Last year, Will's grandparents gave a timeshare voucher to Will's parents. We decided to use it to go skiing again, like we did in Massachusetts two years ago. We went to Massanutten, Virginia for a week. Good thing we decided to go THIS January instead of last... Last January I had a broken hand and morning sickness. This year I got to ENJOY the trip!! To make things even better, Will's mom had an extra voucher (meaning an extra condo) and we were able to invite Shara and Dave Ray and their two girls Jayna and Amelia.
Wyatt was super excited to go see snow, play with Jayna, and ski.
Wyatt even had fun packing...
Once we got there (only a NINE hour drive, although the kids actually did pretty well), it was almost midnight. However, they were blowing snow (did I mention that our condo was ON a slope??) and the lights were on, so we wasted no time, got bundled up, and went out to see the slopes.
Wyatt even enjoyed walking under the snow blowers were it was "snowing!" After this, he got super excited to ski himself (which, at the time, I wasn't so sure how he'd actually feel once he got skis on and rode the chairlift. He tends to be timid about new things...)
The next day, Will and John went and skied a whole day while the rest of us hung out at the condo, then we went to the indoor waterpark at Massanutten. I didn't take any pictures of that, but Nan did so I'll try and get some from her to put on here. Wyatt was a brave boy, riding down a smaller (but large, for him) body slide THREE times. The first time he got turned around and came down head first, on his back. He got up and did it again, though, and did great. Then he did it one more time and got turned around again. That was the end of that, but I made a big deal about how proud I was of him for trying it!!
The next day Will and John watched Wyatt, Ruthie, and Jayna while Nan, Shara, and I went and check out a local shopping area. Wyatt LOVED all of the time he got to spend with Jayna!
On Tuesday, we decided to take Wyatt and Jayna skiing. Of all of us, Will and John were the best skiers, so they got to play ski instructor for the day. Will took Wyatt and John took Jayna. Both kids did AMAZING! (And Jayna isn't even three yet!). As I said earlier, I was a little nervous about how Wyatt would react to skiing, but he LOVED it! We were also super lucky, the temperature got up to 60 degrees that day... almost a HOT day for skiing.
First, he rode down from the condo with Daddy. We had to rent skis for him, but his lift ticket is FREE until he's FIVE! Yay!!
He was immediately comfortable on his skis, and ready to GO. He was especially excited about riding the chair lift.
Wyatt and Mommy, ready to hit the slopes!
He skied between Daddy's legs most of the time. He loved the chair lift, and he loved going fast. Everytime I would ski past them, he would say, "Hurry up Daddy and catch Mommy!!!" In fact, he kept requesting to ride the chair lift that took people to the TOP of the mountain. Finally, we decided to take him to the top! Thank goodness Will is such a great skier, and he was able to ski Wyatt all the way back down. Wyatt loved riding to the top, but then when we got off he said, "Wow, Daddy, that's steep. I can't go down that!" But down we went, and he thought it was great!
Papa, Daddy, and Wyatt
On Wednesday we drove the 30 minutes north to visit Luray Caverns. I hadn't been there since I was probably 8-10 years old. Wyatt really enjoyed seeing the caverns. The guide even turned off the lights once to show us how dark it was down there (could not even see your hand right in front of your face), and Wyatt thought it was cool (again, something I was afraid that he would be freaked out about).
On Thursday, Will, John, and I decided to get in another 4 hours of skiing. It was supposed to rain that day, but ended up being 55 degrees and gorgeous. We had a great time, and got in over 20 runs. After a few years of skiing with Will and John, I am actually getting pretty good. We went down the two black diamond slopes a ton, and I did it confidently! Here are some pictures we took at the peak. You could see for a huge distance (we could see the top of these two slopes all the way from Luray!).
On Thursday, Will, Wyatt, Ruthie, and I drove up to the lookout on the other side of the resort. Here's a shot (again, from my phone. Need. to. charge. the. camera!) of the slopes. The big one we took Wyatt on is the far left of the three that go to the top. Our condo was on the third slope of the three on the bottom left. Wyatt skied that one a few time, and skied the lower slope that runs along the bottom the most.
Playing around with Daddy in the condo.
I TRIED to get a good picture of Jayna and Wyatt. TRIED.
Here's Amelia and Ruthie. They had fun too.
Thank you, Granny and Ziggy, for the fun trip. Thank you, Nan and John for all that you did to make it such a great trip!!!
More pictures of toys.
