Smugglers Notch

Last Summer during our August vacation in Maine, we had decided to plan a winter getaway with our friends.  We did some research on places, costs and made phone calls and before we even left Maine we had our weekend getaway booked!

So on January 29th we waited for the kids to get off the bus, packed up the car and headed north to Smugglers Notch!

We're off!

On the way up we met up with our friends at a diner in Littleton, NH.  After dinner it was still going to be another hour and 40 minutes until we arrived at our condo.

Dinner at the Littleton Diner

By the time we got to the condo, there was little time for exploring.  We unpacked and put the kids to bed.  In the morning I found my cherubs like this:

Good Morning!

We had a quick breakfast in the condo (fruit, bagels, coffee cake and egg mcmuffins) and then it was time to get all our gear on and head to the slopes.  As part of the package the kids all had 2 hour lessons that started at 10am.

Ready to head over to the slopes!

The nice part about staying on site is that the condo was right behind the chairlift.  It was a quick walk around the back to get to the small mountain.  From there you ride the up the chairlift and then take one of the trails to the the other 2 mountains.

Ready to hit the slopes!

Lessons were great, I even took one just to get my bearings.  I felt so out of sorts the last time I was on skis that I thought it would be helpful.  It also gave the other experienced grown ups time to explore the mountain!

Charlie on a black diamond winter wonderland!

Ben showing off the gorgeous views on the diamond trails!

Post lesson selfie!

After everyone finished with lessons, we decided to head back to the condo for some lunch and a break. We also needed to come up with a game plan to accommodate all the different levels of skiing.  I knew I wasn't going to want to explore the bigger mountains so I stayed on the smaller mountain with Evan, Cole and Owen.

Chairlift Selfie!

Ready to take some trails!

On the slopes!

These greens are bigger than anything Evan has ever skied on before, he was doing great but after this fall we went into EPIC tantrum mode.  Eventually he snapped out of it and did great the rest of the day!  I had to threaten to make a phone call to his friends mom who had been helping him at ski club!  She wouldn't have been happy!  Ha!

We took another run and while we were on the chairlift we noticed that there was a teepee off in the woods and we saw people going inside.  The kids wanted to check it out so we stopped in on our last run.  There was a gentleman inside who had a fire going and was giving out hot cider!

Inside the teepee!

Hot cider!

Teepee selfie!

The teepee!

After our stop in at the teepee, the chairlift had shut down and it was time to call it a day!  When we skied down to the bottom we noticed people gathered around the fire pit.  There was a fire and the resort mascots were walking around taking pictures with the kids.  And the icing on the cake was the complimentary hot chocolate!

Hot Chocolate!

Warming up after a full day of skiing!

After the hot chocolate, we headed back to the condo and changed.  We were going to check out the kids zone and then grab some dinner.  The kid zone had mini-golf, inflatables, ping pong tables, pool and arcade games.  The kids were happy to kill some time in there before getting some dinner.

I can't even...

We headed over to grab some pizza at the onsite pizza place and then it was dessert and bed.  We had another full day of skiing ahead of us.

The next morning was a little hectic, we had to be completely packed up and cleaned out of the condo by 10am.  We packed up the cars and headed off to the slopes again.  We were able to get in a run before shipping the kids off to their lessons.

Cole and Evan wait for their lesson time.

I opted not to sign up for a lesson and explored the rest of the smaller mountain on my own.  My legs were sore!  I wasn't sure how I was going to survive an entire second day.  It was a gorgeous day and unseasonably warm at 42 degrees.

My mountain views - slopes all to myself!

I picked up Cole and Evan from their lesson and the plan was for us to ski over to the others at the big mountain.  It was going to be a challenge because some areas were flat and others were steep.  But we made it and when we arrived we had delicious waffles drizzled in chocolate waiting for us!

I realized very quickly at that point that if Cole stayed with me again, he was going to be bored.  He was brave enough to try the bigger mountain and so he stayed with the others while Evan and I headed back to the smaller mountain.  But before heading back we watched them all go up on the lift!

I was not looking forward to the trail back, it's very flat and I knew it would take a lot of work to get there.  My legs were so tired by then that we decided to take a break and have some hot chocolate.

We got in one quick run before some of the other kids were back (David stayed behind to try a black diamond with Charlie and Ben).  Evan wanted to take Maddie and Shaun to the teepee, since they had not seen it.

Inside the teepe (no fire or cider today!)

After the quick stop it was time to get back and head home.  We changed at the car and had one last pit stop before the long drive home, though not nearly as long as our friends drive.  Since we had to drive through our old stomping grounds, we decided to stop for dinner at one of our favorite places.  It was a nice break from the car.

We had such a great time and we are already looking forward to next year doing it again.  There has already been some discussion about where we go next time!