Ski Trip 2023

While we love to travel in our motor home, we also like an occasional road trip with the family. So we started 2023 with a family ski trip to Colorado that our son and his wife planned. After seven hours of driving, the close-up views of the snow-covered high peaks of the Rockies can take your breath away.

They rented a condo surrounded by the mountains, so we could see the snow-covered peaks from our living room. If you lived here, would you ever get tired of those mountain views?

Our kids went skiing the next day. But Mark and Denisa decided that their pocketbooks and their bodies could only afford one day of skiing. So Mark, Denisa, and Carter had a day to get climatized to this higher altitude. Our little grandson, Eli, stayed home with his other set of grandparents since he is too little for skiing--but we're already looking forward to him skiing next year. On our rest day, we walked the trails behind the condo . . .

and rode the shuttle into the villages at the base of Copper Mountain.

We had great weather for a little snow ball throwing . . .

and a lot of snowman building. Using the snow piled up on the back deck, we made a whole family of snow-people.

We even made a snow-baby, lying in its cradle of snow.

Because that white baby got lost in the white snow, Carter wanted a close-up shot. We also made mother, father, and brother. This wasn't an easy endeavor, since the snow was so dry it refused to stick together.

Inside the condo, we spent hours playing school where teacher Carter read to Gram and Grand-dude and a whole classroom of stuffed animals.

The next morning, all of us were up early and dressed for a day on the slopes.

Four-year-old Carter was excited to go to her first-ever day of ski school.

The rest of us were on the slopes when the the lifts opened.

We had beautiful weather with blue skies and no wind in the morning.

On a Monday in the middle of January, we had almost no wait-time in the lift lines. So we made lots of trips down the beautiful runs of Copper Mountain, and then rides back up on the chair lifts.

It was absolutely a beautiful day for us to enjoy more of God's wonders in the Rockies!

The clouds rolled in for the afternoon, but we still had a good full day on the slopes. Even though Denisa is the slowest skier in this group, they were all patient and kind. So the five us skied together for the entire day. What a blessing!

While we looked over the series of peaks here near the black-diamond Rattler run, we thought this would be a great place to hike in the summer.

We were off the slopes in time to check how things were going at ski school. Because the other four-year-old girl cried to go home, Carter had private lessons on her first day.

She was all smiles at the end of her ski day.

Carter was back for her second day of school, while the adults took the day off. We started with a morning of playing games at the condo, and then we braved the falling snow for a trip to the main ski village for lunch.

The skating rink was covered with snow, but that didn't stop us from checking out the seal-shaped ice sleds.

You might think that our children would have been skating with the sleds in the snow. But no, it was just the two old dudes.

We rode the shuttle to check on our favorite ski school student on her second day. Lessons include learning how to ride up the moving sidewalk.

Then the kids learned to ski through arches that are moved around their little bunny slope. Carter was bending her knees and making her skis look like a piece of pizza to slow her down.

Then she made the skis look like french fries to move down the little slope.

We were proud of her good attitude, because we all remember that those first days of wearing heavy ski boots and learning to control long skis can be brutal. She loved having a cheering section to watch her last runs down the beginner slope.

We were blessed that no one had any injuries, and we had great weather for our ski days. But our luck ran out for the drive home. It was snowing when we left the next morning, and we drove in treacherous conditions for the first couple hours in the falling snow. It was a very long drive home! But we certainly enjoyed family time in the Rocky mountains for ski trip 2023!