Back to Stormy

What better to place to be after having to say goodbye to good friends?

Thankfully Matt arranged his schedule this summer so that he didn't work on Fridays, which is really nice when we have a 4-hour drive to make up to Stormy. My parents met us up there and we had such a great time with them.

Teaching my Dad how to ski...he's 59 years old and in great shape, but it's tough to learn something you've never done when you are almost 60. He was such a good sport and we thought we'd keep trying on Sunday, but his knee was pretty sore so I think we'll be waiting until next summer!

But he can shoot in the low 70s for 18-holes on the golf course, so clearly he can kick our butts at that game anyday!

My turn...Matt and I hadn't skied as much as we would have liked to earlier in the summer as we were often driving other people or teaching people how to ski (which we love doing and is half the reason we bought our place), but it was nice to get out and do some skiing this weekend.

And this is why I have to put the pictures of me first.....

(I had to put this next picture on only to prove that he pulled out the cut on the previous picture....I know his brothers would see that picture and give him grief that there's no way he stayed up on that one, but he did!!)

The height and distance of the spray is usually a good indicator or how good a cut is...and these were quite impressive if I do say so myself....clearly I have a ways to go!

But this happens quite as bit as well....as we always say, "If you don't take some good diggers, you aren't trying hard enough"

I love these pictures...so cool to see the wall of water behind him. I mean, when you think about it, it's crazy that skiing across the water in a specific way can make flat water stand straight up in air at about 8-10'!!

And of course, Sadie's favorite part......the swimming!! One day we had 'jump contests' and she made up a two-person jump where you hold hands and face forward but once you jump, you turn to face the boat and switch the hands you are holding.....Matt and she will demonstrate

Now Wyatt and her...

And of course, what would it be without a few jumps with her own added flair!

Blake LoVeS to watch Matt wakeboard. He isn't as impressed with the skiing (which is much harder than the wake boarding) but Blake seems more excited by the jumps and turns and big air. 

Watching Daddy put on the wakeboard...

I don't know why I didn't take any wakeboarding pictures....I'll have to do that this weekend when we go up!

Wyatt next challenge was learning how to slalom ski...and although he was pretty hesitant to try, he did great! (clearly playing hockey helps quite a bit with balance!)

Short roping it

This was the first time he tried dropping a ski...a few things that I loved about this:

(a) he got it immediately and still to this day, has never gone down when he's dropped a ski

(b) my parents were there to see it

(c) it gave him so much confidence

(d) he never put his foot in the back pocket the entire time...he just balanced it on the back of the ski!

looking down to try and find the pocket 

..but then just set his foot down and smiled away!!

The things we do at Stormy Lake are not like the things we do back home...for example, I would not normally allow my 3 year old to play with a running weed-wacker (it didn't have any string in it, so it wasn't dangerous)

And the bow and arrow....this kid loves shooting things with it....I took these pictures while we were sitting around the fire

S'mores with Nani and Pops

(someday we'll get a real fire pit, but this $30 Target-find works pretty great!)

Wyatt found this 'perfect seat', as he called it, by this tree. The poor kid was exhausted after biking around the lake on our run and then skiing all day--but it was so much fun and boy do we all sleep well at Stormy!

Do you think he looks up to his big brother?

Sadie teaching Blake how to ski

LOVE the quiet moments around the fire, listening to stories and spending time with family

We had a great time with my parents and can't wait for them to come back. Matt also left on Sunday to head back to the cities to work while the kids and I stayed up there. We had friends coming up later in the week and the kids and I had no plans, so we decided to just stay up there.

On a quick side note, Wyatt has been known to do a bit of sleep walking--nothing concerning, but he will occasionally walk into the hallway at home and then get confused as to how he got there or what he was doing. One night when my parents were at Stormy with us, my parents headed up to their room and found Wyatt like this.....

..quite sure he had walked into the hallway but was SO exhausted that he didn't make it far and fell asleep on the chair. Stormy Lake leaves us all exhausted at the end of the day!