We went up to check out the Winter Park house with good friends from DC for New Years and had a blast. The kids picked up right where they left off a year ago and had a blast together. We let the dads go up early to get in some grown-up skiing (unsuccessful mission) so Genevieve and I drove up all 5 kids in one car. Somehow they all fit, and it was a relatively easy drive with no drama! The kids took a ski class together and it was a great way to get their legs under them for the first day out this season. Overall it was a great visit, including surprise fireworks that we watched from our window once they kids went to sleep (Isaac was still awake so I grabbed him to watch with the grownups, and he was THRILLED).
The next weekend, it was just our family and the kids had a blast burying themselves in the snow and jumping off snowpiles. There is definitely no shortage of snow in Winter Park!
The next weekend we had fun with Alli, Chad and Sebastian. Seb isn't old enough to ski yet, but he enjoyed hanging out in the snow... for a little while. We all had fun getting some QT with Seb - usually he is overshadowed by his older cousins.
The kids are registered in the Winter Park Barracudas program which means they go for 5 Saturdays in a row from 8:30-2:30 which is as awesome for them as it is for us. They are loving it and making amazing progress, and we get full days of grown-up skiing! On Sunday mornings we have taken them a few times to see their progress and are very impressed at how they are both doing. I'm sure they will be surpassing me soon!
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| aerial shot of the kids in ski school from the chair lift |
On the Sundays we don't ski, we either go tubing or sledding. The kids are definitely getting tougher and handling the cold well, but there are some days we would all rather be back at the WP house in pajamas in front of the fire!
Other days we head down to the WP Village on the bus to play on the playground, at the arcade, or just to ride the Cabriolet over the Village for the fun of it. I was definitely apprehensive about committing to spending so many of our weekends away, but it has really been great. The kids are loving their "ski house" and getting so much better at skiing every week!
