the parking lot was an ice rink.  But you can tell that my car here came from a different place..and this was at the END of the workday.


Saturday I hung out with the kiddos most of the day, and Jason was out.  My Dad came over to help & play, and by late afternoon I managed to get out for some groceries.  Saturday night I made two big lasagnas - one to freeze and one to bake (which we made Sunday night).  I also chopped up some veggies for an Indian-spiced crockpot meal, also for sometime this week.  I was trying to get some real food cooked up since I don't have extra time on weeknights.

Here is our skiing adventure!  Driving over to the trails at Elm Creek was beautiful:

We skied up to the trailhead to renew our passes & then hit the trails.  When we went in to grab passes, I actually ran into my cousin Jason & his family, so that was a fun surprise!

There was even enough snow on some of the non-snow-making trails, which is a special treat these days!  I got excited and really wanted to try the Lake loop, which apparently was a lot longer than Jason wanted to do, but he came with me anyway.  We also took a wrong turn towards the end and did a little 'bonus' loop that set his athleticism as a relatively-new skate skiier over the edge.  I think he had fun the first half?  We were out for about 10 minutes to get to the trailhead, and then another hour.  It was a beautiful day to be outside.

Trail conditions were pretty great.  The snow-making sections had much better coverage, but the Lake and Northern Lights were really good too - primarily leaves on the trails & only some sticks - no really dirty patches.  There were a few icy/crusty snow patches that made it easy for a ski to slip sideways, but not really any spots of pure ice.  I hope we get more snow so I can do the outer loop again!


Max gets to try skiing this year too.  We tested out the fit of his first skis that attach right onto his boots.


After we got home from skiing on Sunday we had more of my mom's sauerkraut-potato soup (yum!).  Plus some assorted dried fruits (mango,apricot,apple,pear,etc), strawberries, and a Christmas cookie or two (or three?).  And the Max got to open his Christmas presents from my parents.  This small little tractor was a BIG hit, as you can see from his face.


And because I didn't have a picture of Eleanor, here she is sleeping like an angel, half-swaddled.  Her crib is finally up for her to sleep in now too!