Traditional Family Ski Vacation!

So this has turned into the Paxman Family tradition of going skiing over the February long weekend. This year Emily and I decided to leave earlier. We had the condo from Sunday to Sunday, so we took off Wednesday morning, which was Feb 12th. I had my kids skip a few days of school! They thought that was awesome!

We left at about 10:30am. Emily was following me. We were flying along at about 105 km/hr. It was getting super windy out. So much so, that it was really loud in our vehicle. I actually thought one of the kids doors was partially open. I couldn't hear anyone in the car, it was that loud. I pulled over and closed all the doors and checked all the windows. Away we went, and no it didn't help. It was so windy. The roads were all clear, then all of the sudden I hit a slushy part (it just looked a little wet, until I got closer). I had taken my foot of the gas pedal and when I hit it my back end started swinging around. My heart dropped, but I was able to get control of the vehicle and then I slowed WAY down. Because the roads just got worse. By the time we got to the border, I was ready to turn around and go home, but I didn't want to drive on those roads again! Sheesh! Luckily that was the worse part of the whole drive. We made it to Meadow Lakes about 3hrs later. We just followed each other there. The kids were so ready to get out of the vehicles, but they all traveled super good!

We unloaded the vehicles and got settled into our 2 bedroom condo. Then we all got our swimsuits on and we went swimming! It was the perfect way to get the craziness out of the kids. They loved it. We basically had the pools to ourselves. So nice! Then we went up to the entertainment room and played some WII games. Then they did a few crafts in the craft room. It was a lot of fun.

We then went back and got dressed and decided to drive into Kalispell for supper and then to go get some food. The kids were still super excited and had lots of energy so we took them to McDonalds with the huge play place. They had so much fun in there. It was perfect!

Then we drove to Walmart to get groceries for the next 5 days. To say it was crazy, is a bit of an understatement. We had kids running, screaming and just going crazy. Oh my! We got a LOT of looks. Maybe a few dirty looks too! Ha ha! But we got all our groceries for the next 5 days.

We got back to Meadow Lake and it was bed time. I think all the kids were all worn out, because they all went to bed super good. Then Emily and I got to hang out together. We tried watching a chick flick, but that didn't work. So we played Ticket to Ride on our Ipads, against each other! Ha ha, we are geeks. It was fun!

Thursday we woke up and we didn't have anything planned. So we just had breakfast and the kids watched some cartoons. Then we took off for the pool. We swam and swam and swam. Emily took off early to go put Evan down for a nap. I stayed with the rest of the kids. Between them swimming and going into the craft room. We were there for a few hours. We were the only ones in the pool too. That's always nice!

Everyone swimming around in the pool.

Mary, DJ and Brianna watching a movie in the craft room.

Proof that I was there! Ha Ha!

Ali and Abbi were our little fish! They just kept swimming and swimming!!

Mary and Cadence playing some ping pong!

DJ decided to play some ping pong too!

We had lunch and just hung around. I was tired. I went and had a little nap as the kids were laying on the bed beside me watching tv. Then I woke up to someone ringing the door bell. It was Megan, Tiff, Keira and Richard. They made it! So that was exciting. Keira came walking in and immediately started yelling for "DJ"! So funny! She cracks me up!

That night, after supper we all took the kids swimming again. We swam there a LOT! The kids loved it! The best part, was when some were tired of swimming they went into the craft room and had fun coloring and making things. It was awesome. We could spend hours there (and we did) and everyone was happy!

I showered everyone at the pool and got them in their jammies. Here is DJ hugging the HUGE bear!

The bear was bigger than DJ!

Ali and Brianna busy working on a craft!

We came back and got everyone ready for bed. We promised the kids that they could have popcorn. Aunt Emily popped up some popcorn. We had people everywhere watching tvs, or ipads and eating popcorn. What a cheap and yummy snack!

Popcorn time! Love how everyone is so happy eating popcorn!

Brianna and Mary were busy coloring pictures.

Keira was so cute! She loved eating her popcorn!

DJ, Cadence and Ali eating their popcorn and watching a movie on our Ipad!

That night Emily and I got some goody bags ready for Valentines Day. Emily was on the ball and got a lot of stuff from the dollar store. I got each of my kids a stuffy and chocolate for Valentines. Tiffany and Megan slept on the pull out couch. They were a little crazy that night! Ha ha! I came into the kitchen for something and they asked me if I had locked the sliding door. I told them yes and that I put the stick down too. But in the morning we found that it was unlocked, but with the stick down. That allows the door to open a crack. Anyways they were all freaked out when Richard opened it and they both yelled, "That's the noise we heard last night. Someone tried to open our sliding door." It was a little crazy!

The kids were very excited to wake up and find out it was Valentines Day! They all LOVED their goodie bags. Plus all my kids loved their stuffed animals! Then we made a yummy breakfast of French toast and bacon and orange juice. It was a delicious breakfast! This made up for the kids all missing their Valentines Day parties at school.

Happy girls finding their Valentines Day goodie bag!

DJ showing me his new puppy, that he named Heart, with his old puppy!

Cute Keira with her mom! Such a cute picture!

All the kids enjoying their yummy breakfast!

Then we all went swimming! Yeah! Again the kids had a blast. Swimming was a favorite thing to do on this trip! The bonus was we were normally the only ones there. We were enjoying it, because we knew it was going to start getting busy once the weekend came.

Abbi loved spending the whole time diving down with her goggles on!

DJ started swimming around without his life jacket on! We kept a very close eye on him. We had to jump in once to save him! Crazy boy!

Evan loved jumping into the water!

All the kids swimming. Love Evan's smile......so cute!

Brianna swimming with some goggles. She was getting really good at diving down!

Cadence loves swimming underneath the water.

Later that day, after supper, we had the kids help us make some sugar cookies. We came prepared. Emily brought the dough and I brought everything for icing the cookies. So we baked the cookies and I made up the icing. The kids had so much fun icing their cookies and eating them. It was a fun Valentines Day!

Mary and Abbi helping Em make the cookies! Love her expression! Ha ha! She was talking to me!

DJ needed some alone time, so him and Brianna watched in our room. He ate his supper right there too!

Everyone busily icing their cookies!

Keira being  big helper and washing the dishes for us!!

DJ proudly showing me his cookie!

Keira was attacking her cookie and making a big mess!

We got the kids to bed at a good time, because we knew the next morning was going to be an early one. We had to be out of there by 8:15am the latest, in order to get to the ski hill at a good time. Oh, I should mention that Cody and Brent got there around 7pm. Then mom and dad and David and Jill got there around 9:30pm. They said the roads were scary. So we were glad everyone made it safely. We had a good sleep. Except for Cody and Emily. Poor Evan was not feeling good at all. He cried most of the night and had a really high fever. Poor guy.

We ate breakfast and I got our kids ready and away we went. Cody and Em were right behind us. By this time, Richard and Abbi weren't feeling that great either. Abbi had no energy and you could tell she was sick just by looking at her. So they stayed in the lodge with DJ too. He was going to ski with Mary, but she was sick too. Oh all these sickies! Cody stayed in the lodge with Mary and Evan. So Emily and I got our girls out to there lessons. I had one sad Cadence. She was clinging to me and kept crying. I think she gets so nervous that it almost makes her sick. I stayed with her for a bit. They had all the kids got up the little hill and then ski down one at a time so they could divide them up by skill. Brianna went down so good, doing her turns and all. So she went in the more advanced lessons! I couldn't get Cadence to go. I finally took her hand and started down with her and then let go. She skied down (basically snow plowed, but she turned a little bit). So she and Ali were in the same lesson. Then I took off, because she's a lot more brave when her mom's not around!

There's Brianna, Cadence and Ali ready for their lessons!

Cadence getting ready to go down the bunny hill. I told her to smile and she started crying.

Brianna was pretty excited!

Emily and I met up with Megan and David and away we went. We skied most of the morning together. It was a lot of fun. We got to a ski lift and Emily and I went together. We were waiting and then we went to sit down. But this chair lift was going fast, and it was super high. I am always used to the chairs hitting me in the knees. So we misjudged it. Plus I wasn't close enough to Emily, so the bar hit me hard in the butt! Plus the chair hit Emily in the back. We didn't fall, and the chair was pushing us forward. I was cringing, thinking it was going to hit me in the back of the head any moment. When all of the sudden we were scooped up and we were sitting on the chair. Not sure how we did it! But we made it on. The operator was laughing and yelling, "WOW, GOOD SAVE GUYS!" We died laughing. Seriously, we were laughing so hard, that I was crying. It was hilarious. Plus my butt really hurt!! Ha ha! It was super funny. We skied down and got on the same chair lift with no incident this time. We had a really good time!

It was a beautiful day for skiing!

Here comes Megan coming down on her snowboard!

There's David!

Emily, Megan and David starting to go down the hill!

Yeah Emily!! Ha ha!

Emily and I!

Then we decided to go check on our girls. We checked at the bunny hill but they weren't there. So we started skiing down and I saw Brianna. I skied ahead so I could get some pictures of her. They were playing follow the leader with her class. She was doing awesome. So proud of her.

Here comes Brianna!

Brianna following her class down the hill!

We kept going down and we found Ali and Cadence. I stayed on the other side of the hill so Cadence couldn't see me. She was half way down the big hill. But she was having issues. I could tell she was scared. I so, wanted to go over and help her, but the instructor was right there helping her so I didn't. I was so proud of Cadence that she did it. She made it down the hill! Yeah! Brianna went down, probably 4 or 5 times with her class.

Cadence was refusing to get up. Her instructor had to walk up to help her! This was a steeper part and Cadence wasn't liking it at all!!

The teacher got her up and she started coming down!

Then we went in for lunch. Well I got into the lodge and DJ had decided that he wanted to have a lesson and so did Abbi. We had given her some medicine earlier and I think it was working. So I ran them down and got them their skis and into a class. We ran them out and made it just in time. I came back in and Cadence had finished eating and was telling us that she was not going to ski. I asked if she wanted another lesson and she said yes. So Richard took her out and I went and paid for another lesson. It was the best thing that we did! She just needed more confidence.

DJ playing on my phone, and he decided he was going to try!

Bundling up Abbi so she could go to her lesson!

DJ and I taking him to his lesson!

By this time, I was tired of running around in my ski boots and was hungry. So I sat down and ate some lunch. Then Brianna was ready to go skiing again. So we both went out together. Richard was keeping an eye on the kids in lessons. Brianna and I came out just in time to see Emily and Ali. Ali had fallen off the chair lift and was embarrassed and crying. She was kind of screaming and crying. I went up to her and said, "Ali, guess what?" She looked at me and I told her that her mom and me and almost falling with the chair lift. I told her my butt still hurts. She started laughing. Then we decided that Ali and I would go on the next chair lift together. So away we went. We all skied down together. Megan and David came with us too. Brianna was doing awesome. Ali liked to go fast and would just fly! Literally, fly! Then there would be a big white puff of snow where she crashes. She cracked me up!

We had so much fun skiing together!!

Me trying to take a picture of Brianna me and Ali on the chair lift. I couldn't quite get Brianna in it!! Ha ha! Ali was a happy camper!

Brianna loved skiing!

Here comes Megan, Emily and David on the chair lift!

We all went down 3 or 4 times. Then I decided to go check up on DJ and Cadence. DJ and his dad were walking together. He stayed in his lesson for an hour. But then when he saw his dad, he broke down crying. So he was done. He did good though. When they went to the bunny hill it was super busy with a lot of adults learning how to snowboard. I think it kind of overwhelmed him.

My 2 handsome guys!! Love them!

I then walked up to the bunny hill to see how Cadence was doing. She was zipping down the hill doing her turns and everything. The instructors had set up a little obstacle course that she had to go through. She had no problem. I talked with the instructors and asked if she would go down the big hill. They said she had the skills but she was too scared. They had tried a few times. So I talked to her and as I was an instructor came up and told her she would take Cadence by herself down the hill. So away they went. That was the best thing ever! They went 2 or 3 times. Cadence loved it and wasn't afraid anymore! Yeah!!

This whole time we haven't seen Abbi at all. I wasn't sure where she went with her class. She was gone for about 1 1/2hrs. We came off the chair lift and I saw her going into the lodge. They were having a bathroom break. I went to talk to her and her instructor. They went all over the hill. They even did some blue runs. Wow! But, Abbi was done. She was so tired. She still wasn't feeling the greatest. I thanked the instructor and told him she was done. She had a little break in the lodge. She really wanted to show me what she could do.

This is when I finally saw Abbi with her class (behind her)!

DJ being goofy in the lodge!

So Abbi and I went and did a run down the hill. I was so happy, that she did the lesson. She did awesome. I could tell she was sick though. She was totally wiped by the time we came back up the chair lift. I am glad we were able to ski down together at least once!

There goes Abbi. This is when we went skiing together!

Abbi and I going up the chair lift!

As we were going up Abbi spotted Brianna going down the hill. Brianna never stopped! She went down that hill so many times!!

Then Cadence was finished with her lesson. She was super excited to ski down with all of us. So away we went. She did it a few times with us. The day was almost over. So glad we put her in that second lesson. Huge difference. She was happy and knew she could go down the hill. She did awesome.

There goes Cadence. So proud of her! Way to go girl!

Me and two of my girls...Cadence and Brianna! So fun!

Yahoo Cadence!!

Ali coming up the lift by herself!

Emily and David being goofy on the chair lift!!

It was so fun skiing with all my kids. I loved it! They are all getting so good at it!! It was a really fun day. I was super tired by the end of the day. I was going the whole time. I sat down for maybe 10mins to gobble down a sandwich. But, so glad we went. Richard was a huge help in the lodge. He made sure everyone was doing ok and keeping kids happy if they came in for a break.

Cadence and I went down one more time by ourselves. Brianna was tired and went inside and her dad helped her take all her stuff back. So Cadence and I went down. It was fun just going with her. She loved it. We came back up the chair lift and I told her we were going to ski to the rental shop. So we did and took all our stuff back. This was at about 4:00pm. So we were there all day!

Then away we went. I knew everyone was going to be tired. I asked all the kids if they had fun and they all screamed, "YES"!! So it was a success!! We got down the hill and started going home on the highway. I knew DJ was going to fall asleep. So we stopped at a gas station and got them all a treat and slurpee. That did the trick. It kept everyone awake!

YEAH, everyone had so much fun!!

Now everyone is starting to zone out and be super tired!!!

We made it back to the condos and supper was ready. We ate and then the kids wanted to go swimming. So we all got ready to go. All the guys decided to go check out the new sports store instead. So they all went together. So all the kids and ladies went swimming. I talked the kids into going outside to the hot tub. Man that felt so good! My back was really starting to hurt!  DJ and Brianna stayed in the pool the longest. They were being super crazy and DJ was jumping in to the water. He's always been super careful around water, so it was funny to watch him! He would even go under the water and he'd come up with a crazy facial expression and wiping the water from his eyes.

DJ and Brianna busy swimming away!

My favorite picture of DJ jumping! So funny!

DJ and Brianna both jumping into the pool!

The kids had so much fun swimming and doing crafts. We told them when they were finished swimming I would shower them and put their jammies on. Then they went into the craft room with Grandma and Aunt Tiffani.

Busy kids in the craft room. They were all determined to do every single puzzle there!

We also had a movie on too!

Everyone had so much fun. Keira loved to paint!

My busy little puzzle makers!

Brianna and Ali. I think everyone was pretty tired!

We went back to the condo and I got my kids ready for bed. We were planning on heading home the next day. We were thinking of going out to lunch with everyone then heading home. But my back was literally killing me. It kept going into spasms. Not fun. I took some pills and went to bed early. I couldn't sit on the couch anymore, it felt good laying down. So that's what I did. I was a bit of a party pooper that night. Evan screamed most of the night. I felt so bad for him. He was really sick. They ended up going home Sunday morning too. We left at about 10:30am. We went straight home. So glad we did. The roads weren't the greatest, so glad we did it during the day. It was a fun trip. Happy to be home again!