Ski bunnies

The time finally came for our family ski trip.  We rented our friends' cute house in Huntsville and stayed for 5 days, inviting different family and friends to come up every night and hang out/ski with us.  We had grandparents, cousins and neighbors stay, with plenty of room in a house that sleeps 20.  It was a blast.  We played Rummikub to our hearts' content, made yummy food, watched movies, played hide-and-go-seek, took lovely long baths in the huge tub ... and skied, skied, skied!

The first day, we skied with Grandpa Mayfield at Wolf Mountain, which looked like this the whole day...

It was very cool and weird at the same time.  Totally foggy with a light rain, but not very cold so we were ok.  Wet, but good.  There were times that it was so cloudy/foggy that we couldn't see the next chair on the way up the lift, and then the cloud would drift and we could see the run clearly.  The girls took a lesson and then skied with us later.  Couldn't believe how well everyone was doing compared to a couple of weeks ago.

By the end of the day, Elle was soaked and ready to be done.  Overall success, though.

The next day was Powder Mountain with the Blakes.  How I didn't take more pictures that day escapes me! But it was a beautiful, clear day and we had a blast.

Christian and his baby snowman.

Beautiful day!  By the end, everyone was zipping down the mountain.  In fact, at one point, Elle took off downhill and Mike realized that he couldn't actually catch her.  She lost her fear of speed and just went for it.  One of the ski patrol saw her zipping down the hill and said to Mike later, "I've only seen one other little girl ski like that, and her name is Lindsey Vonn."  I think that's a bit dramatic, but we'll have to keep an eye on her anyway.

The last day, the Olsens came up and we all skied at Wolf Mountain again.  Beautiful day, faster ski times, a couple of decent crashes for Mike and me (I ran smack into a tree -- embarrassing!) ....  The whole trip was fantastic.  Skiing is a sport that we all enjoy, and are now able to do together.  We bought seasons passes and will definitely be going together more often. :)

Recently with Elle ...

We've had a couple of cousin sleepovers recently, when this little one's mom & dad were out of town.  Love it.  A little photo booth on the computer ....

... a little posing as something sassy ...

... and a little reading books to each other.  Love these 2.

Elle loves this hat and wears it a lot.  Reminds me of Edith from Despicable Me.

We've done a little skating lately with granny walkers.

This is Emily and her new husband.  Emily used to live a few doors down from us and would babysit our kids fairly often.  Even after she went to college, she would babysit for us when Mike & I went on vacation.  The kids love her.  Love, love her.  (How beautiful is this picture??)

When I told Elle that we were going to Emily's wedding the next day, this was her reaction .... for about an hour.  No kidding.

She was so sad that Emily couldn't babysit them anymore.  We sent the picture to Emily's dad, who responded that he was crying, too.  haha  He wrote back to Elle, "Just think ... someday, you will be babysitting Emily's kids!"  That made her smile.

Throwback to earlier in the fall when Elle had a daddy/daughter date to see the Utah football game.

It looks like she's having a good time, but she started texting me from Mike's phone that she was bored and wanted me to come pick her up.  She only made it to half-time.  Poor girl.  Poor daddy.

Poor girl was sick with strep this week.  We've had a couple of good stay-at-home days.

After her bath, she was combing her hair.  After a number of minutes, she asked me to help her.  I parted it, and she said, "THERE'S my part! I've been looking for it everywhere!"

By today, she felt well enough to run errands with me which meant that she made my Costco bill higher than normal.  She just had to have this coat.  I was easily convinced ... :)