Brianhead

We planned a ski trip to Brianhead, Utah to use our tax return to its fullest advantage. We wanted to go to Mammoth but it was too expensive... tickets were too expensive, the lodging was too expensive... probably the food would have been too expensive too. Brianhead looked like a better option.

On Thursday morning we loaded the car with the kids, their stuff, the dog, and some of our stuff and headed over to Grandma Sue and Pa pa's house. They were very generous in watching the kids and allowing us to go on the trip. We couldn't even fit all our stuff in the car... (this is the reason we need a new bigger car.) We said our good byes and at last we were alone with no kids for almost 4 days!

We headed home and finished loading our stuff and then we drove up to Snow Valley. We had to get some goggles so that we both had a pair and their sports shop is the best place to buy things. We enjoyed a cheap breakfast at Snow Valley and then headed down the road. We decided to drive through big bear and out because it is about the same distance and a much more scenic drive. There sure was a lot of snow. This picture is of Snow Valley and the amount of snow down Bear Canyon. Cameron would really like to ski here.
We enjoyed a nice drive where we talked about adult things and no one cried the whole way. We stopped for lunch and enjoyed the time together. We arrived in Brianhead just as it was getting dark. Here is a picture of the moon coming up over the cliff. Look at the big ice waterfall off the cliff.

We enjoyed some pizza in Brianhead and then headed over to our hotel. We stayed at the Cedar Breaks Lodge and Spa. Our room was very nice. I loved the fire place, jetted tub and the big king size bed. We enjoyed our time together and watched some olympics on Thursday night. I was amazed to wake up on Saturday and see the view outside our hotel room. Isn't it great?

Brianhead does not open until 9:30 am. We thought that was incredibly late but it allowed us to have time to get breakfast, relax getting ready and still be on the mountain when it opened. We were lucky that Cameron is on ski patrol and were able to get tickets from their ski patrol. By 9:30 we were ready to ski.

I like the long wide runs that Brianhead had. And I loved the quality of snow. Southern California snow is just not quite as good. We spent the morning exploring the mountain. I skiied down all the blues and Cameron would see what the blacks were like around the same area. I felt pretty good about my skiing but I was pretty slow. My big accomplishment was that I wasn't afraid of the runs even though they were steeper than what I had been skiing at Snow Valley.

We met Jeff and Mandie around lunch time. Then we traded boys riding with each other and girls riding with each other for the afternoon. We also switched back and forth.

This is us at the top of the mountain. We liked to runs off to the one side called the Dunes chairlift.

After I skied until 2:00 pm I was so tired that I called it quits. Skiing down all those hard runs and turning too many times made my legs burn. I decided to head back to the hotel for a nap. The rest kept skiing the remainder of the day. When they got back the boys made us fajitas while Mandie and I relaxed on the couch.

We then enjoyed the hot tub, pool and steam room to relax our soar muscles. It felt so good that now a hot tub is on our list of things to buy. We also played settlers of Cataan in the lobby. I won which made it all the better.

This is a picture of our fire place. I thought it was nice to have in our room.

Saturday we ate muffins and fruit for breakfast. Then we head up to the resort. I wanted to ski on the easier mountain, (Navajo Mountain,) so that I could have a little more fun instead of working so hard. We all headed over there on a cat track. I loved the other mountain with the long, wide runs that I could ski down very quickly. Mandie and I spent the whole day over there enjoying crusing and working on skills while going fast.

It started snowing and was so windy in the afternoon. We took a few runs and were told by the lift operators that we were "hardcore." We liked that. After some really strong wind and frozen fingers Mandie and I went back to the hotel around 3:00 pm to get ready for our evening.

We went out to a nice dinner and watched it snow while eating. We then enjoyed the hot tub again and went back to our room. We were all exhausted and went to bed pretty early because we couldn't stay awake.

Sunday, Cameron made crapes and we learned to play texas hold em before we had to check out and drive home. I wish we could have stayed longer and decided that next year we will have to go again. It was a wonderful vacation!