Methow Valley Skiing

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Brandon and I decided to take a week off work, find some sunshine, snow and do some skiing. Hallelujah- we all need more skiing in our lives. 


The Price Clan was easily swayed and joined us for the first part of the trip. Day one brought us to Lake Wenatchee where Brandon started out the vacation by signing everyone up for a vigorous ski beating as we climbed and circumnavigated Nason Ridge.  After a while in the ski trailers Annabelle and Pete "gently let us know" that they were ready to come out.  Once out of the trailer they zipped off running down the ski trail like two blood hounds hot on a fugitive's track... after about 100 yards it was more like two stumbley, drunken , blood hounds zig zagging in no logical order, possibly tripping balls, kinda going down the trail.  



After being broken into the activity of "skiing with Brandon" we headed to the Methow Valley which is a local cross country skiing paradise. Brandon got a little taste of his own medicine from Annabelle in the trailer as she would shriek "Work Daddy! Work!" which echoed throughout the valley as she encouraged Daddy to go faster. She must know who to egg on - because the few times I towed her all I heard was the sweetest gentle little voice beseching" I have to poop Ma Ma".  


We tried to connect with Annelisa and Brent- but they were also taking a week off and were skiing in Canada.  Luckily for us, they stashed us keys and offered us their house. We were feeling pretty grateful when it was -2F outside and Pete and Annabelle were running around  playing with a trainset and we were sitting in a 75 degree house in front of a stoked fireplace drinking whiskey and beer. It's possible we are ruined for winter van camping after that luxury. 



Since we were skiing mid week we ran into many retired skiers who bestowed their wisdom and child rearing experiences upon us. One guy used gallons of hot chocolate as a unit of time as he told us " 15 gallons of hot chocolate from now they'll be shredding down some black diamonds and telling you that you have to try it" The next day Brandon decided to expediate Annabelle's 15 gallon quota and she had  her first taste of hot coco and quickly learned how to ask for "moOOore hot coc-HO". That guy must have known what he was talking about because when we got back home she informed us she was ready to learn how to ski. Annabelle skied similar to the skiing ability of a limp sack of wiggly potatoes except much happier as she chanted and giggled "I Ski. I Ski. ".
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Annelisa and Brent came back from their trip and the girl had more kids to play with and we had another set of adults to ski/kid trade with. While we skied we got these lovely pictures of their kids showering Annabelle with love, affection and unlimited attention. While they skied we spent our time honoring a request from the kids to throw pinecones at them as they pretended to be Harry Potter playing Quidditch-dashing around and dodging pinecone "bludgers". Same Same?? 



It was a great trip with friends, kids, snow, sunshine and exercise. I love spring break skiing. 












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