Ski weekend

We just got back from a fun weekend in Bend. We took off Friday and got up to the mountain in the early afternoon. Annikka and Eila got all bundled up.

From Jan/Feb2012

Mt. Bachelor is a huge (and kind of expensive) ski area, but they have one nice little lift that's free for everyone. So Annikka and I strapped on our skis to play around for a little while.

From Jan/Feb2012

Annikka's taken a couple of lessons this year, but she's not able to ski on her own. She can glide, and she can turn slightly, but she can't consistently make a wedge, which means she can't stop on her own.

But Annikka wanted to ride up the lift for the first time ...

From Jan/Feb2012

... which meant that I grabbed her under the arms and took her down the hill four different times. It looked like this:



... and she loved it.

From Jan/Feb2012

After that, it was back to the hotel from some swimming.

From Jan/Feb2012

Pool time gave us further insight into our little Eila's personality. At one point she sauntered over to the hot tub (with no one but Annikka in it), paused ever so briefly, and jumped right in (literally). Dana quickly scooped her up from beneath the surface. We were freaked out -- watching your toddler disappear over the edge of a pool is terrifying -- but Eila was ecstatic. For the rest of the night, she carelessly leapt into the hot tub and the pool. In fact, she got angry ("no! no! no! no! no! no!") if we held out our arms to catch her.

From Jan/Feb2012

Oy.

On Saturday I got in close to a full day of skiing, and Annikka took a lesson. Dana selflessly made three (!) separate trips from the hotel up to the mountain. It's a good half hour each way over snowy roads. Thanks, Dana!

After skiing we went to visit our friends Garret and Lynette who now live in Bent. We got to meet their cute new son, eight month old Louie.

From Jan/Feb2012

And Eila got to terrorize their dog Chase.

From Jan/Feb2012

It was great to see them and their beautiful house in their awesome neighborhood.

Sunday morning we got up, ate our complimentary breakfast, and spent some more time in the pool. Then we packed up the car and made the snowy drive home over the Santiam and Tombstone passes:

From Jan/Feb2012

Lots of snow made the driving slow. But thanks to the outback and our studded tires, it was a smooth drive, as evidenced by the zonked nutjobs in the backseat:

From Jan/Feb2012

From Jan/Feb2012