Oh Be Wise: Learning to ski!

For years, and I'm not exaggerating here, Chris has been dreaming of teaching our kids to ski. I'm pretty sure he's been talking about it since before we even had kids. This spring his dream came true. We saved airline points and hotel points so that we could afford to fly the whole family to Utah for spring break and stay in a hotel near the slopes. I'm pretty sure the airport and the airplane were half the fun, at least for the three big kids. Hudson, not so much.

Watching the airplanes take off.

On the plane. Check out Mr. Snaggletooth.

Hudson, as I've mentioned, is a pretty difficult kid. Flying with him wasn't easy or fun. At all. We booked our flights through Southwest, which is convenient for a lot of reasons--price, ability to cancel--but also meant that we flew from Dallas to Los Angeles and then to Salt Lake. Thankfully Hudson slept from Los Angeles to Salt Lake, but the 3 hour flight from Dallas to LA was terrible.

Miraulously all 5 of our bags, 5 carry-on back packs, 6 people, carseat and stroller all made it to SLC. It's not easy to pack for a big family, and it's even more difficult to pack when you are bringing a ton of snow gear!

The kids were super, super excited! We have a game on the Kinect where they can ski, so they all thought that they knew how already, ha! Colton was especially excited and extremely adorable with his teeny, tiny skis!

Don't they look fierce?!

Family selfie! We opted to pay for childcare for Hudson. We didn't really have anyone near the slopes that we felt like we could drop him with for a full day, and we decided that if we were ever going to do this we can't wait until all the kids are old enough, cause that's a long time coming!

The first day all three kids took lessons for the full day. This was probably the smartest thing we could have done. It wasn't cheap, but it was worth it for the kids to learn how to ski the right way the first time. Chris and I both snowboard, so we can't really teach them very well, plus, kids tend to do better when they can't whine to their parents. While the kids were in lessons Chris and I hit the slopes!

I was 8-9 weeks pregnant on this trip, not feeling amazing, but I did feel decent both days that we were on the mountain. And I was totally snowboarding like an old lady. I didn't want to hurt myself (or the baby) and I hadn't been in 5 years, so I wasn't really up for being crazy. I sent Chris snowboarding in January so he could get all the "need for speed" out of his system and he was just fine hanging back with me on this trip!

Colton did awesome. By the end of the first day his poor little legs were completely exhausted. Chris took the kids on a few runs and Colton and I hung out. He was a pretty happy camper for all the hard work he had put in!

We did two ski days with a day of rest in between. We spent that day at temple square and visiting family in Layton. The kids really enjoyed temple square.

They loved seeing the conference center. When we watched conference a couple of weeks later they were very excited that they had been there! We went on a tour of the conference center and walked around temple square. For some reason I can't find the rest of those pictures. I'll come back and post them if I locate them.

We also went to visit Chris's grandma. I'm so glad we were able to go and see her, because she passed away about 6 weeks later. When we saw her she was alert and happy and healthy. The kids were able to make one last memory with her!

The second day of skiing was awesome. Both Madison and Jaxon were ready for the big lift and the real slopes. Madison had altitude sickness the first day we went, so she had a lesson credit because she missed the majority of her morning lesson. We used that credit to put Colton in a morning lesson again the second day so that he could get a little more practice.

After lunch the whole family was ready for the big slopes. Oh, and it was really warm. It was probably about 50 degrees and we were all sweating! You'll notice everyone is out of their coats. We had to go to the car to change and take off all of our base layers! At the end of the day, we were definitely glad that we decided to take the trip! It was kind of a big gamble purchasing gear and lift tickets and taking the whole family out to Utah for something that none of the kids had ever done, but they all LOVED it. Chris was a very, very happy man!

After our ski days we went down to Santaquin to spend a couple days with some fun cousins that we hadn't seen in way too long! All of our cousins live in Texas except these guys! The kids were so excited to see Hyrum and Brigham.

The weather was nice so we went to the park. Brigham and Hudson are about 10 months apart. I'm sure they will be trouble in a couple of years.

We had a fun night making s'mores in the back yard. Very sticky s'mores.

Colton was very proud of his double decker s'more.

Cousins are just so much fun!

All 7 of the kids together. Madison was thrilled to meet baby Emma. Girls are in very short supply in the Wise family.

Chris and his sister Ashley! They live too far away. We wish we could see them more often.

Hyrum and Colton. These two are only 3 months apart. They loved seeing each other!

The last day, on the way to the airport, we stopped by BYU to introduce our kiddos to their future campus. We try to do a little brainwashing whenever we can. I would love to have 5 future cougars!

We also met up with two of my cousins (and a cousin-in-law) for lunch and ice cream at the creamery!

I love these guys! They lived near us for a few years while we were growing up and it was so fun to see them again.

Then it was time for the long journey home. My morning sickness got significantly worse while we were in Utah and the flight home was pretty rough. Thankfully I didn't throw-up on the plane, but I did after both flights. Yuck. Hudson looks like a happy little carry-on, but let's be honest, flying with a 1-year-old is torture.