The Little Holt's: Ski trip 2012

Never a dull moment...
We were worried about driving all the way to Boone, NC to enjoy some skiing but then to possibly be disappointed by finding grass patches on the mountain. We were partially correct with our worries.
Thursday, we packed up the kids and parents (entire Barfield family) into 2 van/cars and began our long drive to the mountains. It has been 4 years since we had made this trip and we weren't going to let a little thing like- no snow- mess up our ski trip.
(That is the problem with us being in Florida and trying to plan a weekend trip to the mountains for some much needed skiing (quick weekend trips = Boone, NC). Sometimes it is a hit or miss on what you will find. We love Sugar Mountain but sometimes that area doesn't get as much snow as other parts of the North.)
Thursday afternoon we began driving to Atlanta where we made a stop for the night. With children, we have learned to break up the trip for easier traveling... we hear a few less "are we there yet??" Can you tell who I was sitting by during our road trip??

Ms. Flexible holding tight to a gummy worm

She can't figure out what to do with it! Don't worry... I was close by and only allowed her to taste it.

Nana needed a little extra loving!

Then we made a quick stop in Montgomery to catch up with Chad and Steph and then back on the road to ATL.
The kids love hotel rooms. I am not sure if it this is a universal thing for kids but mine hear hotel room and they start jumping for joy!
The first thing Ian needed to do once we got in the room was to get some loving from Isabelle. She is good at dishing out the love!

Then Izzy tried out her new bed for the night...

Just kidding!! We made her a pallet on the floor and she slept like a champ. Ms. Thing likes her beauty rest!
(Don't worry, the boys really are on the trip with us. They are just harder to pin down for pictures. Ants in their pants!)
Friday morning we were back on the road headed for Boone. I have been experiencing some lovely car sickness the last few long trips we have taken so I was so ready to get out of the car by the time we hit the mountain roads.
We arrived Friday afternoon to the hotel and learned that the pool was out of order during our stay. This might not seem like a big deal to most but hotels and pools go hand in hand. You can't have one without the other according to my children. And so begins the meltdowns...

Please look closely in the picture above... (don't mind the feet in the bottom corner) The closets became the hide out zone for my children during their pout fests. It began with Aiden and soon Papa joined him until he was ready to emerge again. In this picture, I believe Ian or Ethan were enjoying their pout fest time. Nana joined in and they finally decided to rejoin the rest of the family.
Saturday morning, we got up bright and early to hit the slopes. We ignored the weird smiles we received as we were all dressed in our snow gear to walk outside to notice the rain falling down. We still made the trek to the mountain and then sat in the lodge to decide what our next move would be. Surprisingly, there were people already on the slopes.

I can't move Mommy!

Walking up to grass and slush!!

Can we still go?!?

Right after we told them we might not be skiing.

A little more pitiful!

Ryan was just a little upset as well.

After seeing all of the sad faces and tears, we decided that we drove all this way and we should just go for it. It definitely wasn't the most ideal skiing conditions but the kids didn't care. We were glad that we made that decision because those sad faces turned into happy faces!

An hour later and sweating, we are almost ready to hit the slopes!

Poor Ethan is hanging on for dear life. I had just yelled to make him try it by himself. Well... this is what Ethan thought of that idea.

Riding up the lift on the bunny slopes.

Who is that man in the red cap?? That is our Papa.

We had fun playing with Papa's ski cap. It doubles as a ski mask as well but we all decided that burgulars had ruined the face mask look so Papa sported just the cap.

Yes, they are standing in slush but look at their smiles!

Aiden trying a new move! It didn't work.

Oh and did I mention that it was raining while we were skiing?!? If we didn't pay attention to the fact that we were getting so wet, we could imagine that it was snow instead of rain.

Mommy and Aiden playing with the camera on the ski lift.

Add in a little ~~slush~~ snow fight

This is a cute picture but it took about 30 minutes just to get this shot. Totally not joking here! Get one kid in the spot and another starts sliding backwards down the mountain.

Izzy spent her day in the lodge with Nana. It looks like she enjoys the snow as well.

Nana is the official baby keeper when we go skiing. Nana doesn't ski so she enjoys watching the current baby of the family while everyone else is skiing. Aiden informed me that I am not allowed to have anymore babies so Nana can actually ski next time. I said- no problem here but you will have to take the part about Nana skiing up with her.
We would have loved for there to have been more snow but we made do with what we were given. The kids had a blast skiing and as soon as we were done, we went directly to the laundry mat to clean the mud off of our snow suits.

We decided to go ahead and head back to Atlanta on Sunday morning and figure out something fun to do since it was still raining in Boone.

Izzy getting her learn on.

We arrive back in Atlanta and decide to hit up the local Dave and Busters. We ate in the restaurant first (food was good!) and then headed back to the big kid/adult play area.

These are the only 2 pictures I got that night. The boys were playing hard while Izzy was hanging out in her sling.
We got some more ~~junk~~ prizes and then headed back to the hotel for the evening. Mikayla was so sweet and got Isabelle a lamb with her tickets.