Family Ski Trip

The first week in March we went to Barnes and Noble down the street to see Cal Ripken Jr.  He was doing a book signing.  Cal Ripken Jr. has been one of Jake's life long heroes.  So we were pretty excited about this event.

The kids waited so patiently as Jake and I took turns in line....I think we were there for 2 hours.

Story time

Jake brought a baseball card (one of the hundreds he has) that he mailed to Cal when he was 9 years old.    Cal signed it and mailed it back to him and Jake was glad that he could tell him thanks.

One of Rachel's art pieces was selected to be on display at the local library.

Last Thursday we had quite a snow storm, which cancelled school and postponed our ski trip.

What was great about it was that our kids were just excited about it as they were when we had our first snow fall.

I must say, it was absolutely gorgeous

And I had to get out in it.

This was just last week!

It made for a spectacular morning the next day

The kids were loving it

Then off we went up to the Berkshires for our first family ski trip.  Upon arrival we wandered a little bit through the small town of Great Barrington and ultimately ended up in this Gypsy restaurant.  There we ran into some friends we knew in New York City.  We were all baffled by the coincidence of it.  It was great to catch up on the last few years.

While I was busy chatting, Jake somehow got away with ordering this giant size cinnamon roll before dinner.

We stayed in this small old one room school house, which the kids loved!

The whole family on the slopes!

Kate's first time

Don't worry...just on the bunny slope/magic carpet...we didn't take her on the lifts

She got a pretty good feel for it but quickly tired out.  I took her and Lily back to the school house (which was maybe a half mile away) for a break and some lunch.

The only picture I got of Rach...she wasn't too happy to be on the bunny slope

While Jake took Lily back for a nap, I got to ski with Tom the Bomb.  We sure had a great time.  He loved showing me how fast he could go.  He then declared that skiing was his favorite sport.  He also mentioned how he wants to race in the Olympics.

Then he discovered these, and there was no turning back.  I told him he had to keep his skis straight.  And he did that from the top of the hill.  I tried to catch up with him to tell him to slow down, but he didn't hear.  He went flying off with an epic fall.  He got right back up and did it again and again.

Jake came back and I took Kate and Lily, while he went with Rach and Tom on a few more runs.  I was proud of Kate for trying again and she mastered it!  It was fun to see her eyes light up when she got it.

We had a fantastic time!  Tommy lasted the whole day from 8:30-4 without a single break.  Next year we hope the weather doesn't ruin our plans for half price tickets on weekdays.  Skiing is expensive!

When we got back home it was a whopping 47 degrees and the kids thought it felt like summer :)

Once there was a snowman...(we built on January 24)...in the sun he melted small small small (nearly 3 month later)  We had a big breakthrough and even reached up to 60 degrees this week!!  Hurray!