We were originally scheduled to go to Blue Knob in PA for our Christmas break ski trip, but it became apparent that they were not going to be open in time. At the last minute I had to change our plans to go to Snowshoe and I couldn’t get a room for all the days, so we skied one day at Timberline, stayed in Elkton overnight, and then headed to Snowshoe.
Parker swam in the pool Monday night after Timberline, and Skylar and I were barely awake.
We had a great time skiing, and the our room at Snowshoe (which somehow I don’t have pictures of) suited us well as they had a giant internet enabled tv in the main room and we brought the bed into that room so we could all sleep together at night.
The slopes were about 65% open and there was enough challenging terrain to be fun. The sunset was beautiful on the ride home and Skylar wanted to snap some pics of it, but the phone camera doesn’t quite do it justice.
Our flight to Denver departed from Dulles at 5:45am, so we were up at 4:00am and out of the house shortly thereafter. Parker and Skylar were troopers and traveling was smooth sailing.
I slept most of the way while everyone else watched movies or played on their tablets. We arrived in Denver at 8:00am, got some breakfast (crepe place at the airport was phenomenal – especially for airport food), and proceeded to Josh and Sharon’s house.
We spent the day hanging out and walking their dogs in Stapleton (a highlight for Skylar and Parker) – beautiful trails and parks right in their neighborhood. Monday morning we got up right away and hit the road. On the way to Keystone we passed Loveland and decided to make a pitstop for our first day of skiing.
Loveland has great trails, lots of terrain for kids, but no bars on the lift which freaked me out (the daddy-bar served to keep Parker, 4 years old, and Skylar safely in their seats).
We skied a 1/2 day and then departed for Keystone where we arrived in time to settle in, fix dinner, and get some sleep. The next couple days we skied Keystone and discovered some fun kid zones to ski through (forts for snowball fights, ski-through houses, and other fun structures).
Monday after skiing we relaxed for a couple hours in the outdoor pool and hot tub while it snowed. Tuesday we found the terrain parks and we watched skiers and snowboarders perform massive stunts on huge ramps and half-pipes. Skylar caught some air going over a jump 😉
Thursday we departed Keystone and skied Loveland again for a full 4 hours before returning to Denver. Parker and Skylar learned how to tuck to go super-speed. We almost decided to go back to Dorado for Friday, but it would have been a bit stressful to get up early, drive an hour to ski and then get back in time for our 6:30 flight. We found some cool shops downtown (the highlight of Susan’s trip) and picked up some new gear for next ski season.
See you next year Sharon, Josh, Hank, Cody, Collin, Bryce, and Colorado!
We went to Wintergreen for our last East Coast ski trip of the year. I would definitely go back! The resort and village is much nicer than anything within 2 hours of D.C.
We loved the coffee and bakery shop in our lobby, there were multiple restaurants on site at the top of the mountain (with decent food), and there is a massive brewery only 3 miles away.
I found a ski tutorial video on YouTube Fri night that mentioned “Wedgies” for kids Parkers age. We bought them the next morning and after a whole season of hanging on to daddy – he was off and on his own doing great!
That made the entire ski experience awesome for everyone. The kids also loved going through the terrain parks.
After landing we picked up our car and headed out to Keystone. The drive was a little under 2 hours and it was absolutely beautiful the entire way.
I had planned on doing some skiing the following morning, but after 4 hours of sleep, and the kids waking up throughout the first night, we were all to exhausted to do anything but walk around and pick up some rocks 🙂
We have arrived!
Munching on some shrimp linguine.
Out for a morning walk in front of our hotel and the slopes.
Parker working hard to pull around his big Sis.
Skylar wiped out after a morning of walking around Keystone resort.
