ski trip!

We returned yesterday after a 3-night trip to Loon Mt. in New Hampshire with our friends the Smiths.  We rented a big condo and had all sorts of chaotic fun trying to corral, cajole, gear up, transport, encourage, console, feed, nap and otherwise manage 5 children.  With 4 adults that might not seem like a big task, but it is a well-known phenomenon that when children unite, their power is not additive, but multiplicative.  We did all sorts of fun things...swimming, sledding, skiing (of course), rides on the on-site steam locomotive, a magic show, homemade donuts, games, ice skating, and lots of hanging out and eating.  Jackie and Spencer (Smith kids) made great progress with the help of lessons, the grownups got some skiing in (aside from me; Asher and Tessa and I hung out and had our own fun), and in the mornings Owen took Reuel out on the slopes and he had a blast!!  I am so disappointed that we got NO pictures of Owen skiing...but Reuel was of course completely busy keeping both of them in one piece and even when I was watching I had two little ones with me in about 30 degrees with wind and pictures weren't going to happen.  Ah well!  I did get a little video of sledding, kind of boring, but better than nothing?  Owen loved the speed, and Reuel got a workout dragging him up the hill over and over and over...and over.

http://vimeo.com/9555935

The skiing...there is not much more adorable than a 2 year old on skis, I've decided.  I was sure Owen would get scared and resist Reuel's whole plan to take him skiing, but he surprised me!  He was really excited about it and did a great job.  Of course, to say he skiied is a bit of an overstatement...between artificially clamping the tips of his skis together, controlling his speed with a leash and having to stop frequently to point him the right way down the mountain, they were on the 1 run/hour plan (well, not that bad).  Reuel said the hard part was as the adult, having to be really alert all the time because if Owen fell Reuel had 1 second flat to stop to avoid plowing him over.  But I guess they did OK!  Owen would demand hot chocolate after the first run each day, and then he'd be OK with doing several in a row.  The 2nd morning Reuel suggested taking the chair lift (rather than a carpet tow) and doing a longer run.  Owen said no to that.  They went and had hot chocolate and sat right by the window.  Owen watched the lift going while he sipped and then said, 'I want to ride that chair.'  He loved it!!  I saw him coming down after that first ride (I didn't realize it was his first ride) and went and collected him to take him inside, and he threw a fit insisting he wanted to go in the 'high chairs' again!!  Reuel said he dangled his feet and said, 'Look Daddy my skis are in the air!'  He got a high 5 from a ski instructor while on the bunny hill and Reuel thought he was probably the littlest guy out there ;)  Not that we were trying to push him to be some overachiever, but Reuel just knew he would love it, and he did!  Asher had a blast watching all the kids running around.  I also took him swimming and he did his happy scream the whole time.  He got lots of attention at the pool...who can resist all that chub.  I wondered if I could have just let him go and he would have floated...

May I recommend taking a potty seat with you on road trips with tiny potty-trained preschoolers?  On the way home we had to stop at some pretty shady dives as Owen seemed to have a case of the runs that lasted only for the duration of our car trip :P  I was never ever so glad to have packed an item that I questioned bringing and decided last-minute to throw in.  Lifesaver!!!

I nearly forgot to mention that when we first pulled into town our condo was still being cleaned, so we headed to the sled hill.  As Reuel was pulling Owen's snowpants on, the zipper completely broke and they were 100% unusable.  What timing!!  They've been working great all winter.  Well, the little town center is full of gear shops so we headed out to see if we could find something for Owen.  We were 'forced' to buy the most adorable ski suit and I was secretly so pleased his pants had broken because he looked just adorable in this bright green getup.  He thought he was the cat's meow, and when I was trying to decide between green and red at the store, Owen decided for me as he would not even consider putting on the red.  He wanted green!  It was really easy to spot him on the mountain!

A couple pix at the condo...

Well, this is brief but Owen is not liking the attempted return to napping after the trip (where napping was not going to happen with no crib, and lots of other kids around).  So he's squealing, shrieking and destroying anything he can reach.  I'd better go intervene...