February 18th and 19th (North Carolina)

The next day the Holle’s were in charge of our delicious breakfast and we were up early and out the door. Didn’t want to be too tardy signing up the kids for ski school (where they spend all day with SOMEONE ELSE learning how to ski. Yes please. )

The little girls were quite enamored with Hunky Wes the ski instructor

The bad news is that it took us 2 hours to drive 3 miles.  Again, a big SUV and solid ice do not a marriage make. Nor did they marry well with me trying to reverse the directions as I am directionally impaired (but fun at parties!)  The good news is that we didn’t die. Emily and I came close to dying from a heart attack. And at one point, Melissa and Emily opted to trudge through the snow alongside the vehicle instead of being in it whilst it was backed down the mountain (or plummeting off the mountain if you are a worst-case scenario type of cat)

Mile 287- Beech Mountain Ski Resort- We made it and signed the kids up for ski school. The big Grumpy Gus that greeted us did not care a lick that we had risked life and limb to ski that day.  His exposure to the public henceforth should be limited to nil. Yes, ski school was full when we got there. But, some cold hard cash in the palm of a college-aged school registrar went a long way (thanks, Melissa S!) We were pleasantly surprised with the conditions. I haven’t skied in the east in a while, but we got really lucky! Lots of fresh snow and cold enough that it didn’t turn icy!  We found a great mountain top bar and skied in and out of there for the next two days…

Our Semi-Annual Family Picture featuring Grumpelstiltskin

We DID ski with the kids for the last part of the trip when they were nice and tired.  Lots of FUN with the girls who got to be pretty good skiers and lowercase fun with Thomas who decided that he couldn’t go on and slid down the mountain on his rear end, then cried because his gloves were full of snow, then refused to move. Good times.