Ski Trip & Auto Show

This week was a big week. We started the week by heading up north to Crystal Mountain for a few days and finished it up back at home. We managed to stay busy all week, so it has been a bit crazy here.

On Sunday, we spent the morning packing up and then drove up to Crystal Mountain. Since it was a holiday weekend and we booked late, we got the last unit available. While every unit they have it very nice, this one was a bit smaller and a bit further from the skiing. However, had we never stayed there before, we would have thought it was totally awesome. The downside to it being a bit smaller was that there was not a ton of sleeping on the basement level. The kids ended up sleeping on large beanbags that we pushed into our room, my parents slept on the murphy bed also downstairs, and Kris and Linda slept in the master suite. At least no one had to sleep on a pull out couch. Keira and Soren were pretty cute on their beanbags.





On Monday, we had set up for Keira to have ski school at 9:00am. It made for a pretty early morning. We had a quick breakfast of waffles and got Keira down to ski school. She was pretty excited about it. We headed back up to the house after dropping her off and got back together with everyone else. We opted to take Soren out this morning. He was a bit floppy to start, and didn't really get that he had to stand up. Ryan skied him down to take the chairlift back up. The chairlift was really his favorite. We picked Keira up from her lesson, and she had learned to stop, and started to be able to turn! We were so happy for her. She was able to get on the magic carpet herself and ski down the beginner hill in the Totem Park.
We took Soren down to the Totem Park where Ryan walked behind him so he could get the feel of it. He did the same with Keira, and it helped a ton. The kids had so much fun there we lost track of time, and Soren just got super tired and was suddenly done and ready for a nap. I kept him in the snowsports office while Ryan skied to get the car and drove him back up to the house.






















Ryan and I had fun skiing with our parents and had a great day. It was snowing during the day, so we had a bit of nice soft snow to ski in. It was great for Michigan skiing! We finished off the night with some time at the pool.


On Tuesday, we decided to push Keira's lesson back to 11:30. This gave us time to have a nice large breakfast of ebelskivers filled with nutella or jam. Yum! We were able to ski a little bit with everyone before taking Keira to her lesson. Soren didn't last quite as long on this break, but he did great again today. Keira continued to progress with her lessons and didn't need her "edgy wedgy" to keep her ski tips together anymore. Yeah! I was so proud of her skiing all by herself! She did like to ski on the bigger runs holding hands with Nana and Papa. Skiing with kids was actually harder on our legs than the "more difficult" runs because of all the snowplowing!







Ryan and I felt like we had really good snow this trip, and we skiied quite a bit today. We skiied into the evening, and the moon looked awesome! We were able to find some softer bumps to ski in too, as well as ski in the trees a bit.

Wednesday was our day to check out. We had a quick breakfast and got mostly packed up before heading out to ski. Keira and Soren stayed in with my mom because it was VERY cold today. The high was 13 degrees! The Loki chair was very fun, and it was super quiet. Everything was so fast due to it being so cold, but Thor was probably the best run of the day. It was smooth and fast, but not icy! We stayed out for about as long as we could stand it before we were so cold and had to finish packing up anyway. We had our traditional lunch at the Thistle before leaving to head home. It was such a fun trip. We are really grateful that we were able to have so much help from the grandparents, especially my mom, with Keira and Soren so that Ryan and I could have some quality skiing.

On Thursday, we were back to our routine. I went to the gym to do my midweek long run on the treadmill and then hit the grocery store before getting Soren down for a nap. We had been planning to go to the Auto Show today prior to going on the ski trip. Soren had been talking about it all week. He couldn't wait to see the mustangs! It snowed all afternoon, but we went down anyway, despite the increased traffic and less than desirable driving conditions. We eventually met up with Ryan at work and headed on downtown. It worked out to be a nice evening to go since the snow kept people away and it wasn't very crowded. We spent a lot of time at the Ford exhibit, with Keira and Soren both climbing in and out of mustangs. I was really disappointed that when I checked the pictures, I didn't have any of Soren in a Mustang, as he kept getting in and out too fast and wouldn't sit still long enough for one (even with the SLR!). We also saw the concept for the new Escape, which Ryan will be working on. We did 2 "rides", one in a focus to learn about its new features where you sat in the car and watched a video. We also rode in an Explorer which actually tilted side to side and up and down to simulate driving. Keira wasn't a fan of that, but was really sad that we didn't ride in the electric Transit or Focus that went on an actual track in the building! (the line was too long). We breezed through the rest of the show, as it was getting late. We did see the Buckeye Bullet which was made by the OSU College of Engineering. It was a late night, but we got home easily as there was very little traffic.



Friday was "white" day at school for Keira. As usual, there was a bit of drama with her outfit. While she was at school, I took Soren to the gym were I was able to swim (finally), and then we headed to storytime.

Here is Keira's project for the week:

I took Soren to storytime while Keira was at school.



We had a relaxing afternoon, and that evening we went over to Family Swim with Cristina and her friend Kari. Soren was facinated once Kari showed him that you could make a "hose" out of a pool noodle by putting the end of it against a water inlet. He spent the rest of the time playing with a pool noodle that I held for him to make a "fountain". We also had a blast squirting each other by blowing water through the noodles. Soren got Cristina really good! It did make for another late night for the kids, though.

On Saturday, we slept in a bit. Ryan went to ride with his friends indoors. They did a new DVD called Sufferfest which uses actual race footage. It was super cold today, and I was really not sure what to do about my 17 mile run that I had planned. Thankfully, Cristina called me and wanted to run it with me. It was brutal. The snow was coming down lightly, but it was enough to make the path slick. The temp was right around 17 degrees, but the real feel was around 0 deg. I wrote a full post on this run at DoubleJoggerDiaries, but I really credit Cristina for getting me through this, as I was ready to be done at 11.5, when we were back at the cars. I am glad I did it, though. Hopefully we will have better conditions next week. That evening, we went to dinner at Baha Fresh and Ryan attended the Wolverine Sports Club social. I had waited too long to find a sitter, and no one was available for me to go too. It was just as well, as I was pretty exhausted from my run.



Sunday was a nice relaxing morning. I really revamped my diet once we got back from our trip, as I have been unhappy with the amount of holiday weight that I gained, so I cooked grilled chicken for lunch before church. We also had grilled salmon after church. Our cuisinart griddler really got the work out today, as it was WAY to cold to grill outside and Keira wanted pancakes for dinner (I had offered them for lunch but she turned them down then, and asked later). We had a visit from our home teachers, which was really nice. We chatted about skiing, Germany, and the move.





This week has been so busy! I am not sure what we will do next week, but I am sure we will have some fun.