Spring Break Ski Trip, Part 2

It was a lovely week of spring skiing with the kids in Park City. 

The week was filled with lots of skiing, visiting with lots of friends, 

watching lots of basketball (Go Cougars!),
 spending lots of late nights watching TV shows on Hulu

 and jacuzziing until the wee morning hours. 

 Lots of fun and lots of good memories!

Mom and Allie on the slopes.

Best buddies, Allie and Tyler enjoying a day of skiing.

Taking a little break at the bottom of The Pines.

Sonya is such a good sport and skied down The Pines not once but twice!

NBD...black diamonds are beginning to be Sonya's best friend!

Dad, looking good, as usual.  So happy to be skiing with his kids!

Brooke arrived on Monday and joined us for a couple of days of skiing.

She is showing off the coveted Canyons stickers with the new logo 

that she snagged from one of the workers at the lodge.

Cute sisters.

Brooke, with her favorite Oklahomans!

The girls taking the Saddleback chairlift.

The Dodson's came and skied with us on Tuesday.

The weather was so gorgeous that Dad insisted that we sit our chairs out front

 and watch the skiers come down the hill. 

Of course, that activity would have to include a cold diet pepsi and

our computers, (so we could get something done.)

Tuesday night, Ashley came up with some friends and joined us on Main Street

for dinner at the kids favorite restaurant Main Street Pizza and Noodle.

I made Tyler and Sonya pose in front of our favorite moose, 

since it was Sonya's first time down Main Street.  Cute!

It snowed Wednesday night, so we woke up early Thursday morning to catch

the fresh powder and make some "first tracks."

We headed out to the bubble chair before it even opened and it was crazy!

Standing in line for over 10 minutes,

 you could feel the anxious energy of all the "powder hounds."

We were on the 12th chair that headed up the hill 

and enjoyed the beautiful view of the untracked powder below with our best friends, Allie and Tyler.

Since Condor, Saddleback and Tombstone chairlifts were on hold 

and 9990 wasn't open yet due to the avalanche blasting,

 we skied straight over to Iron Mountain, skied fresh powder for a couple of runs, "tracked it out" 

and then headed to Dreamcatcher as fast as we could.  

As we rode the chairlift up, we could see that it was completely untouched powder...

 no one at all skiing the bowl...not one skier!

We had the whole place to ourselves, fresh powder and best friends...it was heavenly!

We "tracked out" Dreamcatcher and we were cold and exhausted

(for those of you that don't ski, powder makes you work a lot, lot  harder)

so we decided to head back to the lodge to rest, get some hot chocolate and warm up but...

 on our way back to Red Pine Lodge, we see that they have just opened up 9990 just 5 minutes ago!

What else can we do but make a quick U turn,

fly down the mountain to catch the 9990 chairlift

and pull out our Mr Goodbar and 100 Grand Bars to refuel.

Dad is all smiles as we cross the ridge on Magic Lines

 and see nothing but untracked powder!

After some enjoying some hot chocolate and a yummy lunch

 and resting our tired legs, we are back at The Pines.

Heading down Doc's at the end of a fabulous powder day with my best friends.

On Friday, our good friends, Dale and Debbie Merrill came over 

and joined us for lunch at the base of the mountain.  

The Merrill's used to live in Granite Bay and we miss them,

 so it was so fun to catch up with them.

It was a really windy day on Saturday, our last day in Park City.

We skied down to the gondola and just as we got into the gondola,
we found out that many of the chairlifts were closed due to the wind hold.
We discussed our options on the ride up to the lodge.

When we get to the top of the hill, we notice that they just closed Shortcut chairlift
(the lift that we have to take to ski down to our place)
which means that we would have to take the gondola down
 then walk across the plaza and then have to take the shuttle home. 
Not a really big deal, but kind of inconvenient.
As we stepped out of the gondola, the wind blowing like crazy.
With all the chairlifts closed and the icy conditions, we decided to bag skiing for the day and head for home,
but then, Allie had a brilliant idea and suggests that we first treat ourselves to the free* hot chocolate at the lodge.
So we did:)!
*Season pass holders can enjoy a cup of complimentary hot chocolate every ski day.  Yay!

Allie and Ashley enjoying their free hot chocolate!

We are heading down on the gondola, enjoying the hot chocolate,

when we see that they have just opened up Shortcut lift.  

We make a quick decision to ride the gondola down

and then back up again, so that we can ski down to our place...that's right...

we took 3 gondola rides, drank 2 hot chocolates, rode one chairlift and skied...

(this is a bit embarrassing but true)

one, that's right, one run down the mountain.

(I really hope that Brad Wilkes, Jerry Martin and JC Fat are not reading this post

or else Mark will never live this one down! Ha! Ha!)

Dad is a good sport and we love that he is so patient

 and just wants to make sure everyone has fun on the slopes,

even if it means sitting in the lodge or riding the gondola

 and drinking hot chocolate with his kids!

 

Thanks Dad for another fun ski season!