Ski Week!

We finally decided to embrace winter in New England. On the kids' February vacation, we headed up to Jackson, NH (one of our favorite towns in New Hampshire), rented a house and hit the slopes. Unfortunately, we were having a strange winter and there had been no fresh snowfall for about six weeks. All of the signs in town said things like "pray for snow," "Snow snow come again." But, the Wildcat Mountain was perfect - all the runs were open, no lines, great instructors, just perfect for our first time skiing family. Gabriel went to the nursery for a few days which took a bit of getting used to. Luckily, he was with Theo so that helped a lot.
Maddie had three days of ski school which really made a difference. By the end of the third day, she could ski wherever Nathan and I could.
Theo loved playing ninja (without the blue vest). He'd run around the house giggling like crazy. Unfortunately, he didn't love skiing (or so he says now). He was in a snowplay program and got up on skis but didn't ride the lift - next year!

The boys loved helping Daddy make a fire.

It really was a true vacation for us. We had time together to do a new sport (we'd never skied together before!). I had skied more when I was younger, which was great, as we were perfectly matched on the slopes. In athletic activities, this rarely happens with us! We took two lessons and just had a fun time.

It is steeper than it looks!

On the fourth day, I took the boys to a children's museum while Nathan and Maddie skied. Unfortunately, it was a very windy day on the mountain and the skiers were a bit fatigued.
Before we headed back to reality, we stopped at the darling Nestlenook resort with a Austrian flair - huge ice skating rink, sleigh rides, hot chocolate. So cute!

Gaby really enjoyed being pulled around on the sled.

Theo said his favorite part of vacation was ice skating.

We passed on the sleigh ride as conditions were a bit mucky and we thought it'd be more fun at night with the lights and maybe a gentle snowfall!

And what's a vacation without a trip to urgent care? We were having lunch, car packed, ready to drive back to Boston. We were so happy to find this amazing organic pizza restaurant with an open kitchen and amazing ingredients. Maybe we were vegetable starved, but the salad Nathan and I shared was out of this world. As we were waiting for the check, Gabriel stumbles and hits the side of a metal chair cutting his face. His face! The cut was deep enough that I thought a stop at urgent care was warranted. We knew exactly where it was as two years prior, we'd spent time there when Nathan threw out his back.

Gabriel was such a trooper. He waited patiently. He lay perfectly still while the nurse looked at his wound and then glued it. The nurse practitioner was another story. She asked me when his last tetanus shot was and I said, "I wasn't sure." She said, "Well, it was probably in the past few years." I said, "Probably, as he's only 18 months." She startles, looks at me and laughs. Then as she was gluing his face, she says with a giggle, "This stuff is so sticky. Last time I glued my glove to some guy's face." WHAT?!? Anyhow, in hindsight we probably should have headed back home and taken care of the face there. I'm still hopeful the scar will fade.

Aside from that little speedbump, we've got the skiing bug! Bring on winter (but not until December, please)!