This was such a fun, little trip. We really wanted to ski this year and, though it wasn't really for my birthday... I suggested we go this week just so I could have a couple days off around my birthday. ;) On Wednesday (my actual birthday), I worked a little more than a half day and celebrated with my co-workers with some really amazing Magic Bars that my boss made for me. She brought an extra container for me to take some on the road. Then I headed home around 2:30 and Craig and I got on the road about 3:30. We had everything pretty much ready to go - just needed to load it up and change clothes. One of my birthday presents from Craig was this new ski bag to transport my skis in. I feel so authentic now!
Truth is: I haven't been skiing in 11 years! Craig, on the other hand, has gone a bunch of times without me. He used to ski multiple times every winter pre-kids. And in college, he had some great experiences with the Ohio State ski club. The last time I went was in 2002 when we traveled to Holiday twice, just two weeks apart. The first time was for my 21st birthday - just Craig and me - and the second time was with my whole family and some friends.
So we packed up and dropped off the dog and a few last minute things to my parents.
I've said this before and it's worth repeating: I LOVE long drives with my husband when we haven't been away in awhile. Lots of uninterupted time to talk and just enjoy the peace and quiet. Cruising through Cleveland here:
I endulged in some gossip and caught up on some favorite catalogs that had been piling up at home. You know how in the gossip mags they always list a celebrity's age somewhere in the blurb/article about them? Well we made a game of me quizzing Craig on guessing ages. He was amazing at it! Spot on or within 1-2 years on everyone! I am terrible at guessing ages. Haha!
On the way there, we were having some windshield wiper fluid issues and a little bit of slow-moving traffic in some places on account of rush hour and weather. So we ended up taking almost an hour and a half longer than expected to get there. During the week, so much of the small-ish, touristy town is closed early and as we were trying to get dinner at 10pm, there wasn't much open. We finally found a local restaurant/bar whose kitchen was still open and it was really close to where we stayed. So Craig and I shared a Hawaiian pizza in this little cooky place.
Some of the decor:
Yep. That's a Christmas tree and gifts UPSIDE DOWN on the ceiling.
A pair of skis and boots that Craig thought were far to nice to just be "decoration". And everywhere we went, there were ski movies playing on the TV's in the background. :)
We were exhausted by then and crashed pretty much immediately.
Our little room was super cozy and really easy access to one of the lifts right across the road. In the morning, we ate breakfast in the room and then walked across the street to purchase our lift tickets.
Getting boots on was interesting. I guess they get a little more pliable with frequent use? But you can imagine how stiff and tight mine felt after so long! Ouch! They became more comfortable shortly but my shins and ankles were sore for days!
All ready to go!
I was a little nervous getting back into it just because it had been so long. And Craig's at-home tutorials of how my body and legs and hips should move just didn't click with me. It's much easier to just get out there and do it and let your body get the feel for it. I was super pleased to have done some blue runs on my first time down! Skiing is entirely a confidence game, I think. At least for beginners. If you start getting nervous or overly tired, your body stops doing what you tell it to and you get sloppy. We skied for nearly eight hours on Thursday and it was awesome... save for the last hour or so when the aforementioned tiredness hit me hard and I got a little whiny. But skiing the "right" way with proper motions is sooo much easier than the nervous snow-plowing that I started with! And it was GORGEOUS out there with so little crowd during the week (no lift lines and lots of wide open space to get back in the swing of it)! I don't ever want to ski on a weekend after this! The snow was falling softly on and off the whole time we were there, but they continued making more constantly on the slopes.
Isn't this serene looking?
Consulting the trail map.
We breaked for lunch and a little R&R in the room and then headed out for round two!
Ignore the hat-matted hair - LOL.
Some of the views around us:
So pretty.
This was the edge of a run that came down along the outside of the mountain. A cool shot, I think.
Feelin' so blessed out here with my man. (Although, P.S. kissing while stopped on a downward slope and feelin' squished by gear AND trying to snap a pic without dropping my phone. Haha! Not the most glamorous looking smooch.)
Warming our tootsies in the lodge for a bit. Fingers, nose and toes caught the biggest chill in this five degree weather. Otherwise, we were warm and comfy.
In the summer time, this place opens up for adventurers with... what do you call them?... adventure courses? And they have a small roller coaster that goes down one side... and mountain biking, I think? You can see some little cabin behind me here that's part of the summer activity stuff.
Sun is setting. So beautiful! Love the feeling of flying and gliding as my skill improves a bit.
Finally, after some exhausted whining from me (an 8-hr lift ticket is a LONG time on the first day!) we headed back for a hot shower and then into the town of Elicottville to walk around and find some dinner and window shopping.
Again, many of the shops were closed so early because it was a week day.
We did find a really cool ski shop with tons of great apparel and gear for sale, so that was fun to browse.
I couldn't justify spending $50-70 on mittens for this little two-day trip, but this will definitely be on my gift wish list before our next ski outing! That's how much the good ones cost and mittens are definitely the way to go! I have nice gloves but my fingers were freezing while Craig's were fine in his mittens. And when I tried these on in the store... ahhh. So nice.
Ahhh! The adorable-ness of the kids' ski gear (combined with seeing all those little munchkins fearless and flying around faster than me on the slopes) makes me want to get the kids out there ASAP! I really think Will would love it and do very well. And I hope Sophie would too. It's hard to tell at her age, but Will's going to be into it. I just know it.
All the kids wear helmets out there, and many of the adults too!
Kid skis.
And boots.
For dinner, we ended up just coming back near our room to eat at the popular Cadillac Jacks restaurant and bar right near the lodges. Again, there was no wait on a Thursday night and the food was sooo good after all the energy we burned out there that day! One heck of a workout! P.S. - can you see the huge icicles in the bar window in the background behind Craig?
In the morning, we slept in a little and took our time getting up and ready. We loaded everything up in the Jeep and checked out of our room before purchasing just a 4-hr lift ticket this day. Since it was Friday, the resort was a little more crowded. But we just got ourselves organized enough to be able to drive around and change in the locker rooms of the lodge before driving home.
More snow making in the process.
Late morning sun at the first lift right near us.
Bless his heart... Craig is far more skilled than me but stuck with me on the blues and greens the whole time except for one run down a black at the end of this day while I went down a blue.
One brief stop for some hot cocoa mid-way through. We met some cool people from Canada that we chatted with for awhile.
The ski racks outside the lodge and the lifts leading to our favorite runs: Tannebaum and Mardi Gras. Also one called Punch Bowl which is the end part of those two is my very favorite.
Here's me coming down.
Goggles are a necessity when the snow's coming down.
We had SO MUCH FUN together on this little trip! I want to go back more often and get the kids some closer-to-home practice as soon as possible. But it was really nice to be just us.
Packing up our skis and getting ready to change out of our snow clothes.
Then off for a pretty drive home. I wish we had this much snow at home! As we got closer to home, there actually was quite a bit on the ground and falling, but I wish it would stick!
On the drive home, our trivia switched to flipping through Craig's music and having him guess the artist and song title within a few seconds. Again, he rocks at this. I suck. So I was just the music controller and he was the guesser. Very entertaining. Also very entertaining to hear my husband singing entire old-school rap songs from our high school days. LOL
As we got close to home, we called in a pizza order and swung by Vito's to pick it up before snuggling in for a movie at home. It was already passed the kids bedtime so we just planned in advance for them to be picked up Saturday morning. Perfect cap to a perfect getaway and then we had the weekend yet to be home with the kids before getting back to work.
