Mt. Bachelor, how I love thee.

For President's Day weekend we stayed at Sunriver with the Billingsley crew and had a BLAST!! We used to make this trip every year but for some reason we missed the last couple of years. I don't know what we were thinking because we love this mountain and always have such a great time there. It's a great family friendly resort with plenty of easy runs for the kids. But what we found this year was that the kids have gotten so good at skiing that they don't really need the easy runs anymore. Some of us parents even had a hard time keeping up with our kids.

All weekend long we were amazed and pleasantly surprised at how much easier it is getting to take our kids skiing. It used to be an all day struggle trying to keep their mittens on their hands, their hats on their heads, their jackets zipped up, their skis un-crossed and smiles on their faces. Just as soon as we would accomplish that they would have to go to the bathroom. So we would trek to the lodge in our ski boots, strip them down, take them potty, try not to drop mittens in the toilet, put a fake smile on our faces and go outside to start all over again. We would take one run on the bunny hill, holding them up all the way down until our thigh muscles literally caught on fire (It's true! I have the burn holes in my ski pants to prove it!) then they would be hungry. So off to the lodge we would go again.

I know that this doesn't make skiing sound fun. But when you're teaching your kids to ski it's a different kind of fun. If you understand that your hard work will someday pay off, you will do it happily because when your whole family can hop on the ski lift and ski together it is all worth it. Words can't describe how much fun it is. Have you ever had an experience that you wish you could just bottle up and save? Where you're thinking, "I should record this so I can live it over and over." But you're having too much fun to get your camera out, plus a camera just can't do it justice anyways.

On our third day of skiing Jantzen (the youngest in our crew) was doing really well on skis and we felt like she was ready to branch out a little and try some runs other than Marshmallow and Dilly Dally Alley. If you don't know what those runs are like, let's just let the names speak for themselves. They are beginner runs and mom and dad were getting a little bored with them. So everyone headed out together to take a few runs on the other side of the mountain. Over there we found sunshine and beautiful views but no crowds. We were in heaven! It was so fun to ski with everyone together and listen to the kids' "Woo hoo" and "Woop woop" as they skied down.

Later that day Keaton took me to the summit (pictured below) and proceeded to "own me" all the way down. It's awesome to see him skiing so well, but it's a tough pill to swallow when I can't keep up with him. I still remember when he was three and Chris and I put him on tiny little skis and would push him back and forth between us while he put his hands on his knees.

Dang you Keaton anyway! Could you at least PRETEND to not be so good?
Anywhooo...that was our weekend and we've been talking about it ever since. We have vowed to not miss another year and if we do, then we're gonna punish ourselves with...with...with...well, I don't know. But we won't go easy on ourselves and it won't be pretty.