Last week as my Dad was having surgery and I was finalizing plans for a ski trip to Jackson Hole (which I never really felt settled about). I decided to do a little switch. We would go to Sun Valley over President's weekend so we could stop by and see my parents and then we would do Jackson Hole over the next break the kids have. I found some better housing in Jackson Hole that will be more ski in ski out and found housing in Sun Valley so things were falling into place and I was grateful our original Jackson Hole housing had a flexible cancellation policy. I called the Sun Valley rental agency that the place was booked through the following day to ask some questions and everything was lining up. Then three days before we were supposed to leave I got a call saying they were going to have to cancel my booking. I have never had that happen and was kind of frustrated. I called them, it's a whole story because they were going to make me call VRBO to get my refund. . .Anyway, we decided to stay home Friday and Saturday and have a chill weekend here. I think we are all still a little tired from the crazy busy weekend and the boys had early out Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday thanks to parent teacher conferences which were great to attend with each of them. Their teachers this year are amazing and we gave them each a little valentine with chocolates while we met with them. So we went on with our regular activities the rest of the week. Andrew had his Valentine party on Thursday and Marcus had his on Friday. I forgot to take a picture of Marcus with the R2D2 Valentine holder.
Saturday the kids woke up to presents and heart shaped pancakes as per Valentine's tradition.
Marcus had a mid day basketball game. They only had 5 people there on his team since it was a holiday weekend and they were really crushing the other team so they were trying to pass the ball around so everyone could score. It took Marcus several times to make a basket, it was so close so many times. It was fun and I have video proof of him dribbling it down, taking a shot missing, somebody else taking a shot, Marcus getting the rebound and finally making a basket. The weather was lovely so we took the boys to play pickleball outside. We had a blast until the very end. Steve and I were playing singles while the boys played on the playground for a bit. Then Andrew wanted to play again but he stood right next to the net while we were playing a point and I tried to hit a crazy backhand and the ball hit him right in the head. He was not too happy and refused to play. UGH! So we went home and I started making our traditional fondue dinner.
After dinner Lila came up and said, is it ok if I have some friends over to watch a movie. We said sure. I was going to make cookies earlier but didn't get around to it so I started making cookies. It was kind of funny because I wanted to make Valentine M&M cookies but I could not find the Valentine M&Ms at any stores so then I decided I would just sort through my Christmas M&Ms to get the red ones for Valentine cookies then I could do it again with the green ones for St Patrick's Day the kids thought I was genius and hilarious at the same time. Anyway, it turns out that Finn and Easton were the only two that could come so Lila had two boys over on Valentine's to watch a movie. 😉
Sunday morning we got up and started getting ready to head to Idaho. We decided to spend the afternoon at my parent's house then head to Sun Valley and ski Monday. We took off around 11:30am. When we got to my parent's house my Mom spoiled all the kids with Valentine boxes and I gifted them 5 freezer meals they can throw in a slow cooker and enjoy.
Then we ate a linner of Lasgna, the boys played football outside while Lila rested, and then we played some cards before heading on to Sun Valley.
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| Marcus reading and explaining a Big Nate to Grandpa. . .boy humor 😂 |
We made it to our hotel and the boys noticed a chess table in the lobby so they ate some more lasgna then went down to play a round of chess. Then we turned on the TV we watched an AFV episode and there was this video of a kid opening a present which was a brand new cell phone and as he opened the box it fell out and cracked. Just as the phone on the TV hit the ground Lila's phone fell off the bed and made a thud. The timing was hilarious and we laughed about it. Then we turned on some Olympics, the first time we watched any Olympics and we were able to see figure staking and downhill skiing. It was a fun evening.
The next morning everyone slept in until 8:30am. We went down to the hotel breakfast which is always a highlight for the boys, they eat their weight in breakfast foods at the hotel breakfast. Then we got ready to go skiing. Marcus was nervous that we were riding the Gondola up first because he thought that meant hard skiing but I told him we would get up to some easier stuff because we planned to hit Seattle Ridge first which was always a highlight with the kids when we went years ago.
We did a run down Seattle everyone enjoyed so we did it again but stopped to take a picture first.
That lift was starting to get busy so we skied down Lower Broadway which was always a fun run just hard to get out of and back to so we enjoyed it while we could. Well Marcus and I came around a bend and saw Lila helping Andrew back into his skis. Apparently he hit a jump and got some serious air and couldn't quite land it which turned into some tumbles. The lift up from there had no snow underneath it and we saw dropped gloves and ski poles, Lila called a ski equipment graveyard because no one could get to it without snow. And when we got to Christmas Lift it wasn't running, it was running when we went by earlier. So we skied down to another lift and went up to do College Run that is also one of my favorites. The kids all enjoyed it and we even got our pictures taken by a photographer but they want $35/pic so we won't be buying those but the kids thought it was fun. Then everyone was getting a little tired and ready to head back to Mimi and Grandpa's so we decided to do College one more time then head to the car. College Run is 3.6 miles top to bottom and Marcus was crushing it keeping up with Steve, Lila, and Andrew they were all leaving me in the dust. They always have fun doing the little ski down and up this one hill to see who can get the farthest. I tried to take a picture of them doing it but Marcus's skis were backwards so they started coming down.
I know it wasn't much skiing but the kids had a blast and it was just groomer skiing because there isn't much snow with the winter we are having so we made the best of and left happy. Google had us taking the back roads since there was no weather and it was kind of fun, we saw sugar beets and we talked about the Sugar Factory where my Dad, his brother and Dad all worked and the difference between sugar beets and sugarcane. Then we made it to Rupert and ordered from Burgers Etc and took it back to Mimi and Grandpa's then we watched some Olympics with them and visited some more. Marcus sat in the chair next to Grandpa again and had the remote and was muting and skipping commercials and it took me a minute to realize he was running the show and I said, "who let him be in charge?" it was hilarious. On the way home we let the kids watch another movie, they watched two the day before in the car so they thought that was great. Although apparently Finding Dory caused everyone to cry so then they watched Cars 2 and finally Hercules as the final movie. We made it home in time to do a load of laundry and prep for school the next day. It was a lovely little getaway. We made lemonade out of lemons with our VRBO being cancelled and it was a good mix of being home, visiting family, and having an outing.