Winter Break

These are our awesome friends. They told us they were going up to Crystal Mountain for 2 days of skiing for Winter Break and said we should come up. We couldn't go for both days (dance, natch), but were going to drive up as far as Cadillac after Em was done with class Thursday night, get a cheap room and be on the slopes first thing Friday morning. "That's silly, crash in our room!" our awesome friends said. So we did!

These are some more awesome friends. They had planned on the weekend at Boyne, but decided to stop at Crystal on the way because their girls, our girls and the girls pictured above really get along great.
That's Jim on the left. He turned 11 today :)
He spent a lot of time teaching the little girls how to snake down the hill instead of barrelling straight down. I think I owe him a six pack of Heineken.



Take a look at Trouble times three.
On second thought, maybe I owe Jim a twelve pack.





How about Maggie's goggles and helmet? I couldn't risk that pretty little head getting crushed by a snow boarder.
I was really glad she was wearing it as I watched her follow one of the bigger girls down one run and take a double jump! She actually made it up and over the first one, then was about 5 feet in the air off the second and took quite a spill.



These gals were off on their own for most of the day. They hooked up with another friend from Hudsonville that was there, too.







Em's hanging out with girls that are a little more experienced skiers than she is. I asked her on the way up if she was worried about being able to keep up with them. She said "One, they're good friends, they'll wait for me. Two, they like to watch me come down the hill because my mess ups are entertaining. "






Yes, I see what she means.








And after we saw these two waiting for one of the little girls at the bottom of our last run down the North Face, we figured it wouldn't be too much of a battle getting them in the car for the ride home.