The Munce Family: A quick ski trip.

Dave had been hoping to take a long weekend the Black Hills this year, but with the new school schedules, we knew it would be harder to pull off, but we managed. We booked a place sort-of last minute near Terry Peak, grabbed Sully from school at noon and hit the road heading west.

We were optimistic and realistic about the drive out, considering it is a six hour haul. The kids did great, we made one stop near Chamberlain for gas and gas station treats (crap) and then made it all of the way to Lead where we had planned to stop of dinner on our way up to the Terry Peak cabin. Dave and I listened to a podcast while the kids watched movies with their headphones. It was pretty easy with one slight hiccup- Greta's cherry gummy dislodged her already wiggly front tooth forcing Dave to pull it along I-90. She was so brave and sort of sad, but was beyond thrilled with how generous the Black Hills tooth fairy was. We arrived to the cabin at 7pm (mountain time) and immediately changed into swimming suits and checked out the hot tub.

Friday was full of fun. We got Sully and Greta into ski school in the morning and Piper into a noon private lesson (unfortunately because of their ages, their ski lesson times didn't coincide). Dave and I ended up spending most of our morning hanging in the chalet with one or more of the kids waiting for lessons and eating crap, so much crap. So much crap, in fact, that Piper threw up on the floor after a 10am hershey bar. Fortunately, she pulled it together and was able to go to her lesson. We were happy to get a good report from her teacher, she has a natural ability to want to go fast and doesn't like to stop ;). No surprise there. She did great for her first official time. Greta also rocked ski school. She was slightly apprehensive about leaving me, but as soon as she got going, she was all smiles. Dave and I were able to rent skis and get on the mountain for a few afternoon runs. One would hang with Piper and the other would venture off on the chair lift with Greta. Sully, however, continued on with afternoon ski school and moved into the C/D group. He was a total rock star. As soon as he finished ski school, he was so excited to take me up to show me his routes 'mom, it might seem scary, but there is a shortcut up here, right through the trees!' and then zoom! off he would go and wait for me at the bottom of the hill. We are so proud of how awesome all of the kids did. We met one of Dave's partners and another friend for drinks that evening which turned into dinner and loads of fun and new friends for our kids.

On Saturday, we all 5 got on the same mountain (different parts) at the same time. We lined Piper up with another private lesson so Dave and I could ski with Sully and Greta a few times before one of us needed to go back on the bunny hill with Piper. Dave worked with her mostly so I could chase after Sully and Greta. They literally couldn't get enough, until we had had too much- then we couldn't get out of there fast enough. We called it a day at about 3pm that afternoon and came back for more hot tub/scary story time. The kids couldn't get enough of it. The highlights were spotting the chairlift from the hot tub spot and peeing in the snow from the hot tub.

We hit the road by about 10 on Sunday and although we were exhausted from the work and the fun, we left with full hearts. We did it! Its so much work to pull that all together, especially as a formerly non-skiing family. Were happy to say that's officially a thing of the past and we are excited to tackle the next ski trip. We stopped for lunch in Wall and the ride home was long, but we were home and unpacked by 6.

Until next time!