Angel Fire

This weekend the kids and I went to Angel Fire.  It is a skiing community east of Taos.  Our neighbors have a vacation home there and invited us to spend the weekend.  Shelly mentioned we were the first non-family to come - I was super honored.  We went up Friday night after dropping Matt off at the airport for his visit to San Francisco.

Being true Alaskans we were prepared.  Our neighbors are from Texas and were telling us what we needed to bring to ski and play outside.  It was so cute!  Needless to say, I had everything on the list and more.

On Saturday morning, we woke up and hit the slopes!  I was kinda nervous because the kids haven't been on skis for 9 months and wasn't sure how they would do.  There should not have been any nervousness on my part.

Stephen took off with our neighbor and his youngest son.  Here he is ready for the adventure!

Eleanor and I hit the bunny hill a couple of times.  She was a pro after the first run, and needed some more confidence.  So we mastered the little lift and bunny hill.  Then she graduated to the quad-lift to the top of the mountain!

She was doing so great that we went to the top of the mountain, down the back of the mountain and then back up.  By the time we got back up, she was tired and had lost a little confidence.  She had fallen a couple of times and decided she was too tired to go down.  I pulled her down the easy parts, made her ski a bit, had patience during her meltdown, and successfully made it to the bottom.  I was able to capture her being pulled.

After this picture, I ended up skiing with her between my legs.  At the bottom one of the workers said, "Great job!"  I asked him if he was referring to me or her.  He said both.  It is tired skiing down a hill with about 35 pounds of dead weight between my legs.  It was all worth it though to see her go all the way up the hill twice!

The three of us had a great morning!  Eleanor finished the morning strong and went back to the house with Shelly.  I was invited to ski with the "boys" - the neighbor, his two sons, and Stephen!

Stephen and I enjoyed some nice quiet time on the chair lift.  He even obliged me in taking a few pictures!  It was fun to spend some time just with him.  I was amazed at how well he did on the lift.

My big boy skiing down the hill!  He is a speed monster on the hill.  Ben worked with him to get him to turn more, but skis downhill was his mode.  He went too fast for my comfort in some areas.

We had fun playing at the house after skiing.  Eleanor found the Mardi Gras masks and dressed up.  I think those were the only "girl" toys in the house.

The kids enjoyed some hot chocolate as we waited for dinner - Travis, Stephen, Eleanor, and Andrew.  The boys were great with Eleanor.  Shelly noted that her boys don't normally play with girls and even shun them right now as they are at that age.  Both of her boys treated Eleanor phenomenally!  So thankful for some great neighbors!

While we were bundled up, Matt and Andy were enjoying the awesome game in SF.  Plus the warm sunny weather!

We decided not to ski the second day.  The adults were pretty sore and needed a break.  Ben and I went snowshoeing in the morning.  Great way to start the morning!  It was fun to be back in the mountains with snow.  Made me miss Alaska so much!  It was fun exploring their property and checking out the tracks!

Eleanor had a ton of fun playing outside with Travis.  They played trucks in the snow for a long time. 

When they got bored with trucks, they turned to sledding.  Travis went down with her the first time.  Then he let her go by herself.  She hiked up the little hill with her sled, and down she came!  Such a big girl!

The final fun activity was taking a ride in the 4-wheeler.  Eleanor and I got a private tour of the neighborhood and the surrounding areas.