Red River Day Four

Ruth coming off a jump

Max nails the landing

Perfecting the "pizza slice"

Exploring

Beautiful Red River

Mr. Winter

A little bundle of cute

"You picture of me, Mom?"

Loving the snow

Playground fun

Other noteworthy tidbits:

• I forgot my camera, so the few pictures I took on the slopes were taken with my phone. And, that's hard to do with gloves on! (The phone pics plus the gloves probably help to explain the poor quality of the photos.)
• This was the first day of skiing that we haven't had to purchase a new pair of sunglasses for one member of our group. Lost or broken glasses seem to be a somewhat normal occurrence on the slopes, and may be equally experienced by child or grown-up. 
• During the course of a spectacular crash, Weston tried to rearrange some of the signage with his shin on his first run of the day. But, once he recovered from that (mostly from the fear of that), he really got the hang of skiing and was finally able to master the little green practice slope. 
• Ruth and Max and I were looking for a little more challenge, so we decided to try out a few jumps. (Actually, I WAS NOT seeking out this type of challenge. I only agreed to participate at the insistence of the kids. Thankfully, I didn't fall on any of my three times through the jump course!)
• Everyone was comfortable enough on their skis this afternoon to move on to the bigger lift and one of the more challenging green slopes. 
• Clay has been hanging out in the daycare every day that we've been skiing, and he has had a few interesting things to report to us each day. The first day, when asked what they did in his class, he began naming things while numbering them on his fingers: "There was changing. And there was pooping." Then, he told us he was kicking and hitting his friends. Yesterday, he reported that one of his friends was crying and saying he wanted his mom but it wasn't him. And, today, he declared that his friend was "the hairy one." (This was a kid named Harry.) He has really been loving his "class" and looks forward to going every day. 
• When the ski day was over and we had recovered a bit, Jeff and I decided to walk the boys down to a little park to use up the rest of their energy. There is a neat covered bridge spanning a lovely little creek and a playground, where they played until Jeff and I were almost frozen. The boys, however, seemed completely oblivious to the cold. 
• It was s'more night again at the lodge. Apparently, everyone staying here right now is from Austin, so it was fun to chat with everyone around the fire, while the kids played and we all enjoyed the ooey gooey s'mores.