Winter get-a-ways are a must!

Our weekend away was a blast. Worth every inconvenience of packing up a family of five for two days. Look at this guy, first time on skis, and he loves it. His favorite part was tumbling down an intermediate hill head over heels.. not sure why that's his favorite part - maybe the adrenalin and excitement? It was just the two of us on the trails after the family ski lesson we all took. After the lesson, Bear and Drama Girl went tubing while Husbear went back to the cabin for a long winter's nap. Turbo and I, we skied on calm, quiet trails, hardly seeing anyone else out there. We weren't great at it, but we had a lot of fun! He made me stop to take a picture of what looked like a den. Then, the mountain views. Then, he told me to slow down. I was zippy...

The place we go is never busy. The cabins are far enough out of the way to make it easier to stay in than go out. There's a lot of stuff to do there, but mostly it's the hang out time and the snow play time. There's great cross country ski trails and snow shoe trails, and a tubing hill.

There's just enough people to make you remember other people exist, but not so much that you get stressed out and want to hide. The family dynamics change when we get away. Everyone is mostly calmer (cue Bear dropping to the ground halfway through the ski lesson to express his frustration by taking a nap in the snow ... because Bear's need sleep... but we ignored him, because... whatever kid) and mostly more tolerant (see kid dropping to ground in melodrama,  hitting his own head with ski,  whining about it, and no one throttling him, though our instructor probably thought we were weird).

At the cabin we got a fire started, and then took turns stoking it, because stoking fires is fun, almost as fun as staring at the burning logs in the fire. We played board games. We chilled. We talked about how we totally tooootttaaallly want to run off and move up here. We were mostly unplugged except for reading and the DS' the boys bought for the car ride. Turbo played the guitar, which he doesn't know how to play, but enjoys playing anyhow. Husbear bought his ski stuff, and decided that downhill skiing techniques may not work quite so well for cross country skiing (cue aspirin for sore shoulder that encountered snowy ground).  Drama Girl did have her phone, and we suspect snuck netflix videos at night, but hey, she tried cross country skiing and had fun.

This is our second trip to our winter get-a-way place, because last year we went, and loved it so much that everyone agreed we should do it every year. We sneak off on a Friday and stay for the weekend., and come back much happier, content, and dreaming of cabin and mountain living. Next year, if I plan it right, we'll be staying for a day or two longer, since everyone wants to do more than can be fit in a weekend, without sacrificing 'hang out in the cabin' time.