Three Kids and a Dog

Tuesday, January 07, 2020

New Year's in Michigan

We spent about a week up in Michigan after Xmas and we still could have spent another week there. Lots to do and we've barely scratched the surface but we did manage to have a lot of fun.

First, we had family up for two days and we went for a sleigh ride (well okay, there was no snow so it turned into a wagon ride) and had fun catching up while tasting some hard ciders at Virtue Cider in Fennville.  The kids could sit by the bonfires and play various games they had on property like giant Jenga and horseshoes so they were happy.  That night we had fun making pizzas all together and playing some games too.

After everyone left, we had one day (celebrating Peyton's birthday) and cleaning before our next round of guests arrived for New Year's Eve. It was our second year celebrating New Year's up at the beach house and it has become a fun tradition of lots of wine/champagne, eating and playing games while hanging out with our close friends (and kids).

Once New Year's was over, we had two days to ourselves before heading home. On the first day, we checked out a ski resort about 30 minutes from our place. Now, I hadn't been skiing in 14 years (since I was pregnant with Austen) and Hailey had been complaining for days that she didn't want to go skiing so I wasn't sure how this was going to go. After what was probably 45 minutes of getting geared up (renting equipment and getting it on everyone), we ventured outside to tackle the slopes. We started on the bunny hill and that quickly turned into a nightmare as Peyton (who has had lessons before) started complaining it was too hard and Hailey stood there terrified to let go of Tom. I said, this is why people pay to have their kids in ski school. Tom quickly agreed as he saw how this was going to be miserable for all of us if we didn't so he left the slopes and quickly booked a semi private one hour lesson for Peyton and Hailey. Then Tom, Austen and I took off in a hurry to the other more challenging slopes to see how much we could do in an hour. It wasn't crowded and the weather was beautiful. A balmy 43 degrees or so. My ski legs came quickly back to me and I too enjoyed myself on the runs remembering how much I loved to pass the winter months skiing in the great outdoors.

Once our hour was up, we returned to see Peyton and Hailey skiing on their own and making turns on a green hill. Their progress in one hour was remarkable. And, Hailey was loving skiing! The one who wanted to go home now did not want to get off the slopes and kept insisting we take her to the top of a green hill on the chair lift. She needs to work up to that one as we did take her but she gets too much speed and can't control it so she fell twice. (Once she laid in the snow for a good 5 minutes - so long that ski patrol came by). She was fine though. Got right back up and kept skiing. Peyton quickly grasped skiing again and was working on her turns although she too likes to go straight down with speed. Austen, always the one to listen to a coach, was trying to perfect his technique. Everyone had a great time and we can't wait to go back and ski some more. We just need to find a free weekend with more than 24 hours to do it!

(More about our Day 2 excursion to the famous Michigan Christmas town in my next post.)


Virtue Cider Sleigh Ride


Cousins Cider Tasting
Pizza Making
New Year's Crew
First Family Ski Photo

Hailey Loving It!


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