A little winter vacation to make us question why we travel with babies (but seriously). We had a lot of fun even if the boys didn't love sleeping in a new place. I've looked forward to this trip since I booked it a couple months ago. We stayed at a really lovely spot, right on a trailhead. We didn't have to drive to ski which was hugely convenient. On our first full day we met up with our friends who overlapped their trip with ours. We skied from our trailhead to a suspension bridge, ate lunch in a warming hut and skied back. It was approx. 10km and our girls were awesome! I carried Ira for the first time ever and the combination of additional weight, super warm weather and sticky snow gave me wicked bad blisters on the backs of my heels. Like so bad. But so it goes. The scenery was gorgeous. We skied through clusters of trees and by a river. I loved being right there in the valley with the foothills of the cascades. I really hope we make this a yearly trip.

My mom visited! And she brought Freyja. My kids love taking her little dogs for walks. I love when my mom comes to visit. We had lots of good chats. We made pots and trimmed them. My mom took care of children which allowed me to get out of the house and do some things. We all enjoyed having her here so much. Thanks mom for driving down for a visit! We love you!

I just want everyone who reads my blog to know that our family had a beautiful ski day together with some of our friends. Holly, Greta and Maeve are currently enrolled in ski school on the weekends and the lessons have really helped them develop confidence and skills. It's been great to see. Maeve is pretty slow, but she loves going fast down the hills and she's improving so much! Maeve was in and out of the sled, sometimes on skis and sometimes riding. One time, when we insisted she ride in the trailer, she told Conor, "when I'm a mom, I'm going to say yes to everything my kids ask for." We skied around Shadow Mountain, had a snack break at the Nova Hut and then returned to the lodge. On our final trail, as the sun was setting and Maeve was happily skiing along, Conor turned to me and commented on how great it is that Maeve wants to ski. We did it. We made it.

One cute moment I don't want to forget, Ira rode on our friend, Parker's back. When I led Enoch to the sled to get in it, he stopped when he didn't see Ira and started repeating, "Ira, Ira" and tried to find him. There's a really beautiful brotherhood bond forming between those two.

These pictures may be from a Sunday afternoon when Conor and the girls watched a couple movies in a row. Maeve likes to tell me that we have three babies because we have Masha. And sometimes she wants me to take care of Masha and that's when I put my foot down.

Another round of sledding, this time with the new Christmas sleds and both the babies! E loved sledding, although it's all fun and games until his hands got cold! And Ira wasn't so into it. But he did enjoy me holding him. So, win? It takes an immense amount of effort to get 5 children to the sledding hill. Thank goodness for my big girls!