THE BIG O + LITTLE T: Winter Park

This year the Gris-Wyllie's, and their families, spent Christmas together in Winter Park, CO. It was so nice to all be together, especially since we live so far away from eachother. We can't thank Nana and Papa enough for a great trip and all they did for us. We all had an amazing time skiing and just hanging out. I spent most of my childhood winters skiing in CO, so it means so much to me to now be able to share that with Mike and Owen.
The first day there we took Owen and Riley out to play in the snow. Owen wasn't too sure about the extreme cold, (they call Winter Park the 'icebox' of America) and was probably thinking we have this white stuff at home. Riley on the other hand was very excited about the snow and liked it much better than the fake snow they made in the park in FL.

Owen standing infront of the condos. We had the two on the ground floor, which I am sure the neighbors were thankful for with five kids running around.

What's better after playing in the snow than hot chocolate and cookies?!

Then it was time to hit the slopes!

This was Mike's third time skiing with me in CO and I was so proud of him. Every time he impresses me with his improvement and I love that he will follow me down anything! He loves skiing the bumps almost as much as I do. Our favorite run at Winter Park was through the trees in Mary Jane's bowl. (seen above)

Mike taking a break... sort of.

Then we met up with Karen and Jeff to have some fun.

Mike trying desperately to get water out of our camelback that had froze.

Riley going up the 'magic carpet' at ski school. I wish they had that when I was little instead of the ever-so-dangerous rope burn, I mean rope-tow.

On our way home from skiing we saw two moose walking behind the grocery store. It doesn't get any better than that.

On Christmas day Trish, Morgan, and Alec joined us to complete the crew. I can't even begin to tell you how much fun Owen had with all of his cousins.

Alec was his new best friend. He followed him around like a real big boy.

Owen and Riley tickeling Morgan.

Aunt Trish playing with Aidan.

Owen and Morgan sitting with some of the fabric that I brought to make blankets out of for all of the kids. Each one had two different fleeces that "we" tied together to make blankets. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of all of them with their new blankets. They will just have to bring them on the next trip!

Owen playing with Riley's new Leap Frog game, he also liked Morgan and Alec's Play Stations and Game Boys. Do you think we are going to have a problem here?

The whole crew on our way to go skiing.

Owen's big debut!

Owen loved the chairlift, which was good. He also loved the first run that we made and kept saying, "Again! Again!" However, he did not like loosing a mitten on the next chairlift ride and began to cry, understandably, as we waited for a nice skiier to bring it up on a much later chair. We decided to make our way to the base of the mountain. Owen made it on his own between my legs about half way down before Mike had to pick him up and ski the rest of the way carrying him. I am still proud of him and us that we got him on skis at twenty one months old.

Waiting with Papa for the mitten.

Then it was time for another family tradition... the sleigh ride!

I think this picture is so funny because it was completey dark when I stepped back to take it, and couldn't see what was going on until the extreme flash went off to show Owen eating a marshmellow off of a very long stick.