Skiers!

A waffle at the Hampton Inn can really make it a great trip for a little boy.

We made a trip to Hunter Mountain to spend some time in the snow and get the boys onto their skis for a bit.

Hotel breakfast is so exciting!

Using simply the level of excitement for staying in a hotel, I'd say the trip was a success.  The indoor pool put it over the top.

We drove up Friday after work, and after breakfast Saturday morning we stopped to rent skis for Mama and Dada.  The boys had all of their gear.  Although it didn't take too long we want to have our skis here for future trips just to cut out this step.  The really painful part was getting everyone geared up at the car before making our way over to the mountain.  I thought Charlie was going to just toss everything into the car and drive us straight home but thankfully he rallied and tuned out the whining and we finally made it to the mountain.

Walking in ski boots, carrying skis and poles, and keeping everyone moving forward is no easy task, but somehow we finally made it to the slopes before lunch.

Saturday's high was only 14 degrees so I wasn't so sure how it'd go, but it was sunny and beautiful and the boys lasted a lot longer than I thought.

It was nice to come in for hot chocolate and lunch, and very much felt like a treat for the boys.  We packed lots of snacks for lunch and the boys shared a pizza.

After lunch we tackled the lift and added to some length to our run down the mountain.  Hans insisted on riding with me which was not a good idea because I was not strong enough to lift him and his gear up into the seat next to me so I ended up dropping him as the lift was taking off.  The kids behind us we appalled, but Hans didn't seem to mind.  The lift attendant brought him over to the chair and hoisted him in next to me.  Thankfully that experience was enough that Hans agreed to ride the lift with Charlie the rest of the weekend.

Dada and Hans are behind us!

Sunday was a much better day after having gotten warmed up the day before.  Freddie was so confident and spent the entire day skiing.  He scarfed down his lunch in no time because he was so eager to get back out there.

The harness helped this year with Hans because he pretty much just goes straight down the hill.  Freddie takes his time down, making his turns and working around other skiers.

This weekend was so much work for Charlie and me.  It was exhausting physically and required a whole lot of patience.  Not sure where we were able to dig up that patience, but thankfully we did because it was really worth it.

We're planning on trying out a few more ski areas this season, but probably try to find things we can drive to for the day.  The crowds will most likely be pretty big for anything that close to the city, but spending the weekend near a mountain takes a lot of work and gets expensive.

Lots of work putting in a good day skiing!  Everyone slept really well on Sunday, and surprisingly going straight back to the weekly routine on Monday wasn't painful, aside from the mountain of dirty clothes.

The ride home