Christmas Ski Trip Day 5- skiing at Jackson Hole

We were quite tired after our previous days and slept in a little later than we should have.  We also woke to find out that it had snowed about 4-5 inches overnight and our worry that it might be icy was in vein.  It was still snowing as we loaded the car and traveled to Jackson Hole.  Since we had never been skiing here we were totally unprepared for it.  We quickly found out we couldn't park near the front unless we wanted to pay a lot for parking.  We parked in one hour loading and Cameron carried our big box of ski stuff up once again to the locker room because it was snowing too hard to get dressed at the car.  It took awhile to obtain our Mountain Collective passes again....  you would think we would have learned our lesson.

The day did not begin well and we were all a little stressed by the time we actually got our skis on.  Cameron graciously allowed the girls and I to start skiing while he taught Annika on the bunny slopes.  Jackson Hole ski resort feels like a premier resort unlike any other I have been to.  The lifts are great, the setting is beautiful and everything went smoothly once we were on the slopes.  The people come from all over the world and I felt pretty privledged to be skiing there.  It was snowing once again but this was the lightest, softest powder I have ever seen.

The girls and I ended up skiing down quite a steep run.  Ali learned how to ski it quite well while I was somewhat in the back... Ali told me, "Mom you just have to let yourself go..."  I wish I knew how to do that... We eventually skied over to an area we liked and took a couple of runs down some blues all in the powder.  We joined Cameron back at the locker room where we ate our lunch.  (Jackson Hole is such a nice resort that we were the only ones we saw who brought our own food.)

Cameron had his own fun with Annika.  He said the morning still started out a little rough.  She was a little scared to ski and cried a few or not so few tears.  He kept his patience and eventually taught her to turn quite well.  They both enjoyed herself and on one ride up the ski lift Annika said, "Daddy you really know how to love me."  It is moments like this that make the ski trip totally worth all the money and effort!

After lunch Cameron took off with Ali to ski some more and I took Annika and Ashling out.  By this point Annika was skiing quite good and after a few runs down the bunny slope we decided to go up higher and try a blue traverse.

We met Cameron and Ali up there and skied down the traverse.  Annika did great but when we got to the bottom the girls legs were tired.  Ali decided to call it a day and we skied a couple more runs on the bunny slope before we also were finished.  We were all excited to ride the gondola so we got in a gondola and only Cameron brought his skis.

The view was amazing from there and it was fun to see it.  Cameron got out at the top and we all rode back down the gondola.  He enjoyed a couple good runs but the snow coverage was somewhat lacking and he took a couple core shots.  We met at the bottom and after loading the car again we headed back to Star Valley.

The house David and Samantha rented was beautiful!  We arrived and enjoyed a wonderful dinner that they had prepared and had a fun night watching Christmas movies and just chatting.  It was a great end to a wonderful day.