Aspen | Day 6

I didn’t expect to blog for this travel day. We originally had a 7am flight out, scheduled to land at MSP around lunchtime. Not too eventful, right?

Of course, that’s not exactly how it happened...

All the snow we had been loving on the slopes made it hard for planes to get in and out of the tiny Aspen airport. They don’t fly with winds over 15mph, with poor visibility, or if the wind is in the wrong direction.

Shoveling the wings from the continuous snowfall...

The plane for our 7am flight had diverted to Grand Junction the night before and hadn’t been able to get to Aspen that morning. We were delayed a couple times and then cancelled. With other flights being cancelled as well, we considered a handful of options - renting a car and driving to Denver, taking a bus to Denver, flying out of Vail, and eventually ended up crossing our fingers and rebooking a 3pm flight out of Aspen airport. We considered a 1:30 flight to LA, but thankfully didn’t take it because that was cancelled as well. To make it trickier, there was weather in Minneapolis, so flights on that end were also being affected. 

Ryder and Gratia killing time at the airport...

Allison and Shawn did an awesome job of getting us all rebooked on the same flight with seats near each other. This was no easy feat with all of the cancellations and rebooking.

We had been up since 4am and saw a lot of waiting ahead. With this being such a small airport, we decided it would be easy enough to get back out and make the most of the day.

We left our ski gear with the airline, packed our carry-ons for the day, and caught a bus back to the Snowmass Village.

It was a lot of waiting, changing plans and unknowns for the kids, but they handled it pretty well. It was actually a good opportunity for them to learn to go with the flow and to come up with new ideas when things don’t go as planned.

We hopped off the bus at the Snowmass Mall (upper section of the village). It worked out well since this was on our list and we hadn’t made it there yet. 

We had a slopeside lunch at the New Belgium Ranger Station. After lunch, we took the gondola (dance party!) down to the base village for some ice skating.  

It was cold and super snowy, but the kids were all excited to get out on the rink. For a while, they were the only ones on it. We actually let them skate until the adults were all too cold - even though we were all around the fire pit!

It was snowing pretty heavily at this point so we even started looking at hotels in case we couldn’t get out this afternoon. They were insanely expensive. 

We headed back to the airport, walked right through security, and into the packed terminal. With so many cancelled flights and a tiny terminal, it was a little chaotic. 

We were crossing our fingers that we’d make it out all the way until take off. We landed at SLC with plenty of time for dinner before another delayed flight to MSP. Apparently they shut down the MSP airport for some time due to all the snow back home.

The kids earned their choice of meals for dinner for all their patience (McD’s) and so did the adults (steak / seafood restaurant). We had meal vouchers from the airline due to the delays, so only needed to cover our drinks :)

Our zomby children were too tired to whine so they waited pretty quietly for our luggage and for Shawn to run over to terminal 2 for our car. We made it home around 1:30am and were pretty thankful school was cancelled the next morning so the boys could get some rest. 

Finally going home!

The kids loved that they all got to sit next to each other on almost every flight :) Parents, too.

A crazy way to end the trip, but I actually think it ended up being such a fun day and brought out the fact that we traveled with a great crew. Everyone stayed positive and kept remaking plans as many times needed in order to make it a successful day. 

Can’t wait for the next one! 

Aspen | Day 5

When we booked this trip, we knew we wanted to ski one day with just adults and at least one day with the kids. Not only are ski lessons expensive ($140 per kid per day), but we love sharing our passion for the mountain with them. 

And their happy attitudes are so contagious - every run is like the best run of their life...and it just might be since they haven’t been skiing that long! We left our third day loose so we could play it by ear. If it were a sunny groomer day, we probably would have skied with the kids again. But, since it was a powder day (10” overnight plus continuous snow all day during operating hours - making it a total of 32” for the trip!), we decided to let them do another day of ski school. 

That allowed us to cover more runs and ride the deep snow. 

Not sure how I didn’t get stuck here? But it shows how much fun snow we had.

It was pretty cool though - we ran into their class out on the mountain and rode the chair lift up with them. They were having a blast!! The four kids were all in the same ski school class and had so much fun with each other and with their instructor. 

While the kids were learning to hit little jumps, do pop 180’s, and ski backwards, we had a blast in the deep snow. 

We rode until picking up the kids at 3pm, then took them up for one more top to bottom run together. They still had so much energy! And again, their teacher had shown them a bunch of fun tree runs so they took those on the way down, too.

We did s’mores at the base again before heading back to our condo for a few beers in the hot tub, dinner, and packing up for the trip home.

All the amenities of this place were great, but one of my favorite things was being able to see the Snowmass groomers in the wee hours of the morning from our bedroom windows. It’s pretty much just a bluish white light moving on the mountain, but it’s a rare for us to see since we typically book fairly budget-friendly lodging. 

Aspen | Day 4

The fourth day of our trip was an off day. We slept in a little longer, drank plenty of coffee, listened to music, and watched a little X Games after having been at Buttermilk. Then we caught the bus to Aspen.

Ajax mountain (background of photo) is right in the heart of downtown Aspen. After seeing it (and it’s steep terrain) today, we were glad we took the kids to Buttermilk instead.

With no particular direction, we wandered the streets of Aspen, going in and out of ski shops (yes, ski shops - not many snowboard shops here), souvenirs shops for the kids, a pizza place for lunch, and Aspen Tap for drinks. 

It was great traveling with friends who also had kids because most places we went, we were able to have a kids table and an adult table - letting the kids entertain each other. 

The kids may or may not have been victims of snowball target practice ;)

We made dinner back at the condo and spent the evening at the Snowmass Club. This place was an unexpected gem. We had daily passes with our stay and it was just a short walk across the street from our villa building. In addition to the outdoor hot tubs and outdoor heated pools, each locker room also had indoor hot tubs, a cold soaking tub, a sauna, and a steam room! They also had a sweet kids hangout with an area to play video games, board games, music, magazines - something for everyone. And cookies served in the lobby from 4-5 :) 

If we ever go back, I would definitely stay here again. 

Aspen | Day 3

After talking to some of the locals, we made a last minute decision and switched up our plan for riding with the kids. Instead of doing Day 2 at Snowmass with them, we took them to Buttermilk. And it worked out so perfect.

Buttermilk is perfect for families. We thought that it would be too small, but the kids asked to do their favorite runs over and over, loved all the little runs in the trees, and had fun in the beginner terrain parks.

They also liked seeing all the jumps that were still in good shape from X Games last weekend.

They also had this awesome fort where the kids could climb up in the hanging bridge, go down a slide, and help themselves to a wall of candy dispensers inside! So cool!

I think we were all surprised by how much powder we found on many of the runs. My favorite part of the day was making powder 8’s behind each of my boys. They have great parallel turns after yesterday’s lessons and I closed each turn right behind them. The best.

After a while, the kids asked to go back to runs with slightly less snow to give their legs a break :) There were plenty of groomed runs for them also.

There were absolutely zero crowds and zero lift lines.

It was hard to convince them to stop at the end of the day. They actually talked us into a few more when we were ready to call the day. And they still had so much energy!! 

All four kids would ride down together yelling happy things like ‘OMG!’ ‘Best.Day.Ever!’ ‘This is epic!’ And they’d go ahead a little way, creating their own lines off in the edges of the trees or under a sign or off some little jump. So cool to see them confident and just enjoying the mountain.

It worked out nice that there are only three lifts. There were plenty of runs, but the kids learned their way around quickly.

After a solid day of skiing, we took the bus back to our condo. It has worked out pretty nice using public transportation for the whole trip.

The adults hung out on the patio at our condo while the kids hung out inside together.

For dinner, we took the bus to the Snowmass base and ate at Base Camp. 

Such a great, sunny, snow-filled day in the mountain. Exactly what I was hoping for on our day with the kids.