Colgate ski weekend

For the past few winters, the Downers have rented a house near Sugarbush with another family in their town. Last weekend, a kind of Colgate madness descended upon them as our family of 4 and Lisa's of 5 crashed their already crowded house for some skiing and reminiscing. All together there were 5 Colgate grads present, but most of the conversation was about our growing families and current fun, instead of our isolated, frosty years in upstate NY. What, do I sound like I'm unromantic about my undergraduate years?! Let's just say that I'm very thankful to have met the wonderful friends I have from those four years, but the rest of it... well, I've permanently blocked a lot of it from memory by choice.

Anyway, this weekend was a lot of fun. It was great to hang out with the Downers and the Yang/Choi fam for a few days and get some great skiing in besides. Unfortunately, Haley's bad cough and cold meant she could only make one ski run (and that was pretty much a disaster- she whimpered all the way down the mountain) and Andy spent both days hanging out in the lodge or the house with little girl. Aiden, on the other hand, skied more than he ever has in his life, tackling blue trails and even portions of black diamonds. He and Alex were well matched skiers and they did one particular run, Sleeper, about a million times. It is narrow and runs through the woods with all sorts of little side chutes and jumps... so basically heaven for little kids on skis. I skied with Aiden both days, and was definitely sore by the end of it. I haven't used my ski muscles that much for a long time either!

Aiden and Alex head down towards Sleeper

Saturday evening was crazy chaos, as you might imagine with 12 kids, 8 adults and 1 dog (ours) in a single old house. There was scotch tasting, a rousing game of "salad bowl", a roaring fire in the hearth, and lots and lots of kids huddled together over iphones, ipads, and other electronic devices. We crashed here, there, and everywhere to sleep and woke up (amazingly) bright and early, ready for another day on the mountain.

Everyone plugged in

Aiden was definitely smitten with Sugarbush. It was hard to pry him away from the ski trails on Sunday afternoon and head back to NH, mopey face and all. It could have been the hut selling Belgian waffles smothered in chocolate at the bottom of his favorite ski run, but I think he was more excited to be finally going up in high speed quad lifts to the SUMMIT of a mountain, instead of doing the same beginner trail on the south slope of Sunapee. He's definitely ready for a bigger challenge the next time we ski locally.

Liv, Grayson & Aiden check out the giant ice moose