Let the Ski Season Begin!

Ski season has officially begun for the Ball family! 
But before I tell you about it we have exciting news.  My little sister had her baby!  Baby Owen was born 8 weeks early via emergency c-section and both Alicia and Owen are lucky to be alive.  You can read the story on her blog here. 
Now, back to skiing.  Randy gave me my own set of skis for Christmas in hopes of turning me into a hard core skier.  I think they're cute which is what matters most to me.    We planned this trip up to New Hampshire months ago and brought two other families along with us.  As luck would have it, this is the first year living in New England we haven't received record amounts of snow so the ski conditions were definitely sub-par.  Trust me, we had a good time anyway.  Luckily on Saturday night it snowed seven inches but then rained leaving a thin film of ice over everything which looked really pretty but was very scary to ski on.  Marcus and Ethan can pretty much ski down anything at this point so I had fun trying to keep up with them.  When I wasn't with them I took Landon on the bunny hill.  Parker tagged along by running up and down the hill, hopping on and off the magic carpet, and eating snow. 
We spent our evenings with our friends, relaxing at the pool, sitting in the hot tub, playing games, and drinking Stephen's hot chocolate.  Our condo had its own sauna upstairs which Ethan thought was the coolest thing ever and was a great way to get our swimsuits dry.   Marcus liked having a big flat screen TV in his room and pretty much only left his bed to ski.  The lazy bum! 

We hurried as fast as we could to get to the bunny hill before it closed the first day and arrived just in time to see it shut down

So we pulled the kids up the hill ourselves

All bundled up and watching TV until it was time to ski the next morning

Randy multi-tasking - on the phone while he skis with Parker

Ethan got to ski with poles for the first time.  This resort is small enough we let them take off on their own.

The best way to recover from a day on the slopes

We have to drive to the pool and this is how we dress - swimsuits, boots, and coats.  It's torture when we go out to the cold car!

Warming back up in our sauna

Parker banished to Time Out

Walking to church in the freshly fallen snow

I forgot Sunday shoes but it turns out I didn't need them anyway.  Love my new Sorels!

Playing in the powder

Playing dead in the powder

Our friends had a snow kit with colored water bottles and the red water made for some gory fun

The ladies - my friend in the middle is 5 months prego but she's such a good skier it didn't even matter

Marcus stashes candy in his pockets to eat on the lift and as he finished off a package of sour patch kids he poured the remaining sugar into his mouth!  Sick! 

Marcus and I have the same size of skis. Mine are on the left.  And yes, that is a lot of bare ground you see. 

Ethan loves skiing with Randy

meanwhile, back at our room it was a major party for these two

Check out the ice the next morning.  They had to close one of the lifts.

We had the bunny hill to ourselves on Monday

Landon was one cool kid

The ice looked like the mountain had been hosed down with water that froze instantly

Marcus loved eating in bed while watching TV

Almost the whole family on the lift.  Randy and I were with Landon while Ethan and Marcus rode behind us.