Our first ski trip!

We just planned our trip to Park City next Christmas and I don't think the kids really know what to expect of a ski trip. So we started thinking of a way to introduce them to skiing so we wouldn't spend our entire vacation learning how to ski. We also knew it would be good for Matt and I to try it out again since its been several years since we have each skied. I googled "closest snow skiing to OKC" and a place called Snow Creek came up. Turns out it was close to William Jewell and Matt had been before. It has grown quite a bit but is still a small man-made ski "mountain." At only 5 hours away we figured we had nothing to lose by trying it out. The kids had their winter break so we left Friday around noon, drove 5 hours to Snow Creek, and we were able to ski all day Saturday as well as Sunday morning. We ended up coming home around 2pm on Sunday. It was perfect!

When we drove into Kansas City we realized it was too late to do much of anything so after finding out our hotel had a pool we decided to buy the kids a couple swimsuits (since we left them at home) and just swim for the night and get in bed early. Matt pulled over to a shopping center for me to check on suits  and of course they didn't have any since it was the middle of winter. I came right back outside to find Hudson throwing up on the sidewalk. Not the best way to start vacation! We went straight to the hotel, put him in bed, and I left for Target to try and buy swimsuits. I quickly found what we needed and drove back to find Hudson feeling much better...so maybe just carsickness? I rested with Hudson while Matt and Hadley went to Cracker Barrel for dinner and by the time they came back we were pretty sure Hudson was fine! We changed into our suits and went down to the pool for swimming and relaxing in the hot tub. After we tired out we got in bed early to get rested for the next day.

We woke up Saturday to everybody feeling great and ready to go. We got all bundled up in our snow gear (I had no idea how much work this would be) and drove about 10 minutes to the mountain. It was absolutely freezing with record lows and there was a sign warning of frostbite and keeping all body parts fully covered. Thankfully, we came prepared and we managed to stay fairly warm. We found our boots and skis, checked the kids into ski school, and Matt and I were up the first chair lift to see what we remembered. We had so much fun skiing on our own while checking in on the kids. Hadley seemed to pick it up so quickly and Hudson just had a little more trouble with balancing. After a couple hours of school we got the kids and took them up on our own. They did so great. Hadley was little more cautious and took her time but rarely fell and loved it. She ended up getting very brave and would try anything we asked. Hudson said "the pie doesn't really work for me" and he would point his skis straight forward and hope for the best. He plowed over a snow boarder that had fallen and people just kind of knew to get out of his way. He had a couple big falls and we spent much of the time cracking up watching him. We even put the go-pro on him so that we could live the skiing through his eyes! We took a break for lunch in the lodge and so we could thaw out a bit. When everyone was ready we went up for a few more runs before calling it quits. We turned in our skis and bought tickets to snow tube instead. The kids loved tubing! The ramp was soooo fast and way more fun than I ever expected. We finished up, went back to the hotel to spend some time in the hot tub, made a trip to Cracker Barrel, and fell quickly to sleep. Such a fun, exhausting day.

SO COLD!!!

EXHAUSTED...but ready to get the skis off and go tubing.

On Sunday we contemplated skiing again or just going home but we all decided it would be fun to ski. We bought more lift tickets and spent a few more hours skiing. We all were exhausted a little sooner this time and called it quits about noon. We had clothes to change into in the car and we were on the road home. I am so excited we decided to try out this place for learning to ski. The ski school was great and the mountain was perfect for learning. I love that it was such an easy weekend trip and something we could plan last minute again someday. Im also thrilled the kids loved skiing and it made me even more excited for our Christmas vacation this coming year.