Brianhead, UT~433rd Ski Trip

A couple weekends ago, we packed up our cold weather gear and headed to Brianhead, Utah to the Summit Chateau Lodge with a few families from the squadron.  We didn't ski this year, because, well, we haven't yet won the lottery, and there is no way Juliet would have enjoyed ski school.  We did however enjoy sledding and snow shoeing, and had a great time with friends and I was most happy with leaving the distractions of work and home behind us for a few days.

 

The chateau we stayed at was awesome!  It had 2 levels-the upstairs was a long, creepy hallway with a dozen rooms, so we all had our own place to escape to at night, or for the munchkins to nap.

It may be hard to believe, but the kids loved screaming while running up and down this hallway.

I didn't get a great picture of our room, which was good since it usually had clothes strewn all over the place, but we had a room at the end of the building with a gorgeous view of the surrounding area.  We were up at 9,200 feet so needless to say, there was a plethora of snow!

Good morning!

When you first walk in to the chateau (after taking a 30 minute snow cat ride through the mountains-GORGEOUS-but I didn't get any photos....the ride was too bumpy and we were holding on tight to kids)...


van converted to pick up passengers in town and bring them UP the mountain

...there is a giant mud room.  We definitely had a lot of stuff!

 At the end of the mudroom is a laundry room and sauna.

The downstairs of the chateau had just about every single form of entertainment you could imagine....ping pong, air hockey, foosball, pool table, piano, a Wii set up with Rock Band, a bar, a popcorn machine and even an oxygen bar for those affected by the altitude!

 Here are the kiddos playing (on) air hockey.

Rock Band-the drums were annoying to those watching.  They didn't sound like drums---just torturous tapping!

Baby E getting ready to rock out.

The boys introducing the owner of the chateau to Jeremiah Weed.

The kiddos watching a movie while some of us were in the industrial sized kitchen getting a cooking lesson from a professional!

Greg (red hat) is Rachel's (white shirt) brother and he's the executive chef at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.  He gave us a lesson on some of his recipes.

A couple "special" guys helping peel potatoes.

The chateau had all sorts of fun snow supplies and we decided to give snow shoeing a try.  It was a blast and we didn't sink knee deep (hip deep for the girls) as we played outside.

Upright....about half the time.


Luckily our friends brought 2 kid carriers and we were able to borrow one for Juliet.  Snow shoes her size were not available.


Juliet's tour bus.

Ready to go!


Ava was sick of waiting for us and headed up the hill.

The view-spectacular!

I lost count as to how many times we had to stop and get snow out of Kylie's gloves.  She kept falling and was a tad bit whiny.  Again, we saw how much she is like me and how much Ava is like Jonathan.

If you look to the 11 o'clock position on the yurt, you can see a little snow man Jonathan and the big girls built the day before.


It was now time to sled.  Jonathan put a lot of effort into making the paths by sledding uphill.


The path is ready!
 

 Kylie giving mommy a push.

We left the snow shoes on the girls so they would be able to trek back up the hill a lot easier.  Kylie did poke herself in the head a few times going down on her belly.

Weeeee!!!!

Little Miss Cuteness was fine observing from the sidelines.  She wasn't too interested in sledding.

Jonathan decided it was time to sled down the other side of the hill....towards the road to the chateau....with a big drop.  Luckily he fell off the sled before getting to the ledge and flying.  He waited at the bottom and kindly encouraged me to make Kylie go down too.  I wasn't too happy, and we even had someone on the trip break her wrist going down this same trail a few hours later.  We didn't know they'd be sledding there or we would have warned them to check it out before racing down the hill!

Ava making her own path...a great reflection of her personality!

Ava really enjoyed herself.  Not one whine!

She did prefer to sled with daddy.

This is what you could call a train wreck.  I just wanted a cute picture of everyone, but wearing snow shoes was awkward and people were getting hurt.  You can see tears on Kylie's face and Juliet looks terrified.  The sleds wanted to just go with gravity, so I had to give up a cute picture and go help.

Afterward, we jumped in the hot tub, enjoyed the view, and Kylie made $4 off Jonathan by doing snow angels in the snow that was piled up next to the jacuzzi.  He did make $1 back when he did the same.

We definitely plan on going back next year.  We had the chateau to ourselves and it comfortably slept, fed and entertained our big group.  It was the perfect set up for a large group!