Grand Targhee Weekend

For our long Presidents' Day weekend, we headed east to Driggs for snow and friends. Our first stop was south of Victor, where we found a free cross-country trail at a resort's golf course. It was pretty quiet, just before a storm, with only a handful of other skiers enjoying the trail. This was my view behind: Hadley inching along in her plastic skis with Dad keeping her company.

And my view in front: our fearless leader, who only fell a few times. It was a pretty trail with a few loops that followed a creek flowing into a pond. It was too cloudy to see the Tetons, but still surrounded by mountains and cabins. The kids were done after the short loop, but my spouse was kind enough to stay with them while I went on the remaining larger loop solo.

Then we met friends at their condo. The kids all get along great, and they let us crash with them for a night. Too bad this was the only picture I got of them, wedged between the couch and the wall with a game!

The next morning we drove up the mountain where the kids reported for ski lessons. Because of their age difference, they were in different classes.

Both lessons ended at lunch, so after we ate our sandwiches, I skied with the kids on the bunny hill. We started off on the magic carpet (a gently moving belt). I think I rode it at least 10 times, at which point Hadley requested to go on the lift. (Absolutely!) Owen probably rode this thing 40 times between his lesson and our afternoon together.

Here's O going down the little hill back to the magic carpet. He was in the zone, on repeat, but I had made him a deal that he could do whatever he wanted, no pressure. So, this was what he wanted to do! And I was glad that he found something he liked (since he was nervous from a couple of crashes in his short skiing history).

Hadley really enjoyed her lesson, even though according to her it was full of "toddlers". She seems to really like skiing! Yea! Here she is leading me after we rode up the chair lift on the beginner hill. (The group she passes is her class from the morning - the ones that did full-day lessons. Her instructor says "Look at that unicorn!!" as she zooms by. He liked her helmet.) We went up a few times, and she showed me a "bobsled" run, a "mouse house" door cut out of wood, and a lot of moxie! She was excited to be the leader and was really the happiest I've maybe ever seen her when she was shouting, "Follow me! This is sooo fun!!"

And at the end of the day, we met up with Hadley's friend, Ella, who lives down the street and goes to H's school. They were pretty cute little snow bunnies together!

They went down the hill a couple of times together, along with Ella's dad (and me for a bit!). Since everyone was going, even Owen left the magic carpet for a trip up the chair lift for his last run of the day, so I stuck with him pretty closely. When asked if they'd like to ski again, I got a "yes!" and a "maybe". Ha!