From Dixie to Dairy: Our "Winter Vacation" 2014

For President's Day weekend, we went to the camp in the Adirondack Mountains, which we also went to last year. (You can read all about that HERE). We had such a great time, we decided to go back, and this year not only did LL's brother and his family join us, his sister and her family came, too! :)

It was a super jam-packed weekend. We wore those kids out, people. I mean both of my children were begging for naps every day. Unheard of!

So here are a few of the highlights from our trip:

Snowshoeing-- last year Collette was so disappointed (read: pitched a royal, bawling fit) that the snow shoes were too big for her 3 year old feet. This year my super smart husband found some kid sized snow shoes on sale (free after our coupons) from LL Bean, and got them for her. She was so excited. And walked every step of the fairly long trail with very little complaining. :)

The start of the trail was also a snowmobile path, before we entered the woods.

Cousins Tabby and Collette, snowshoeing pros!

Trey still got a ride this year from Daddy. Maybe next year he will be able to snow shoe. :)

We hiked to a frozen waterfall. It was beautiful. And the guides said this was one of the only years the falls completely froze.

In true Collette fashion, she befriended multiple people on our hike. Here she is with her new friend, Ms. Serena.

Taking a break at the falls!

Cross country skiing-- we did a "learn to cross country ski" lesson with the kids. Even Trey got to try this one out! Both kids actually did pretty well, and Trey was able to move along pretty well with LL's help. I attempted to get pictures, but I am also a novice on skis (as in, haven't been on them since high school) so turning around completely to take pictures was somewhat of a challenge for me. Ha!

Our group of skiers.

As always, the pool was a big hit. We went swimming at least once, and often twice each day. :)

Another fun activity was the horse-drawn sleigh ride. The kids didn't get as excited about this one, since they were sitting still, but I thought it was great. :)

We also tried ice skating. Well, some of us tried. I didn't put on skates, since I am a horrible skater and figured falling repeatedly on the ice while pregnant is something I could do without. LL bravely took both kids, and our BIL Jon and Autumn came too.

There was an indoor ice rink, but at the time it was getting resurfaced, and by the time we knew that we had gotten the kids all ready for skating, so we went on the pond instead.

Trey gave it a good try with Daddy.

And did Collette. However.

There was a lot of this. Falling, and then crying.

Autumn was a pro and even tried a bit of hockey.

With a little encouragement from Uncle Jon, Collette persevered and was able to skate on her own a little bit. (Collette loves those over-sized gloves. I promise her hands aren't that big. Lol.)

Gooooo, Collette!

We were done in about 30 minutes (the cold and wind didn't help), but it was fun to try.

The "Family Fun Night" with the inflatables was a big hit with all the kids, and with their dads. :)

And even though I didn't get many pictures from it this year, snow tubing was fun for everyone (unless you count that pesky hike back up to the top of the hill after each ride! Let's hear it for cardio!)

Our final morning of vacation, we decided to one last activity before we left. Half the group went ice skating, and the rest of us decided to check out the big frozen lake. Collette snowshoed, and the rest of us cross country skied.

You can see how massive the lake is-- everything they skiing is the lake! (And yes-- I was kind of nervous about going out on frozen water. However, after I watched multiple people on snowmobiles ride all over it with no problem, I figured we were pretty safe.)