First Day in the Snow

Our first morning, we all woke up from a warm night to see beautiful views out our windows.

When everyone was ready for breakfast, we were stumped for a little while as to how to get to where food was prepared.

The night before, after we checked in, a man took us up to our room in a SUV with chains on his tires.  But now we realized we were far from the restaurant/lodge, and there was no foreseeable trail.

So we called the front desk to inquire, and they said, "We will send a car."

This picture is taken from the restaurant, looking back up at the rooms.  It is quite a distance.

But I couldn't help but wonder, "What if this place was totally booked?  Would they shuttle all of those people back and forth to meals in the scant three SUV's they own or what?"

This is a view, looking up from the sledding area, without the sun in your eyes.

Well, they came and got us.  There were only two or three families there on Thursday night, so it was easy to manage.

They chose a breakfast for us, and told us four servings would be plenty for the six of us, and they were right.  It's called the "Arab Breakfast."  One serving came with an omelet, a turkey sausage, cucumbers, tomatoes, labneh (Lebanese yogurt), slices of a mild cheese, olives, tahini (sesame seed) paste mixed with honey and Nutella, bread, apples, and oranges.

It was good.

Then, we went outside to explore.

While Caleb and Keira were experiencing their first snow ball fight with some national kids, Kylie and Karis tried out this swing.

From the top, we could see the city we have had our eye on for awhile as a possible location to move.

Here's a closer look.

And an even closer one.

Besides snow ball fights, making snow angels was definitely on the agenda. 

Making a snowman was too, but after several tries with snow that wouldn't pack tightly, we took a picture with some kind of small alien creation we put together.

I'll spare you the sad photo.

Then, we tried out sledding for the first time.  Below, is a picture of my sledding companion.

Isn't she cute?

She is standing on a MOVING conveyor belt that is taking our sled and us to the top.  This is not America, and you can tell because there are no rails or safety features to keep us secure.

This was the last happy ride for this little girl.  After this sled down the hill, her toes had had enough.  

How do we get back to our room to warm her up?

I went to the front desk (which is a one room check-in station at the top of the teleferik cable), and he said he could call a car, but since several people were checking in with all of their luggage, he thought it would be better if I walked 1/4 mile over to the restaurant because a car would come there faster.

The sad little girl and I headed for the restaurant, and eventually a car did come.

After warming up for about an hour and putting on dry socks, the rest of the crew came in, and they wanted us to come back down so we could see them ride a new ride and watch them sled one more time.

With new vigor, the little girl said, "Ok."

Doug and the three olders rode the "Skyswing," while all the people who were still on the mountain cheered them on behind me.

(The SkySwing a machine that pulls them back and up and lets them go, much like the big pirate ships that you see swinging in parking lot carnivals).




























The last sled ride of the day was a little different.  The snow was starting to ice over, and the worker on the mountain wouldn't let us use sleds anymore.  He said it was too dangerous.  We had to use inner tubes on a track instead of just going down the snowy slopes.  You can see the tracks to the left of Keira on the picture above when she's on the conveyor belt.

The inner tubes were a little more scary for Keira and I because we couldn't control it.  It was a straight path, but we still had the capability to spin and not see where we were going.  I think there might have been some screaming on my part.

Even though we had to take a car back up. 
Wait a while. 
Call another car for dinner. 
Eat. 
Call another car to go back up, etc.,
I'm glad we had gone down after warming up so that we could see this...






















This was taken with my iphone.  It really was this pink and beautiful. 

Wish you could have been there.

(And I want to wish my handsome son a happy birthday!)