Our First Ski Trip!

This was a great family day!!  We have been talking for eons about taking the kiddos skiing.  David and I enjoy it and haven't been once since the kids were born.  Who knows when the 'best' time is to go with kids. I think I was a teenager the first time I went and on this day we saw kids that were still in diapers.  In order to go at that young of an age David and I would have to be much better skiers than we are now.  In any event, we decided to take the plunge and just go.  We bought ski school tickets for the kids and off we went.  The Turners joined us and Gaga, Papa and Chloe.  We listened to advice from others and spent the day at Ski Appalachia!

Out and waiting for ski school to start.  There was a little 75 yard run for the little ones to start on.  It had a stand on conveyor belt that pulled them back to the top.  All they had were skis, NO POLES!

Hunter making the turn back to the conveyor belt.  You can see all the kids had to wear helmets.  I thought this was a brilliant idea.

Up!

Up!

And Away they GO!

Hello Larkin!  Look how well they stand on the belt.  We didn't have any falls.  I have memories of this being the hardest part when I was learning.  I think we had a tow rope and really had to focus on keeping our skis lined up and still.  This is more like a ride.

The little ones taking a break!  They had the afternoon session only.  In hind sight they should have done the morning session too but we were afraid they wouldn't last the day.

All geared up and ready to go!

Miss Chloe loved every minute of it and was skiing backwards by the end of the day.

Lining up for the bigger run.  This one was about 150 yards long, but not steep.  It was a gradual slope to the bottom but it adjoined with a more difficult run and I was afraid the kids were going to get run over.

Going up the long belt!

Little Lucas turned out to be a terrific skier.  He was fearless and was ready to take the chairlift up after his first attempt on the training run.  David started out running beside him and all I could hear was, "I can do this by myself dad!"  Next time David and I will ski too.  We all went into this with zero expectations and were nothing short of thrilled to see how much they enjoyed skiing.  It was hard to watch them ski the day away, we were only around as back up for those that got tired and needed a break.  Never happened, we will go back and we will all ski the day away!

Date NIght!

Fun evening with great friends!  What a rare and special evening.

SNOW

 My run on the Creeper Trail. It was so beautiful and so, so quiet.

 Back of the house was so pretty.  I couldn't resist taking a picture.

 Best snow hill ever!!  We had an epic time sledding on the hill behind the house.  It was so much fun.   The Turner's brought snow tubes and we spent hours outside with the kiddos.  We even brought lights out at night and did a little night sledding.

 Matt giving it a try.

 Mary pulling Blaine up the hill for the 100th time!

A day at Bays Mountain

Hello cutie pie! We took our first trip to Bays Mountain in Kingsport with the Turner family on one of the first warmer days of the winter.  There was still snow covering the ground in lots of places and our hiking trail was a muddy mess but the eight of us and two dogs had fun.  We made the 3 mile hike around the lake in a blazing 2 hour pace and no one was carried!  The Turners started this great rule to encourage hiking, "If you can hike the trail without being carried then we will go to the gift shop and you will earn a park badge."  Little Lucas and Larkin made it the entire way, with minimal whining to boot.

Buddies keeping the pace and walking Maggie.

Sweet pictures of David and Lucas.  We had to take turns being the caboose and his personal cheerleader.

Time for a group picture, snacks and a potty break.

Getting ready for the big adventure.  The girls are not the least bit shy in front of the camera and they are teaching Lucas well.  Hunter can be so aggravating, he NEVER wants his picture taken.

Finally….Hunter caved and we were able to get a group shot.  This bridge went out over the lake.  The lake was frozen solid all the way across.  There was evidence of people walking across in several places.  We had several teaching moments about NEVER walking on ice and wouldn't you know here comes this 8-9 year old boy walking across a section of the lake that had a foot bridge.  We were on the foot bridge and he was walking on the other side of the rails on the lake.  I was beyond irritated at his mom for letting him do this!!!  Thankfully, he didn't fall in but what a terrible example for our kids who were watching and how scary if he ever tries to do it again in the future without the same luck.

Sweet Turner girls giving Lucas a hand during the hike.

The frozen lake.  We had several days of negative degree temperatures and the lake was frozen all the way across.

Beaver dam.

I think we will visit this park many times in the future.  There were several trails and they have a wildlife animal rescue sanctuary.  They had deer, raccoons, bobcats and even wolves.  This was a much needed outdoor trip in the middle of a very cold winter!

I will run in the snow!

I took this little selfie as I headed out the door for a little run on the Creeper Trail.  It was below 20 degrees outside and we just had our first really big snow.  I think it measured somewhere around 6-10 inches.  I managed to run to bridge number three where I had to turn around.  The snow and mostly the snow drifts on the trail were too much!  Fun times!

2014 was a bone chilling winter!! Burrrrrrrrrr

One of the first snows after the new year.  Not much to play in from the looks of this picture, but as winter dragged on so did the snow!