Just playing the part

Emma got all dressed for her mountain debut on Saturday. Never quite made it to the slopes though. We expected this may happen. She's our hesitant child, often nervous about new adventures or going it alone. Cautious, I should say, always has been. We'd headed up to Vail for the weekend with two other families, one of which consists of two little boys around Emma's age. The plan was for all three of them to take their first ski school lesson together. All were super excited the night before and couldn't quit talking about skiing. The morning of, still excited, all the way up to the point that we had to buy black ski gloves (they didn't have pink!), for Emma. Onset, stage fright. She was registered, and tagged up, sent her through the rainbow and the tears started flowing. Didn't matter that she had friends going with her, she DID NOT want to go. Thankfully, they gave us a refund and we watched her friends ride the magic carpet to the top of the hill. Of course, then she wanted to do it, but it was too late. Camryn was ready, she busted around the fence, but she's still one year too young. Next year. We'll get them both in together, there's safety in numbers.

Good times with friends, that's what the weekend was really about. Our friends, Andy and Allison, generously opened up their family's beautiful ski condo to all of us. The ladies had time to hang out and play with the children, while the guys took on the mountain. Later in the evening, we all enjoyed a yummy spaghetti meal, wine, and a friendly game of Mexican Train dominoes. The kiddos had a great time playing together - coloring, watching movies, playing with the dog. We had planned to stick around on Sunday for some tubing but the weather was calling for big dump in the mountains, so we decided to head back and not risk getting stuck on the roads. Good call, gave everyone a chance to get settled before starting our busy weeks. Great weekend!