Flamingo Cup Ski Race

 Okay, so this is not skiing.  This is swimming.  The one year old is very brave in the water and loves to take as many baths a day as we will let him.

I love pictures of my sleeping guys :)

Okay, so the ski race.  I hauled quite a load up the ski hill to watch this race.  I took a sled so I could pull my youngest two.  The finish line is a good ways from the lodge and not visible unless you hike up there.  It's probably half a mile - uphill as you would expect from a ski hill.  I had the boys in the sled and a bag full of snacks, drinks, extra winter clothes, and a book.  I managed to get the book out and open it, and quickly realized there was no hope of reading it.  I also packed our big camp chair.  It's the most comfortable one, but also the heaviest.  I was wondering about a quarter of the way up the hill why I hadn't grabbed the longer sled.  Oh well.

 The hill was icy and I overheard the high school race team members saying that it was the most difficult course they had run all year.  Great.  We had kids of all ages set to race this course.  Because of the ice, the decision was made to send the oldest down first, hoping that the course would soften up.  It didn't appear to.  But that meant that we would have a long wait before seeing the nine year old compete.  The race was supposed to begin at 10:30, but the first skier didn't come down the hill until after 11, and our nine year old didn't race until after one.  Meanwhile, the little brothers and I enjoyed some time in the sun.

 Having some snacks...  I had to put his rice chex in his mouth for him because his mittens made it impossible for him to do it himself.

They were both into eating snow.

And the four year old had his favorite - Townhouse crackers.  The one year old was very jealous, but he is allergic to them, so had to settle for his rice chex.

They both had a lot of fun, right up to the time that it was close to their brother coming down the hill.  Then they were over it.  If you look close in the picture above, you'll see the marks from the four year old sliding down the hill on his backside.

He made a few snow angels too, but there wasn't enough powdery snow for it to show very well.

And then he found a giant, hairy dog.  He went from being terrified of all dogs (as of two months ago) to being super friendly with all dogs (which is also not good).  Thankfully this was a very friendly dog, and he hugged it and got to shake it's hand - which he thought was hysterical.

He also found a flamingo.  It was the Flamingo Cup, after all.  We (the ski team) purchased over 200 flamingos to use to decorate the course.  It was pretty festive.  I think he thought this was a real bird. They were swaying in the wind, so they probably looked pretty real to little people.

By the time we were starting to watch for their brother, the little guy had nearly had it.  I wish he would have just fallen asleep in the chair, but no such luck.  Instead, he stood screaming for a long time.

Finally our racer made his way down the hill.

He said he had a lot of fun.

 Unfortunately he didn't do so well. He fell at the beginning of the course, but made a nice recovery toward the bottom.

This was the race where kids from all over the place come to compete - Jackson Hole, Teton Village, and a couple Idaho teams too, so the competition was stiff.  And we didn't have any local kids place in the top five.  But they had fun, so that was good.

Afterwards, they just wanted to ski for fun.

Our nine year old is on the right and his best friend in ski club is on the left.  They made several trips back up the hill - mostly playing in the terrain park.

Meanwhile, the little guys had snacks.

And goofed around.

It was a good day, but the baby and I both ended up sunburned, and we were all exhausted by the end of the day.

That was yesterday (Saturday).  Today, after lunch the boys went over to Bugga's for the day and my husband and I moved furniture and cleaned in preparation for the painters who are supposed to start at 8 tomorrow morning.  I'm beyond excited.  Can't wait to see what a difference a little color makes!  But right now, I'm just totally exhausted.  It's been a long weekend with more work involved than these lazy winter muscles are used to.  In the summer, I walk several miles a day pushing strollers (sometimes a six-seat stroller).  But in the winter, I don't get much activity in.  Now I'm feeling it.