Good Morning {or Good Afternoon depending on when you read}!!
Our kiddos are out of school today and we’re having a laid back day before our week gets started.
You should grab a BIG cup of coffee for this post. I’ve loaded it down with pictures. 🙂
I think I mentioned here before but when it comes to bowl games the officials find out two to three weeks prior to their game that they in fact have a game! 🙂 Tab and I looked at our calendar back in November and knew we wanted to try to take the kids on a ski trip this year. Last year, everyone had so much fun. We looked at the bowl possibilities and scheduled flights for January 3rd to head to Denver and then on to Breckenridge. So that explains our crazy less then 24 hour turnaround from Atlanta to McKinney to Denver. 🙂
We got home around 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday evening. Pretty much dumped out all our suitcases, washed what we REALLY needed, and repacked. It was chaotic, crazy, and exactly how our life with four kiddos can be a majority of the time. ha!
Our flight left BRIGHT AND EARLY at 6:55 a.m. on Wednesday morning. We were all exhausted and napped on the plane. I’m talking mouth open, head back, we were OUT! We pulled into Denver, grabbed our rental, and headed straight for the mountains.
We were all so excited because LOOK WHO WE MET UP WITH…
They had planned to be in Aspen after Christmas and we asked them to join us in Breckenridge for a couple more days of fun. They’re always down for an adventure so they changed their plans to join us! We’re SO glad they did!
The dads and oldest boys hit the slopes while the rest of us grabbed a nice lunch, walked around a bit to check out the town, and then headed back to the hotel to rest.
These two made a little fort in my room. My heart was swelling at this point. I remember going on vacations with family and friends. It’s one thing to have fun in your town, but it’s a completely different thing to make special memories with your people on vacation.
The first evening we hit up The Blue Stag Saloon for dinner. They don’t take reservations so we hung out outside around the fire pit while we waited for our table. Britt is showing me her mean face. The first day I could not for the life of me find her big coat. I kept layering her in other people’s clothes so she wasn’t cold, but wearing your sisters’ pullover that’s six sizes too big isn’t ideal. Maybe that’s why she was giving me this face?
Sidenote, I woke up in the middle of the night and remembered I’d grabbed it on the way out the door and zipped it in an outside pocket of our suitcase. Yes, at 2:00 a.m. that was my thought. Sigh.
The Slaughter kiddos were still recovering from travel…wait for it…
He took a little snooze while we waited. haha! And Ashby rested up for dinner too.
This was my favorite meal. I loved the laid-back atmosphere. The food was delicious and the decor was everything you’d imagine in Colorado. And we see you Britt. 😉
The next morning the oldest five of us got up and headed to the mountain. I kept going back and forth about just completely not skiing or getting childcare for Britt. And I just couldn’t make up my mind. I thought I had a friend of a friend set to watch her and that fell through so I was all over the place. When Shay heard this, she insisted they keep her so we could all ski. Their plan for the day was to check out the town so they loaded up two strollers and did just that. I’m so so thankful they had her. After breakfast, renting my ski stuff, and getting us all ready we didn’t hit the bottom lift until about 9:00 and it was INSANELY full. The lines were long and hardly moving. We should have gotten up an hour earlier!
See what I mean??
#allthepeople
There’s Bowen 🙂
Last year over Spring Break, we took the kiddos skiing for the first time and when we left that trip I felt like we had three little skiers on our hands. This time we didn’t sign them up for ski school. We decided we’d do some easy greens together and the plan worked out perfectly!
We made it on! We spent the morning doing easy greens and working on our skills. And by skills I mean Ebby Lee and I did our best to not fall getting on or off the chair lift. hahaha! Nixon was riding with us the majority of the time and he’d get SO mad {and super embarrassed} every time we crashed getting off the lift. But then we’d ski great down the mountain. #gofigure
Tab would literally pick Bowen up and ski off the lift with him. Well, mama doesn’t have those kinds of skills so Bowen had to stick with Tab on the lifts.
I tried my best to stop “the pizza” but I prefer it. #oneday
This cutie picked it right back up and was good to go!
This spot was a little bit sloped and I wish we would have been videoing how long it took us all to stop moving and get remotely close for a family picture. If you look closely, Tab has a grip on Ebby Lee’s jacket to keep her from sliding backwards.
We stopped for lunch on the mountain and then did an easy blue before Ebby Lee and I called it day!
The guys kept going, but we grabbed Britty and showered up for dinner.
I need a lesson on where to look in selfies. haha! This day we were celebrating sweet Ashby’s Gotcha Day! I’m sure you’ve read all about that sweet girly from Shay’s perspective, but let me tell you as a friend…everything she says rings true. Ashby is sweet, tough, always ready for fun, and absolutely full of JOY!
We had reservations at Hearthstone Restaurant for dinner. Because we were a big ole’ party of twelve, we had our own little private room which was FUN! And I didn’t even know I was a fan of wild mushroom soup, but I’m leader of the Wild Mushroom Fan Club after this spot. It was delicious!
Friday morning we bid the Shull crew farewell. They left for the airport and we headed out for breakfast at The Blue Moose.
We found ways to entertain ourselves while we waited for our yummy breakfast.
Did someone say they were cold? I know it wasn’t this girl. haha! Her side eye is too much.
On Friday, the boys hit the slopes while the girls went shopping.
Our hotel was on one end of the main street and the gondola was on the other end so we took our time walking down to the gondola, rode it up to the top to check out the scenery, and then came back down.
We got the call from Tab saying Bowen was done for the day so we walked over to grab Bowen and then all warmed up with Mexican food at Mi Casa. This was our view from the table.
Their side of the table. 🙂
My side of the table. 🙂
After lunch we walked over to the Mountaintop Children’s Museum. If you’re in Breckenridge with littles or even littles that need a break from the mountain, I highly recommend it. There were different stations set up…arts and crafts, doctor’s office, puppets, stage area with costumes, and a whole lot more.
You took your shoes off at the door which was great because everything in the museum appeared super clean. The only negative {in my opinion} was you also didn’t wear shoes in the bathroom and that was ick to me.
We played for two hours because the place was closing or they would have stayed ALL day!
We walked over to grab the boys and I bumped into these girls! Hillary (in the middle) is one of Shay’s friends from growing up and we follow each other on social media. I feel like I know her family so it was exciting bumping into her.
Our neighbor, Meagan, recently moved to Denver and she happened to be in Breckenridge for the day. We met up with her for a quick hug. It was great seeing her. She moved this summer and we’ve missed her face.
Then we walked to meet up with some other McKinney peeps for dinner.
A quick selfie on the way to dinner.
This is one of Nixon’s closest friends from school. His family was in Colorado too so we joined them for a yummy pizza dinner at Fatty’s Pizzeria. It was delicious!
Then we enjoyed the arcarde Downstair’s at Eric’s.
-where we spent way too much money on these claw machines and only left with a tiny purple ball. ha!
On the walk back to our hotel, we stopped for a picture.
Right after that picture a group of about eight high school senior boys asked us to take their picture. We asked where they were from and they said, “McKinney”. We all screamed and jumped around. If you were watching, people probably thought we were nuts. We asked if they go to our local high school and they responded with another McKinney high school and it was the funniest thing. Then we were booing at each other {all in good fun, of course}.
My dinosaur fan needed a picture by this little raptor.
Nixon and Tab got up early on Saturday to hit the slopes one more time.
They hit up a black and I was so thankful I wasn’t with them. haha!
Saturday, Ebby Lee, Britt, Bowen, and I were super lazy in the morning. We packed up our room, loaded the rental, checked out, and waited for the boys to finish skiing.
We found a cute little bakery where everyone had a yummy treat.
These two had a cupcake and were BIG FANS!
We found a spot fireside with checkers and kicked back for a few minutes.
Once again, this girl was a trooper!
We grabbed the boys and made the drive to Denver. We had an early flight on Sunday morning and made a reservation close to the airport for Saturday night. {I’m talking 5:00 a.m. flight! EEK!}
Someone requested a picture at 4:00 a.m. next to this reindeer.
I felt like I was gonna fall asleep standing up but these two had some energy. haha!
Britt thought she was big stuff hanging in her own seat on the way home.
And then all six of us did that whole open-mouth-head-back-really-good-nap thing on the flight home. I woke up on the descent. I call that winning.
We made it back to our house by 9:30 a.m. and we all took killer naps. On the drive home, Tab and I were talking about how traveling with four kiddos isn’t always easy but we have only ten more years before kiddos start going off to college. It’s so important to us to make these special family memories and show our kiddos things before they’re off in the real world.
We packed a whole lotta fun into just a few days, but we had the BEST time kicking off 2018 in the mountains! It was a blast vacationing with the Shulls and meeting up with other McKinney friends as well.
And if you made it to the end of this post…THANK YOU for reading!
Tomorrow if our Tuesday Talk link-up! We’d love for you to join!
Have a GREAT day! XO
Well, this was clearly the BEST part of our vacation!! I love, love, loved all of the pics!! When can we go back?!
Next week??? I’m game!!! 🙂
What a fun trip!! I am loving all these pictures!! It looks like a blast!
Thank you! We had a great time!
Looks like an amazing trip!!!! I can hardly believe you have so many skiers on your hands!! But let me say, that picture of Britt in the airplane seat is PRECIOUS!!!!!
She thought she was so big!! 🙂
What a fun trip!!
I grew up going to Breckenridge. Mi Casa is our favorite.
I loved all of your pictures!!! But Britt giving that side eye in that stroller is my fave!!!
That Inspired Chick
We beach vacationed with another family when my kids were growing up and they have the best memories. Your's will too;).
Loved the post. Love Colorado. I skied the Pizza my whole ski career hah Quite happy with it. My friends Dad tried to teach me to put my ski's closer and turn but I would go so slow it wouldn't work. HAH He use to crack up saying I need to get up more speed. But I was happy to ever so slowly pizza my way back and forth down the mountain. I liked the views. I'd take photos 1/2 way down hah So funny to see you doing the Pizza as well. Looks like the children had a blast !
Where did y’all stay in Breckenridge? I’m looking for a place for my family and I’m coming up with nothing! 😩