Christmas Eve Josie and I went up to Schweitzer to spend the day together.
We Found Mr and Mrs. Claus...Although after looking closely It was Mr. and Mr. Claus....Mrs. Claus had a mustache!! Josie said 'mommy, I don't think that was the real santa'...
Hot chocolate break
This picture is sideways, but josie labeled all the dishes for santa and his reindeer...
Santa brought landon a Big shark and Josie a Spy Kit....
Christmas morning was just frosty with a layer of fog in the valley.....
Josie and landon got 'squishy sand'..as landon calls it...
I had a couple pictures that luke had framed so he can hang it in the basement.
Josie got some new doll clothes...
The kids were spoiled by all their relatives....
We went up to Rudy and Carli's to exchange gifts...Luke got a seahawks flag.
Josie Wrote us a letter in school.
Part of Josie's spy kit was night vision goggles.....
We had a great christmas. After opening presents, we quickly said goodbye to christmas and took down all the decorations and tree and packed for a fun filled 10 day ski trip to Schweitzer! Packing for 4 people for 10 days with ski gear and just about everything else is hard...we almost brought 2 cars:) This was our cabin that we stayed in. a 2 bedroom, 1 bath bungalow. The cabin was in dover bay, just outside of Sandpoint Idaho and about a 25 minute drive from the top of schweiter. We shared it with Rudy and Carli and their 2 kids, jaxs and lila. When we arrived...there was no snow...
Josie and Lila did a 5 day ski race camp. They were bummed that they were not in the same group. Josie is 2 years older than Lila, so they split them up. The program they are in is called SARS. Schweitzer Alpine Racing School. The first day I thought that they might take the kids down the bunny hill and test their ski abilities...but first thing right out of the gate they took all the kids up the high speed quad. I stood and watched....Josie was getting on the lift with her instructor and tripped and missed getting on the chair...so I watched my little girl get up and get on the next chair with 3 other 7 year olds...NO ADULTS ON THE CHAIR AT ALL!...I walked away and started crying...I was so nervous for her to be on that thing with no adult....It was a rough morning for this mamma...
Landon was super excited to learn to ski this year....
I enrolled him in a private lesson...He had Spencer as an instructor...This is the Magic Carpet. It is for beginners to get back up the hill.
Landon High Fives the magic carpet operator every time he gets off the carpet...And He was trying to Jump going down the hill...before he knew how to turn and stop!..He is way less fearful than josie ever was...
Landon loved his lesson and is hooked on skiing now....Here he is messing around with lila on lunch break.
The girls skied from 8:45-3 every day with an hour lunch. At the end of day one, they were very tired.
This was the back seat of the truck after day 1.
It finally snowed....
Sunday was the most crowded I have ever seen the mountain...It was crazy.
Schweitzer has a 'back side' of the mountian, the snow was very slim and the lift line was over 30 minutes long. Rudy took this picture of the people waiting in line.
Monday the weather took a turn for the worst...with lows in the negatives and 40mph winds, we decided to take the girls out of camp for the day. It was too cold for anyone to be up there...
We hung out at the house for a while...walter was even with us for the week.
The girls did some crafting in their jammies....
The kids attacked Carli...The house was small and the kids had a LOT of energy....
The cabin we stayed in was on Lake Pend Oreille....
We took the kids to a place downtown Sandpoint where they mined for Gems, made sand art and there was even an area for crafting...
some of these are out of order....tuesday was still very cold...I think the high was 8 degrees... The girls went skiing at camp and carli and I stayed at the house with the boys. We drank hot drinks, and braved a walk around the lake....
Landon and Luke had made a snowman earlier in the week.
this was the free crafting area we found...
Luke happened to run into Josie's ski team on one of the runs...He took this picture...Her team name was the Diamond Divas...
One day I took Landon skiing with me. I am an O.K. skier, but teaching a 4 year old, especially when it is your son, is challenging. He wanted to go straight and fast and he was even trying to Jump....Listening to his mom was not on his agenda. As he was going down the hill, a kid fell in front of him and so landon fell and slid into the kids ski's..head first!...I didn't realize it until later, but it totally dented his helmet! Thank Goodness for helmets...that would have been a trip to the ER for sure!
We came in and warmed up. Landon made a friend named Brice. The game Spot it was a staple in between ski runs.
In Idaho you can have your kids in the bar!?...sooo landon bellied up to the bar and had a root beer with his daddy...
Wednesday, Josie had a practice ski run...I was able to go up and follow her. I watched her go through the course. It was pretty steep in places and very icy. She seemed very nervous and was going kind of slow. I thought to myself that maybe she was in over her head with this whole ski racing thing. She said it was fun, so I figured that was what was the important part.
This was another end of the day photo....these kids were wiped.
Thursday and Friday there was no camp so Carli and I got to go skiing in the morning with no kids!...It was great.
We were joking around in the bathroom and took a 'sexy' selfie photo...in all our ski gear...It was cold!
Friday I put Landon in another lesson....this time it was a group lesson. They put them in red vests and they have handles on the back...It was pretty cute...landon had a blast.
Saturday morning we saw 3 moose on our way up to the mountain...
Jaxs, watching the skiers from the lodge....
Saturday was The girls first day of the actual race program. They had their first race!...Josie was super excited...I was super nervous. I had seen the course earlier that day and it was very very steep! I think I would have been scared to run the top part of the course, but I didn't say anything to josie...
Ski Racing is a new sport to us...I didn't learn to ski until I was 17 and never did any racing of any kind. We were introduced to it by our friend Rudy, who grew up ski racing...The racers all gather at the top of the course and wait. There were 130 kids racing...
I tried to get a picture from the top of the course but it doesn't do it justice of how steep it was.
The kids line up one by one and go in one side of this hut and the race starts at the other side...
The has to be the worst Spectator sport ever...it's cold, it's cold, and it's cold....Plus, your not sure when your kid is coming down the mountain so you wait and wait and wait...
Finally we saw a little purple figure at the top of the course...and down she came....She made every gate, and gave it her all...I was so blown away with how well she did. Here is her video...They did 2 runs, the last run it was almost dark but she still did great!
Lila did her race too. Her division was 5-6 year olds. She is a speed demon on the slopes, just like her dad! She ended up taking 2nd place!
Josie's age division was 7-8 year olds. She was competing against some 8 year olds who have been doing this since they were 4. She didn't place, but still was awarded a medal.
Josie had a hard time dealing with Lila getting 2nd place and a trophy, when she only got a medal....But she is learning that sometimes you don't always win....And for her first time ski racing ever...we were super proud of her and kept telling her that over and over. Now the girls will have Race training every saturday from now until April. there are 2 more races this season, so we will see how josie improves. She can already ski faster than I can! By the end of the week, she was getting on and off the chairlift with no adults...and I was not crying:)...she learned so much more in 5 days than I think I have in my whole ski life. she even taught me how to unclick out of my ski's without using my ski poles:)
Landon spent the day of the race in the kinder camp ski program. They take your kid all day, give them 2 lessons, have lunch, do crafts and play. At the end of the day landon got 2 report cards...I was so proud of him! He got great reviews from his teacher and even rode the chair lift for the first time! I wasn't there to see him because I was watching josie's race, but I probably would have cried:)
After 10 days in a cabin with 8 humans and a dog, we were ready to come home today. We came home in a snow storm. We finally got enough snow for the kids to go sledding.
Landon took some snow to the face...but quickly brushed it off and continued on:)
We had a lot of fun and both kids learned so much, I could not be more proud of them! I have one more day of Vacation tomorrow and then I have to go back to work....
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