A Happy New Year…
On the heels of a wonderful Christmas season, we decided to spend the remainder of our holiday in the northern Arizona mountains playing in the snow.
Our friends Rob and Hester offered to let us stay at their cabin, so we headed off to Flagstaff. Upon our arrival, we found a plethora of fresh snow to play in. The girls quickly discovered a path leading to the national forest and not long after, built a little snowman.
Finding a piece of cardboard, we made a make-shift sled and the girls took turns sledding down a small hill. I tried and it didn’t seem to work as well for me…
That evening, New Years Eve, we spent time in the cabin watching the Iron Chef competition on the Food Network, playing board games, and enjoying our Dura Flame fire. I don’t think any of us made it past 10:00.
We awoke to 2010 with a plan to spend the day skiing at nearby Snow Bowl. The idea was to leave the cabin by 7:30, get our rental gear, and be the first on the mountain at 8:30. It didn’t quite work out that way as it seemed everyone else had the same plan.
After an hour in line to get our gear, we finally made it to the Heart Prairie lifts. This being Katie and Lauren’s first time skiing, I was sure that after a couple of assisted trips down the bunny hill, they would be at least proficient enough snow plowers to make it through the day… I was wrong. Everything went fine until we got to the bottom on the path and were faced with the mountain down. Lauren was first to fall and as I was attending to her, Katie seemed to loose her brakes and plowed right in to her – it wasn’t good.
In any case, Kerry and I spent the next hour coaxing them down. By this time, everyone was hungry for lunch so we decided to head in to the lodge. We never made it back out as the girls were more interested in getting back to Rob’s cabin and their snowman.
The next morning, we spent some time cleaning up and getting ready to head to Williams, AZ, the home of the Polar Express. Kerry and I had kept this portion of our trip a secret as we wanted to surprise them. In the afternoon, we checked in to the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel. I think the girls caught on to our plan as they saw all the kids in the lobby wearing their pajamas. That evening, we had dinner at the hotel then prepared to catch the train. The anticipation, especially in Lauren, made the whole trip worth it. She was so excited to actually be able to ride on the train, get a golden ticket, and of course, see Santa Clause. It was a great trip and the hot chocolate was the best! We will surely do this trip again.