Snowmass Ski Trip

We have been hoping to be able to take the kids out west to do some skiing!  Last year we went to Winterplace for one day of skiing to make sure they liked it, and of course they did!  So, back in October, we booked a trip to Snowmass, CO.  

With Covid still going on, we were not sure until the day before we were scheduled to fly out that we were even going to go!  It was so stressful - getting a negative Covid test within 72 hours of arriving, Colorado shutting down indoor dining while we were going to be there, ski school up in the air if it would even happen or not(they did have it, but it was only half days vs. whole days!).

But, in the end, we decided to give it a go and are so so glad that we did!!!

We flew from Greenville to Aspen(with a short layover in Chicago) and arrived to having our hotel shuttle waiting for us with our names on a poster!  We were whisked away from the airport and 30 minutes later and lots of good conversation from our shuttle driver we were in our hotel room at the Snowmass Mountain Chalet!  We took the afternoon to familiarize ourselves with the area and get all of our ski equipment rented.  That evening we enjoyed the free ice skating in the Village and the free chairlift that was right at our ski-in-ski-out hotel!

Breakfast was amazing at the hotel!  Even though we had to take it back to our rooms and eat it(Covid), we were able to get completely full on such a delicious meal and they had hot chocolate and coffee machines available 24/7 which we took full advantage of!  Each morning after breakfast we'd ski out of our condo and take a run down the mountain just the four of us before checking the kids into ski school!  M and I would ski through the morning and pick the kids up in time for lunch and then a few more hours in the afternoon before it would start getting dark and they'd shut down the chairlifts!  It is amazing how much the kids learned in only a short time - S was skiing so confidently and at a quicker rate than when she arrived and C being a little daredevil was doing jumps, skiing backwards and mastering black diamonds by the time we left.  S missed her last day of skiing because she had a bad reaction to something she ate and spent the day throwing up and in the bed recovering after that!  Luckily it didn't las too long and she was feeling back to normal for the flight home!

As we were sadly packing up to leave this morning, we were all talking about what a great trip(despite S getting sick!) it was and how we hope to go skiing again next year!

Thursday - getting there, getting settled and ice skating

Sunrise on our way to Chicago

Coming into Chicago

Flying over the Colorado Rockies

Lunch at Venga Venga

Ice sculptures were everywhere

Looking back down on the Village from our hotel

Friday - skiing Day 1

Saturday - skiing Day 2(this was the most crowded day on the slopes, but it still was not bad at all considering it was MLK Weekend... longest we waited at the busier chairlifts was probably 3-4 minutes)

Morning run before ski school

Waiting for ski school - because of Covid, all
lessons were capped at 5 kids.  However, there was
not a day that there were more than 3 kids in a 
group.  On this day, S ended up being the only
one in her group so she had a private lesson 
for 3.5 hours!

Just before S started feeling bad and throwing up!

Sunday - skiing Day 3 (except for S, she stayed in the hotel, C went to ski school, M and I alternated skiing and staying with her!)

It was kinda lonely skiing all by myself for the morning!

S was feeling better by the evening and we took
the bus into Aspen to look for dinner!  However,
they had shut indoor dining down this day and
finding food ended up being somewhat of a 
disaster!!

Aspen, CO all lit up

Snow sculptures were everywhere in Aspen

While the rest of get shirts as souvenirs, C still
likes to get toys.  Marbles were his choice this
time and the kids enjoyed playing with them back
at the hotel!

Monday - We said goodbye to Colorado and flew home!  Can't wait to go back!