Copper Mountain!

We just got back from a very fun ski trip to Copper Mountain with some of our closest friends.  We had quite a group, 22 in total....10 adults and 12 kids!  We have always loved skiing in colorado and this year we were excited to get to take Cohen.  It was her second time skiing but first out there and also her first time flying!  We left on Thursday morning and headed to Atlanta.  We had our kid-free moment riding down because we rode with Alan & Jen and our car was just us four.  We had to enjoy these little moments!  We got everything checked in, had lunch and then boarded our plane.  I knew Cohen was so excited.  Her face during take-off was priceless.  She said it felt like she was on a fun roller coaster!

ready to board

Take-off!

 We switched up our seats while flying so she and Josie could sit together and entertain each other.  I happened to notice during our landing that these sweet girls were holding hands!

First flight was a good one!  

We got our rental vans...2 15 passenger vans!  All ready to go now!

The drive to Copper Mountain from Denver was close to a 2 hour drive so we stopped along the way to eat.  It was Wyatt's birthday so that meant ice cream for the kids! 

We made it to Copper Mountain safely and got everyone settled in.  Day 1 was good and now we were ready for our first day on the slopes!
We got up and going on Friday morning pretty easily.  Everyone was feeling the affects of the high altitudes and had been waking up a lot in the night.  We had to get everyone fitted for boots and skis, and some of the kids (including Cohen) were going to ski school for the day.  You quickly remember all the work involved in getting everything on.  You have to be all bundled for those temps!  We were glad to know that Cohen, Josie, Avery, and Elliott would all be together during ski school so that helped them.

ready to ski

 On one of our runs down we saw these cuties working.  They were all smiles so we knew they were having a good time.

lunch break

Our group minus the kids in ski school

We had a great day skiing and the girls did great at school.  At the end of the afternoon we headed to the slopes they were on so we could get a peek at how well she was doing.  We were excited to see how good they were doing.  We picked Cohen up at 3:00 and then instead of quitting like we should have, we took her up a different lift to a different run.  Kelly thought she would enjoy doing something different but that is where he was wrong.  It was not good at all.  She had it in her head that she would not be able to do it and after her first little slide down she was done.  Unfortunately you can't be done on a mountain!  Long story short, I skied down to meet them at the bottom after waiting on them for a while no less.  Turns out Kelly & Cohen had a time and it ended with him carrying her down the mountain.  I thought that might do her in from ever skiing again but she said she would but she would definitely want to stay on the easier slopes she had been on at ski school.  Live and learn!  That night we drove to dinner and had some of the best Mexican food!  The kids came back to enjoy the hot tub...and Kelly!  He had some sore muscles from coming down that mountain with Coco!

Saturday we got up ready for another day of skiing.  This time we would have the kids with us all day.  We came to know 2 lifts really well...Kokomo and LumberJack.  We were thrilled to get that Lumberjack lift in though because that meant Cohen had added another lift and slope to her list!  Avery liked skiing those slopes too so she and Cohen had a fun time together on those.

lunch break

Avery & Cohen on the ski lift

It was a fun day!  That night we stayed in the center village to eat.  It was always fun to see the reaction we would get when we told the hostess we had 22 people.  They would laugh at first thinking we were kidding then as we would keep coming through the doors that smile would fade to an almost scared face..."oh your serious!".  It was quite funny.   You can see here that we could fill up some big tables!

Our chariots!

On Sunday, most of us had only 3 hours of skiing so that morning we packed and loaded our vans then explored in the center village stores.   It had only stopped snowing for little bits at a time the entire time we had been there.  I have never seen so much snow.  It definitely was pretty and gave you a lot of fresh powder to ski in!   Sunday it snowed the most and the flakes were big ones.

Our view outside our kitchen window

building a snowman 

a view of our lodge-Westlake Lodge

The big fireball in the center village

Loving the arctic cat!

After lunch we quickly grabbed our ski boots and headed to the West Village and got our skis and hit the slopes for our last few hours of skiing.  We actually got Cohen to go on another slope!  Kelly & I even got to go up to a few other slopes again right before we ended the day.  

After everyone had turned their skis in we loaded up the vans to start heading back toward Denver.  It was a much slower ride because of all the snow that had fallen.  We had a good ride though and stopping to eat helped to break the ride up.  When we got to our hotel we had several sleepy heads in the back including Cohen & Josie.  We were laughing at how they were laying and as always Cohen had her mouth open!  I know they had to be worn out though!

We had to be at the airport at 4:45 Monday morning!  Eek!  I can't say enough about how much fun we had!  We are blessed with an awesome group of friends that we can laugh and have so much fun with, and even better that we all have kids that get along so good and have as much fun as we adults do.  I am so glad we had the opportunity to all go together.  We made some great memories!

One last group picture in the hotel lobby...this was by far the earliest picture!

Ready for take off 

Flying so early means you get to see the sunrise from above the clouds! It was beautiful & the picture doesn't do it justice.

As much fun as we had, I was ready to see 2 of my babies!  I had missed Kate and Bryce so much!  I think they were glad to see us too :)