"snow bunnies" in the making...

in an effort to avoid the 4+million people heading into our city this past weekend...we decided to head out!!!! since the mountains are just a mere 3 hours away, we made plans for the price family's first ever snow skiing trip!!!! it was an absolute blast...and as an added bonus...the spences joined us on the vacation!

we left on friday afternoon, just in time to avoid the majority of "going home" traffic in D.C. it was unbelievable to watch the temperature gauge on our rear view mirror dropping so drastically! when we finally arrived in mchenry, maryland...we registered at a whopping -7 degrees...just in case you missed it...that was NEGATIVE SEVEN DEGREES! folks, that's cold!

once we unloaded our things, the two families made our way to smiley's for some pizza & game playing! unfortunately our suburban does not have four wheel drive, i am from the deep south, & i am a bit of a "scaredy cat" when it comes to driving in the snow/ice...which made for a mandatory "driver change" on our way to dinner!!!!! thank goodness jane knows something about driving in these conditions...otherwise, we would NOT have made it up the steep hill!

on saturday morning, the daddies headed out for their first full day of skiing! jeffrey had never been snow skiing before so i was anxious to hear how he was going to do. one thing jeffrey is is competitive...one thing he is not... is cautious. i felt a bit compelled to contact an orthopedist before we left, but restrained, and it turns out he did really well!!!!!! jason was able to show him the ropes and jeff just faked the rest! as he likes to say - he just "tucked & went"! not the smartest way, in my opinion, but he made it to the bottom of the mountain with his knees & skis in tact!

the girls have never seen that much snow before and i was SO excited to get them bundled up and out to play! ella was her typical free spirit, immediately falling down in it to make a snow angel. madeline's face told me that she felt like telling this powdery, white fluff to get "back"...but was intrigued just enough to suffer through. it wasn't until she realized that it was edible that she really developed her love/hate relationship - and you should have seen her face when i asked her if m&m's were falling out of the sky!!!!!! (***i'll say just about anything to get my children to take a picture...and poor campbell thought i was being serious...i suppose maddie did too...she spent a lot of time looking up with her tongue out...i'm just wrong!!!!!!***)

i digress...

on sunday, we all decided to go sledding! we haven't had that much fun together in a long time! it was a laughingly, smilingly, fabulously fun time! both of the girls had a blast...but i will have to say - i think jeffrey & i might have been the ones that got the biggest kick out of it! it took me right back to my "snow days in louisiana" when you wrap your feet in produce bags and slide down the driveway on a card board box...except this was a million times better! jane & "baby spence to be" even took a little slide down the hill...it was truly a fun, fun day!

after another "daddy ski day" on monday, the rest of the pack met up with the guys so that jeffrey & i could take ella on the "snow coaster"! as jeffrey said, "my contagious laughter could be heard from the top of the mountain"! the roller coaster takes you up "just shy of heaven" (so it feels like!!!!) and gravity takes care of the rest!!!!!!! ella was adorable on this ride...she is just like her daddy and shows NO FEAR! once we were done with the coaster, we made our way to snow tubing! this was some serious FUN! ella & i rode this escalator up to the top of a mountain and then on two tubes tied together...sailed down the track! i was laughing so hard and telling her all in the same breath to "hold on, ella"!!!!!! we zipped down that mountain and came off the ground a time or two! miss madeline & campbell got to do a little tubing of their own...down the "bunny slopes"...and had quite a time themselves!!!!!!

the snow was so beautiful...and plentiful! it snowed every day that we were there and made cozying up by the fire with hot chocolate even more fabulous! the kids didn't think playing in the snow was all that fun after a while...so we did a lot of this...

and this...

i was hoping to make a "family of four" snowman village...but the snow was too powdery and my helpers were too cranky! maybe next time!

all in all, the trip was so much fun! we enjoyed our time with the spence family and look forward to many more ski trips in the future! hopefully next time, all of us will try our skills on skis...we definitely have the cutest "snow bunnies"...in my opinion, of course!