happily ever after: Mammoth!.. (Week 290/152)

Mammoth Week! Will left early Sunday morning for a business trip so I was alone with the kids as we prepped for our first ever family Mammoth trip! It's been super cold, and that means it's always perfect timing for a lunch date at Mitsua for ramen with my KK!

Had to show how lush our lawn has been. Strangely. So that's why our water bill is so high!

Tuesday night we had our last basketball practice. Needless to say, it was FREEZING as usual. I had Katelyn all bundled up so it was still so cold.

We've been preparing for Tyler's first piano recital at home. Katelyn and I will be the audience and Tyler will practice going up to the piano, bowing, and playing his songs. Katelyn even pulled up some chairs to make it all the more realistic.

Had a delicious Thai lunch at Diamond Jamboree with my friend Hanna and then coffee at 85 degrees. Love my Thursdays - no rushing to pick up Tyler!

This was the Thursday that we started Katelyn on her actual ballet classes. Our original Mammoth plan was to leave Thursday night, so we had planned to start ballet the first week of February. But since we shifted our plans by a day (leave Fri, come back Monday) we were able to attend class with Katelyn's friends.

I am a crazy packer - lists, lists, and more lists. In the last minute packing for our trip Thursday, we realized that the snow bib we had gotten for Tyler was HUGE. Like almost unwearable. A quick text to a friend and we were able to borrow some of their snow gear. Met up with the Owyangs for a quick Chipotle dinner and then headed over to their place for the snow gear. Their son Luke has the same piano teacher and the boys both gave practice runs of their recital songs! Of course Katelyn had to have her turn too.

Friday morning. Bright and early, we hit the road before 9am. The car was PACKED and we had a long drive. The kids were excited and in good moods. Little did they know how long we were all going to be stuck in the car.

There's a length of road in the middle of the nowhere where the road goes up and down like a mini roller coaster. Katelyn L O V E D it and would put her hands up each time and squeal. Heehee.

We stopped before Bishop (?) at a gas station for a bathroom break and to stretch our legs. It really was in the middle of nowhere.

5+ hours later, we hit Mammoth! Whoohoo! Of course we had to stop for a quick photo opp. I was relieved to see there was still a good amount of snow.

We went directly to the main Canyon Lodge at the Mammoth Ski resort where we met up with Kareen and her family. Yay! It was good to see them and we were all really excited to start the trip!

We were at Canyon Lodge to get the kids fitted for their snowboard and ski rentals so that we wouldn't have to do this the next morning. We wanted to drop off the kids quick in the morning so that the 4 of us could hit the slopes. The kids were so cute, measuring their heights and getting fitted for their gear. It was Katelyn and Leah's first time on skis and we honestly had no idea what to expect. They were signed up for a ski/daycare combo, so if they hated skiing they would just head down to the daycare center in the Village.

A (long) stop at a local snow shop while Kareen/Andy looked for some helmets. Katelyn even tried out an R2D2 one. We were killing a little time since our condo wasn't ready yet. Then we headed over.

Our condo property was called Sunstone, literally on the slopes of Eagle Run. Apparently it's one of Mammoth's 'luxurious' ski-in ski-out properties. It was very nice and convenient. We had a 2 bedroom condo. Our room had a bunk bed - Tyler slept on the top and Will/I were on the bottom. We brought a small inflatable mattress for Katelyn to sleep on as well. The other room had 1 queen or king (I don't remember) that Kareen/Andy/Leah all slept together on.

The kids quickly made themselves at home. There was even a pullout couch in the living room that we didn't need to use.

For dinner we Yelped the area and found this great little place called Toomey's. Total little hole-in-the-wall sports-themed place, but the food was really delicious and very generous portion sizes.

Then back home and getting ready to bed - excited about the next day! The kids tried on their snow gear and Tyler even got some piano practice in on the electric keyboard that I brought. Yes, I'm THAT mom. What could I do? He had his first piano recital coming up and I knew 4 days of non-practice would really screw us up.

Saturday morning. BRIGHT and Early we were all up and dressed and ready to go. How cute is Katelyn in her little snowboarding socks? Will had bought these socks and this was her first time wearing them. Note: she did not wear them when she was sized for her ski boots the day before. Something we later REALLY came to regret.

Drop off for the girls was at 9am at Canyon Lodge. It was quite chaotic there with so many kids and their parents in a rush. Katelyn was SO cute getting ready. Tyler too. Will dropped Tyler off quickly at his snowboarding class while we stayed with the girls.

Misleading photo. Katelyn totally freaked out about her ski boots. She barely got them on before she started complaining that they were too tight. Not just verbally complaining but lying on the ground screaming and crying. ... We got her a larger size boot but there was just sense in talking to her. Her teacher tried to help her and while it helped a little, she would ultimately start to complaining and cry about her shoes. I was, needless to say, quite frustrated. Even snacks didn't help. In the end, her little class went out first (I think there were 4 other kids) and the supervisor came over to help with Katelyn. Amazingly, the lady took out some princess and happy face stickers. She had Katelyn choose a happy face sticker to put on each of her boots, to "remind her to smile" and also had her choose a princess sticker for her helmet. MAGIC! And off she went. I was so relieved.

Any other day I'd have loved to stay and watch the girls. But time was ticking! We took off immediately and hit the slopes, fingers crossed that the girls would have a fun day.

Whoohoo! We had a GREAT day boarding. It was wonderful and reminded me of the days when we were carefree and childless. Going down the mountain really is a rush! I had forgotten how much fun it was- especially on such a large mountain like Mammoth vs. a southern California mountain. We had a great time!

We made sure that we took the gondola all the way to the top of the mountain.

Video of some snow fun for the whole family:

By 3pm we were pretty beat and made sure to head over back to Canyon Lodge to pick up Tyler from his snowboarding class. I think he's really only going to LEARN for reals if we put him in a private lesson. He's gotten better but not enough that we'd be able to take him up onto the mountain with us. Hopefully we'll be able to do some more one-on-one with him.

Yay Tyler!

We watched Tyler go up and down this little bunny slope a few times. I loved that the teachers taught the kids all to strap themselves onto their boards and also unstrap. So responsible!

His teacher told us that he thought that Tyler was totally ready to hit the slopes. Too bad we didn't get a chance to do it. Hopefully he won't forget before we go again.

We even bumped into the Wooly the Mammoth! He was in a rush but we managed to squeeze in a quick photo opp.

After we put all our gear in the car, we headed down to the village via the gondola to pick up the girls. There was a parade/festival going on later that day and we bumped into Wooly again! Luckily he wasn't in such a rush this time.

The girls were happily watching a DVD in the daycare. Apparently Leah didn't want anything to do with her skis and came down to the daycare pretty quick. Katelyn, on the other hand, enjoyed going up and down the conveyer magic carpet. But I don't know if she really even got her skiis on. Sigh. Oh well.

After pick up, we headed out to the main area to join in on the festival/party fun. Mammoth has really made an effort to be more family friendly!

The kids got balloons and hand (instead of face) painting.

Whew, tiring! We stopped at a restaurant (Skadi?) for dinner and boy were we sore and tired. Back home we had planned to have a night of board games and drinks after the kids were in bed... but we were just SO exhausted. Took some cute photos of the kids before bath and we all headed to bed.

Sunday! So glad we decided to stay an extra day and leave on Monday instead of Sunday. Since we were staying right off the slopes, we bought two lift tickets and took turns on the mountain. Kareen/I went first for a bit and then switched with Andy/Will. We suited the kids up in their snow clothes and played in the snow right outside and sledded. Fun!

We were so close to Eagle Lodge that we were able to walk down there with the kids to each lunch. It was SO convenient!! Only thing that wasn't so convenient was that the daycare is at the Village/Canyon. Next time we'll try to stay there I guess.

Tyler made a new friend quickly and enjoyed sledding with him.

In the early afternoon, we switched with Andy/Will. Kareen and I had a BLAST! We boarded non stop and really pushed ourselves. I was really proud of how we were doing! Meanwhile, the boys put the kids on their snowgear. So cute!

There is a little slope next to our condo that makes it easy to board down to the lift. Tyler used that path to practice his boarding.

Future skiier? Not holding my breath. Hopefully we'll get her on a snowboard next time!

The kids enjoyed this day the most because they got to play in the snow ALL day. And it was stress free since our condo was just a short flight of stairs away. Perfect!

On one of our runs we boarded back down next to where the kids were playing before continuing down and getting back on the lift. I liked that the kids got to see mommy actually boarding!

Snowmen fun.

Sunday was the Superbowl so we ordered in pizza and watched the game. Thank goodness we weren't as exhausted as we were on the previous day. We put the kids to bed and played a lively game of Puerto Rico that I ... WON!!!!! I had to take a picture of my winning board to savor the moment. This is SUCH a crazy mind-bending strategy game.

Monday morning we were all packed up and ready to go. We hit the Stove for a delicious breakfast first though. The kids had their own booth across from ours. Peace and quiet for us!

Then we found a hill nearby for some great sledding. It got kind of crazy!

What a wonderful way to end a wonderful trip. There was a point earlier in the year that I really didn't think we'd able to get our act together and actually pull this trip off. But some last minute changes (Tyler's piano recital was supposed to be this weekend and got pushed back) left this weekend free and BAMN we scheduled it and it was done. Can't wait to do it again. (fingers crossed!).