A Ryan and Katie vacation

After the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving with a brand new baby (also known as the "four family tour" - breakfast and late supper with Ryan's families, lunch and dinner with mine, and I'm not talking immediate family here), we unpacked our warm clothes and packed up the long underwear and plenty of layers for a trip to Lutsen, MN.

Now, admittedly, we first took this trip after finding out Cowboy Mouth would be doing a concert at Papa Charlie's. But it's a four-hour drive from home, so that meant a hotel stay. That turned into finding a deal where we could get two nights in a hotel, two lift tickets, AND two rentals all for the price of one. PLUS booking the multi-night stay got us free concert tickets. So, with Grammy Pammy and gRONpa begging us for more time with their grandson, we obliged.

Off to become snow bunnies gracefully jetting down the mountain, right? Wrong. At least for one of us.

After a late night with the Mouth at the bar, we layered up and hit the mountains the next morning. After TWO trips down the bunny hill for me (where you conveyor belted up) with Ryan coaching me on how to ski (previously, I went once in college with no instruction, it was a doozy), we got into the chair lift. Apparently there was a bigger bunny hill somewhere up there, but somehow we missed something and hit only blue squares and black diamonds. So, after two good falls, some swearing and nearly having to change my three layers of pants, we got to the bottom and found a map.


I became a bit more confident after we took the gondola to the other mountain. We ate a bit in the chalet, and feeling a bit better about my skiing skills, I whizzed down the mountain and took an amazing fall. My hat was ten feet from where I ended up, my sunglasses shattered and my knees, head and pride all injured.

Back to the ACTUAL Big Bunny we went. While I stuck to that one, and another similar one, Ryan took some other routes that ended up in the same place.

After we exhausted ourselves, it was time for the hotel hot tub and sauna, where we met three drunk girls. We got some dinner, then more hot tub and wine. I awoke the next morning and nearly fell out of bed, I still hurt from all that skiing/falling. But all in all a very good trip, and a night full of sleep with no late night feedings to worry about.

But again, back to reality. Now, I sit with a sleeping baby in a very Christmas-themed apartment, but in a few hours, I've got 18 rugrats to bring home from school and try to keep from killing each other, followed by around 30 more to watch while their parents work out.

It's a great day to be alive :)