​Dionne and I had such a blast skiing together today. I gave Dionne a tour of all 5 peaks at Breckenridge! The powder on Peak 7 and Peak 6 were amazing today. I introduced her to Bliss and she went down that run twice with me. We got a little bit of sun coming down Bliss and some on Peak 9. Most of the day was cloudy but we were plenty warm. I really enjoyed being on the mountain with one of my best friends and hope we can continue doing this every season!

​I let Madeline ditch school today so that we could head up to the mountains to ski together! My legs were a little tired from working out hard this week, so I was happy to go Madeline’s pace for the day (which isn’t all that slow it turns out). We parked at the south gondola garage so that we could charge the Tesla while we skied. It ended up only costing $7 to charge for 5 hours which was awesome. We had a great time skiing all of our favorite runs while trying to avoid the crowds. I took Madeline on 4 of the 5 peaks today. We started on Peak 7 and made our way to Peak 6 to ski Bliss a few times. Then we headed back to Peak 7 to eat lunch before making our way to Peak 8 and Peak 9. We skipped skiing the blacks off Peak 10 since the weather was starting to turn colder. We hit all of the fun little kid zones in the tree sections. Madeline could’ve skied those all day and been happy! 

​I took the girls skiing up to Breckenridge during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Emma wasn’t able to come as she is preparing for an indoor track meet at UW. For me it was a bit overwhelming since I haven't really skied Breckenridge and so it's always hard to plan when you don't know what to expect. Luckily, I planned well, and we all had a great time! The drive early in the morning getting past Woodland Park was kind of a mess but the Tesla did quite well. We decided to park at the north gondola parking lot and take the gondola up to Peak 7 since I knew Peak 9 would be a mass of people during the holiday. Although the runs off of Peak 7 were supposed to be groomed, it must have snowed early that morning because nothing, and I mean nothing, was groomed at all. I was a little worried as Madeline has only ever skied on groomed runs. We took it one run at a time and went slow and she did really well. We did several of those runs before hopping on the lift to ski Peak 6 later that morning. When we got to the top of Peak 6 it was windy and the only run that was open that wasn’t a black was Bliss. From the top it did not look like a blue at all, but I knew we were already committed so I just told Madeline to follow my turns around the powdery moguls. Madeline made it down that first steep section just fine and had fun doing it. She said that she wanted to do that run again. After lunch we did it two more times. It wasn’t long after that run that we needed to rest at the Pioneer Lodge for Madeline. Abby did two more runs by herself and then we headed down to the bottom and called it a day!

​By the third day of skiing, we were all getting a little tired but the sun for the first few runs was a nice way to start the day. Then the clouds came in and the sun went away, and we immediately felt the coldness. Still, there was fresh powder on the runs this morning which was amazing. We ventured all over the place but stuck to most of the same stuff we had been skiing the past two days. I headed back over to the East River Express with the older kids and did the black mogul Resurrection run with Emma and then the Black Eagle mogul run with Abby, Andrew, and Emma. At one point we thought we saw Madeline by herself going down a run when we were on the lift, so we waited at the top for Mike and when we didn’t see them Andrew and I flew down Lower Treasury to make sure she wasn’t at the bottom by herself. Turns out that we had just missed seeing Mike because Madeline was so fast. That Lower Treasury run was amazing and the fastest I skied all day. Even on tired legs I skied more today than I did the past two days. That was probably because Emma wanted to go back to the top after getting to the bottom with Madeline. Abby had lost her ski pass, so she and Mike were getting another copy. Andrew was tired so he took Madeline back to the condo and Emma and I went back up Silver Queen to the top and skied the Paradise bowl again. After doing that once we realized that we were also tired, so we headed back to the bottom and called it a day. We skied 14 runs with over 17 miles and 16,772 vertical ft. 

​Today was another great day on the slopes with the family. It was a tad warmer than yesterday but overall, the weather was about the same with the cold temps but nice sun in the sky. We did mostly the Paradise Bowl again today but went over to do some harder runs off the East River Lift later in the morning. Andrew, Emma, and I did a black run called Double Top Glades. The tree section is definitely my favorite before it drops off into some very steep black moguls. I made it down just fine, but it wasn’t always the prettiest watching me get through the deep mogul section. I definitely need work on learning how to navigate those better. Then we made it back up to the top and met up with Mike, Abby and Madeline who skied Lower Treasury. We all headed back to the Paradise Lodge for some lunch. We have figured out the best things to bring for lunch and it was nice that there were three of us with backpacks to share the load in carrying all the food. The favorites were the chicken salad sandwiches on croissants, snap pea crisps, clementines, and of course, the Oreos and other little treats we brought. After fueling up we did more of the Paradise Bowl before heading back down and doing one run off the Red Lady Express lift. We ended up skiing 10 runs with 13.5 miles and over 13,000 vertical ft. 

Push up challenge for Emma's running club

Just because Andrew was crazy...he got back in the hot tub really fast

​We were a little delayed getting on the slopes this morning but that was ok. Andrew needed to demo some skis and we realized that we had brought one correct boot and one incorrect boot for Madeline, so we rented boots for her. The sun was shining on the slopes at Crested Butte which was good because the temperature read 7F with a real feel of -5F. With the sun we were perfectly warm riding up Silver Queen Express lift. One of the coolest things about this lift is the view of Mt. Crested Butte right before you get off the lift. Madeline was more nervous than other years to go skiing but she did really well on that first sketchy cat trail like run to get to the Paradise bowl. We spent a good deal of the day going down the Paradise Bowl. The snow tended to be the best on this section of the mountain because we were as high up as you could go. None of the black back bowls were open so we all stuck together and skied with Madeline the entire day. Before lunch we ventured over to East River Express lift to try some of the blues over there, but it was kind of icy getting down there, so we took the lift and then headed straight back over to the Paradise lodge to eat lunch. After lunch we just hit the Paradise Bowl several more times before heading down to the bottom to try some of those runs. One of my favorite things Madeline said after finishing another run down the Paradise Bowl and the Lower Forest Queen run was, “We crushed it.” She truly did crush all of those runs and had no problems on the steeper sections. Crested Butte was practically empty today and we never had to wait in any lift lines longer than 1 minute except for when we went all the way to the bottom and had to wait in the Red Lady Express lift with all the inexperienced skiers. It was kind of a mistake to try and get on that lift, but Madeline did enjoy skiing some of those green runs, so we went up once and then called it a day. We ended up skiing a total of 11 runs with over 14 miles and 13, 776 vertical ft. 

Today was our last ski day and we lucked out with good weather again today. It was already 20F when we got on the lift and although the sun was hiding behind the clouds, it peaked its way out after our first run down the Paradise Bowl. We did the Paradise Bowl a few times with Abby and Madeline while the boys took Emma down the black Crystal run. Then we met up with Emma so that the boys could hike up to the top of Headwall and ski down that double black run. They had so much fun hiking up and being able to put their skis on their awesome backpacks and then killing it down the powder steepness. The rest of us skied down Paradise to Yellow Brick Road and down the blue Upper Park run to Lower Twister. Then we took the Silver Queen Express back to the top and skied all the way down to the Paradise hut for lunch. After lunch we ran into some friends (some of the Richin kids) and showed them the runs on the East River Express lift. The oldest two kids (Lizzy and Andrew) went with the Andrew, Peter, Emma, and I down Double Top Glades while the youngest (Sarah) hung with Abby, Madeline, and Mike. We spent an hour over there before heading back to the Paradise lift where we did another run before heading back down the mountain. Later that night we had some the Borg family over to the cabin for some dessert and games. It was a fun way to end our ski trip at Crested Butte.

​Today was an epic day on the mountain with the kids. Everyone except the boys left around 9:30am and walked over to the Red Lady Express lift. We decided to start the day with an easy green run. We headed down Peanut to Lower Twister. After that almost too easy run headed up the Silver Queen Express lift and took the catwalk to the Paradise Bowl. The boys met us there and we skied down the Paradise Bowl to Lower Forest Queen to the bottom of the Paradise Express lift. The snow was awesome, so we decided to do that run a couple of more times before heading over to the East River Express Lift. Once at the top of the East River Express lift the boys and Emma went down the black Double Top Glades tree and mogul run while Mike, Abby, Madeline, and I went down the ungroomed blue Black Eagle run. We didn’t realize the run wasn’t groomed until we came to some moguls. It wasn’t the most ideal run for Madeline, but I just had her follow my line through the moguls and she got down without any problems. When I asked her what she thought of moguls she said she liked them. I can’t believe this little girl doesn’t have any fear. After meeting the boys and Emma back up at the top, I separated from Mike and the younger girls and went off with the boys and Emma down the Double Top Glades run. I loved the first part of this run which was a ton of powder through the trees. Once out of the trees we dropped right onto the main part of the run which was covered with rather deep moguls. I am not the best at deep moguls, but I did my best to get down. Then it was back in some trees to the bottom. This was probably my favorite run so far this season. We all met up and headed back to the Paradise hut for lunch. After lunch we skied down the Paradise bowl runs for the rest of the afternoon and then headed down the mountain to the Painter Boy lift and did a blue on the other side and then headed to the bottom to end our fun day. Back at the house we snacked, relaxed, ate dinner, watched a movie, and started a 1000-piece puzzle together. It was a fabulous day!

We woke up to amazingly cold temperatures and no water running in the house. Apparently, the pipes froze overnight and the gasket on the water meter outside burst. After calling the emergency maintenance line, we just chilled in our warm cabin and waited for the repair men to come out and fix it. Luckily, it was a rather easy fix and water was soon running in the cabin. Hallelujah! We ate lunch at the cabin and then got our ski gear on to hit a few afternoon runs. The weather had finally warmed up to the teens and the sun was shining so we knew we would be ok. The walk down to the lifts wasn’t that long and we all managed just fine. We headed up on the Red Lady Express Lift and headed toward the Lower Ruby Chief run. We went up the Paradise Lift and skied down the Paradise Bowl. The snow was a bit chopped up already, but Madeline seemed to manage just fine over the “bumps” on the once groomed runs. We didn’t love that run so we decided to skip the Paradise Express Lift and skied down the Middle and Lower Gallowich run to the East River Express lift. The snow was much better on this side of the mountain, so we decided to head up the lift and do the Lower Treasury run twice. Then we made our way back to the Paradise Bowl and took the lift to the top so we could head down Houston’s access to the bottom of the resort. It was a rather short day on the slopes, but we still had some fun and spent time getting reacquainted with this ski resort. Back at the cabin we all spent time outside the cabin playing in the snow. Andrew carved out a nice little sled hill and we used cardboard boxes we already had to make little sleds. It’s amazing how the kids can have just as much fun sledding and playing in the snow as they do skiing on the mountain. 
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​After staying up way past midnight we all slept in and then packed for our Crested Butte ski trip. We divided all the stuff between two cars again and headed out in the snow for our long drive. The road conditions weren’t that great, but we all made it to the cabin in Crested Butte without too many problems. As we entered the town of Crested Butte the sun was still shining but the temperature was dropping fast. It’s a good thing we could pull both cars into the garage to unpack all our gear. It’s nice to have big kids to help with that part. The cabin we are staying at this year is quite spacious and really cool inside. Since we bought all our food ahead of time we threw in a quick dinner and enjoyed relaxing and being together. 

​Today we decided that since the Northwoods run was so much fun the day before, we wanted to go down that one again. While Andrew and Peter took Emma on a black tree run, Mike and I took Abby and Madeline down Northwoods. Madeline did an even better job than she did the day before. It was nice to do that run first since there weren’t a ton of people on the mountain yet. The second time I took Madeline down the catwalk and flapjack while Mike and Abby went down Northwoods. Madeline flew down the entire run, and I clocked her going 24mph. I had to work to keep up with her. We all met at the bottom at the Northwoods Express Lift. The third time I went down Northwoods by myself while Mike, Abby and Madeline went down the catwalk and Flapjack. I had so much fun flying down that run. Mike was so amazed at how fast Madeline was skiing today. The line was so long at Northwoods Express Lift, so we decided to wait for the older kids at the top. We headed over to grab a quick snack at the Buffalo hut. Once we met up with the older kids, we headed down the catwalk and did a run down the Sourdough Lift before heading to lunch. After lunch we knew the lines at Northwoods Express lift would be crazy, so we only did flapjack to the bottom once and then we headed over to do the Swingsville and the Cappuccino run. Cappuccino was a little steeper and icy in some sections but overall wasn’t a bad run. We did Hunky Dory twice and then headed back down the gondola. 

​Day 2 of skiing at Vail was just as much fun as the first day. The weather was beautiful with sunny skies and warmer temps. We were surprised that the groomed runs were still soft and not crunchy or icy. Instead of taking Madeline down the Timberline catwalk for the first run we decided to head down the steeper blue Northwoods run with her. At first Madeline looked down the run and wasn’t too sure she wanted to do it but I told her I would lead and so she followed me. She destroyed that run and went down it with amazing control. Then we went and did more of the same runs we did the day before. We ate lunch at Two Elk Lodge again, and then skied for just a little bit longer since the lines were crazy long at the Northwoods Express lift and the Mountain Top Express Lift after lunch. With only so many lifts open we ended up waiting at least 20 min every time we wanted to go up those lifts. Andrew, Peter, and Emma decided they wanted to ski down the entire mountain to the bottom instead of taking the gondola, so we parted ways with them. Abby wasn’t quite done yet, so I went down Hunky Dory with her twice while Mike took Madeline back down the mountain on the gondola. 
 

​Everyone was really excited about our ski trip to Vail this year. Even though the mountains didn’t have as much snow this time of year as in other years, we just wanted to ski together and have fun. We ended up driving two cars this year since we knew it would be too hard to fit the ski stuff, suitcases, and food for seven people into one car. It turned out well to give the kids more room to spread out between the two cars. We spent the first real day unpacking the cars and settling into our little condo right in the middle of Vail Village next to Gondola One. Our first day of skiing was a ton of fun and we discovered that the snow wasn’t all that bad. Only the front side of the mountain was open, so we headed over the Timberline Catwalk and did a few runs off the Sourdough Express lift. It only took Madeline one run plus the catwalk to remember how to ski. After doing a fair amount of runs in the morning, we headed to Two Elk Lodge to make our 11:45 reservation to eat inside. It’s a good thing we are all vaccinated because only vaccinated people are allowed to eat inside the lodge this season. Throughout the day we skied Boomer, Tin Pants, Flap Jack, Swingsville and Hunky Dory and we all stayed together the entire time which was a ton of fun. By 3:00pm Madeline was finished, so Mike and I took her back down on the gondola while the older kids did a few more runs. 

It was a lot nicer to sleep in and then not be so rushed in the morning to get to the gondola. We parked at the Solaris parking garage again and headed to the lift line. Once again, the line was extremely long. We even got there when the gondola opened but it didn’t matter, there were just so many people at Vail who wanted to ski. It took us about 20+ minutes to get through the line again but this time at the top we all stuck together and decided to ski together for the day. We headed up the Wildwood Express Lift and decided to all ski down Hunky Dory together. Madeline did great on this true blue run and even did the harder pitch towards the bottom. From there we headed up the Mountaintop Express Lift and went a short way down the Timberline Catwalk before attempting a new run. Peter went down the black Northstar run while Abby went down the blue Northwoods run. Emma apparently went all the way down the catwalk, so Mike went after her while I attempted to do Northwoods with Madeline. There were two steep pitches that she did fairly well getting down. The second steep pitch she fell over and I had a little trouble getting her upright and started back up again but really, she did awesome on that hard blue run. I was super impressed with her mad skills. We met Mike, Emma, and Abby at the bottom. Peter was already in line to head back up to the top, so we told him to ski it again and meet us on the Highline Express Lift but then later just had him meet us at the top for lunch. We got to the top right when our reservation to eat inside was ending. We didn’t anticipate how long it would take to get through the lift lines. Fortunately, I had cute Madeline with me and when I explained that we missed our reservation and if they could just find us a table for even 5 minutes, he took pity on me and he found a table for all of us for a new reservation. It was glorious to sit inside to eat lunch and relax for a little bit. After lunch, we headed down Boomer and then headed down Flapjack all the way to the bottom. We made our way over to do Swingsville a few times and then Madeline was kind of done so Mike took her and Abby and headed down on the gondola while I went with Peter and Emma and skied down Riva Ridge. Riva Ridge was a fun run, but definitely hard in some spots. We went through some more groomed steep sections and then some deep mogul runs. It was a blast and a great way to finish off our amazing ski weekend at Vail. 

​We got up super early to get everyone ready and out the door by 5:30am. We did pretty well and actually left the house at 5:50am. Since I-70 was a mess we choose to drive the back way through Breckenridge. The roads and weather were actually pretty good until we got closer to the pass before Breckenridge. The roads became snowier and everyone seemed to be very cautious, so it took longer to get to Vail. We got to the parking garage around 9:30am only to find that it was full. Luckily, the Solaris parking garage was open and only $10 more per day so we opted to park there. We must have gotten there at the perfect time because we were able to park close to the front of the garage. We got on our gear and headed to the line at Gondola One. The line was extremely long, and it probably took us at least 20-30 minutes to get on the gondola. At the top, Mike took Abby and Madeline while I headed off with Peter and Emma to see if we could ski some of Blue Sky Basin on the backside of the mountain. By the time we got all the way to Poppyfields, I could tell this time would be very different than our last ski trip. There was so much snow it was almost harder to ski. I felt very uneasy skiing on so much powder with so many people that didn’t seem to know how to ski on powder. We opted to ski all the way down to the Tea Cup Express but were surprised to see the line was uncharacteristically long. We actually took off our skis and walked around to get in line since the “official” line before the bottleneck wasn’t moving. It was kind of a nightmare but after a few minutes of waiting in that we heard lots of cheering and massive amounts of people in line left to head over to the Skyline Express Lift because apparently Blue Sky Basin was opening up. It was marvelous to not have to wait so long to get on the lift. We headed back up to the top and then skied down Sourdough to try and find Mike and the girls. After getting in touch with them we realized that we could ski all the way down Flapjack and up the Highline Express lift and then meet them at the top for lunch. Apparently, Madeline and Abby had been having a great time skiing on the front side of the mountain. Madeline didn’t seem to have any trouble with more snow on the runs and at one point she fell and before she got up, she said to Mike, “I think I broke my legs.” She was ok and didn’t even cry but it was funny what came out of her mouth. We all met at Two Elks Lodge and had to eat outside because we missed making an inside reservation. We all skied together the rest of the afternoon and had a great time. We ended our day skiing down Swingsville a few times. Peter and Emma took Riva Ridge down the mountain for their last run and Mike and I took Abby and Madeline down the gondola. However, Abby got separated from us and when we got to the top of the gondola steps, she wasn’t there. We headed down the gondola thinking she had already left but when we got to the bottom she wasn’t there. Mike headed back up the gondola and found her at the top waiting. The rest of us headed to the car and started to pack up our ski gear. Then we headed to our hotel for the night and got settled, ate dinner, and watched Ponyo together. 

​On our last day of skiing at Vail, Mike went with the older two down Poppyfields to ski Blue Sky Basin. The kids took him on Poppyfields East and West and he loved it. They spent most of their time skiing Grand Review and The Star runs off of Pete’s Express. Apparently, the snow wasn’t as good as the day before. I took Madeline and Abby and we skied down Boomer a few times before taking Flapjack all the way to Northwoods Express Lift. At the top Madeline was a little cold and hungry so we stopped at Buffalo’s Henry’s Hut to use the restroom, warm up and have a quick snack. Then we decided to head down Swingsville. The first half of the run Madeline did well but then her legs started getting tired and she fell. She was ok but I could tell she was a little shaken up. I kept a close eye on her the last steep pitch. After I made it to the bottom, I looked behind me to see where she was, and she had fallen again. I took off my skis and jogged in my boots up to her. She started crying because her leg got twisted and she was just tired. She cried for most of the wait in line to get on the chairlift and most of the ride on the Mountain Top Express Lift. After some soothing songs her spirits were lifted, and she made it down the Timberline Catwalk without any problems. She was so excited for lunch and we took off her boots so she could relax. After lunch I headed off with Peter and Emma while Mike, Abby and Madeline headed down the mountain back to the condo. Peter, Emma and I headed to Blue Sky Basin and skied down Cloud 9 which was about the same as yesterday. We went down Grand Review again but it was much too icy so we decided to head on some of the blacks where there would be more powder. We did Hornsilver first and that was a pretty good run with plenty of powder and lots of moguls. Then we decided to try Resolution. We learned about this run with Andrew the last time we were at Vail. This is probably one of my favorite black runs because it is a good mix of powdery moguls at the top and a fun powdery run at the bottom. By this point, our legs were pretty tired, so we decided to head down to Tea Cup Express and head back to Two Elks Lodge and head down the front side of the mountain back to the condo. We took Flapjack all the way down, then headed up Northwoods Express and then took Riva Ridge all the way to the bottom. It was another great day of skiing. We walked the 5-7 min walk back to our condo and just relaxed, snacked on cheese and crackers and vegged in front of the TV. Mike and I headed out a little later to eat dinner at the French restaurant right next door. The food was beyond delicious and it was nice to just spend the last night on being able to hang out together. 

​This morning I got to go ski with Peter and Emma at Blue Sky Basin while Mike took Madeline and Abby to ski the easier stuff. After getting up to Two Elks Lodge we headed down Poppyfields West to the bottom of the Skyline Express Lift. We were so excited to head up to Blue Sky Basin but realized that the lift didn’t open until 10am so we headed up Tea Cup Express back to the top and skied down Poppyfields West again and then took Orient Express so we could ski Poppyfields East. Poppyfields was such a fun back bowl run and I’m glad we got to ski it three times while we were able to get first tracks. We then headed up Skyline Express Lift and took in the amazing views at the top before heading down Cloud 9 to the bottom of Pete’s Express Lift. We did Grand Review several times since it was groomed, and the snow was pretty good. I was able to get some great video and photos of Peter and Emma bailing down this run. Those two are great skiers. Then we went back up the mountain via Orient Express and met Mike and the younger girls at Two Elk Lodge to eat lunch. We made a reservation to eat inside and that made lunchtime so much more enjoyable. Before lunch Mike, Madeline and Abby skied all over the front of the eastern side of the mountain. After lunch we decided to all ski together. We skied Flapjack all the way down to the Northwoods Express Lift. We loved watching Madeline crush every run with her amazing turning skills and her cuteness when she went through the wooden signs. She took every turn like a pro, even with some turns looking more like parallel turns. Then we decided to take her on an official blue, even though some of the other green runs she did all had steeper blue pitches at the end of the runs. We took her on Ramshorn which had an easy start and then got progressively harder. There was one steep pitch that I was so nervous for her going down so I popped in front of her so that she would follow my wide turns. She made it down rather well and didn’t freak out or stop at all. When I looked back up that section looked more like a black than a blue. We finished off the day with our last run down Swingsville. 

​We spent our first day all skiing together in the morning. We took Madeline with us up Gondola One to the middle of the mountain. We decided to head up Wildwood Express to take Madeline on The Meadows run which was the easiest green run. Peter and Emma went down Hunky Dory twice in the time it took us to go down the long Meadow run. Madeline did really well on her very first real green run. The Meadow had too many flatter sections, so we opted to head up the Mountaintop Express Lift to the left side of the mountain to try all the green runs over there. Peter and Emma headed over to Game Creek to do some harder runs while the rest of us took the Timberline Catwalk all the way over to the Sourdough Express lift and spent the rest of our morning taking Madeline down the Boomer and Sourdough runs. Madeline amazed us with her awesome turning and fearless nature. After a few runs we headed up to Two Elk Lodge to eat lunch. We found a table outside right away and waited for Emma and Peter to show up. It was a bit cold, but we managed. After lunch Abby and I took Madeline down some more fun green runs and Mike went with Emma and Peter over to Blue Sky Basin. Madeline ended up loving the Flapjack run and she crushed it, even the steeper sections. We had initially planned on just heading down the mountain, but when we realized that we got headed down an annoying catwalk, we decided to head back up the mountain on the Highland Express and take Flapjack down again, head up Northwoods Express, down the Swingsville run and then ride Gondola One back down to the bottom. We had several people ask how old Madeline was because people just couldn’t believe that she was only 4 years old. She crushed every run, was happy doing it, took all her turns like a champ, and hardly ever fell. It was quite amazing to watch.