Kassebaum Krew

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

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!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Juliet Goes to Ballet

A great (cheap is more like it) opportunity came about through my home school group to have the girls sign up for ballet. Since our schedule is already quite full, except for poor Juliet, we decided to sign her up. She LOVES to dance around the house and has been asking to "do gymnastics" or "do dance" so this came at the perfect time. The girl teaching it does ballet herself and is trying to raise money to go on a mission as well as go to Bible college this spring.

Showing off some moves before we go to class.

This is how she dances around the house on a regular basis.

Sweet little girls holding hands.

Stretching HIGH!

I know these all look very similar, but they are all similarly cute!

Some adults have difficulty doing this move too...the tree in Yoga.

No one else was dancing at this time, but Juliet kept on moving.

Nama was in town and did this super cute braid. I've copied this "ballet hair" every week and it is perfect for practice.

Story time, because, well, its hard to keep kids focused. The teacher does well with mixing things up.

Mommy, come join me!

Mt. Charleston

Earlier this month we went sledding on Mt. Charleston with some friends.

What a great daddy. He got lots of praise from strangers on this trek up the hill.

Juliet quickly figured out how to slide down the mountain on her belly. She had a blast and giggled constantly.

Mr. Kid and some of his crew ready to head down.

Its like a circus act.

And that would be Jonathan and Juliet crashed nicely in that tree. Juliet was less than thrilled.

Kylie and M went down the mountain together over and over.

Juliet quickly smiling then screaming "I DON'T WANT TO RUN INTO A TREE". We didn't, but it was close.

K & M going again.

The just about got smoked going down this part of the hill. You can see the Olympic moguls that bumped them pretty bad, but they held on. It was awesome!

Ava liked staying stationary more than sledding.

Eating snow.

A couple of the W kids with Juliet.

Who doesn't love family fun?

Brrrr

Where do we live again? Somewhere that requires this get-up to go out and play? Give us a few months and add 90 degrees to the current temp and we'll be back to normal weather.

Christmas

Here I am a month later blogging about Christmas! I thought about skipping the post but I decided to keep it short and sweet.

We went to California for Christmas and enjoyed the long holiday weekend. The girls love going home (my aunt always corrects me that home is where Jonathan, the kids and I live, but we can't stop calling going to CA going "home") and are always sad when we leave. Having family all in the same town is nice because we get to see everyone in one trip, but on the flip side, then we have to see everyone in one trip. We were at 3 different houses on Christmas day and even though we love seeing family, there just aren't enough hours in the day to see everyone as long as we/they want to.