February Vacation - Family Ski Trip to Jay Peak

With no real plans for a vacation this year we decided to spend a couple days up north at Jay Peak Resort up in Vermont.  Mother Nature was not on our side for this trip but we still managed to have a great time and I can't wait to try this place again next year (hopefully under better weather conditions!).

We drove up Wednesday morning.  The weather forecast was for snow with a change over to freezing rain.  It mostly snow for our ride up, but by the time we hit the slopes it had changed over to freezing rain.  We were determined to make the best of it by getting in some runs.

Evan and Momma selfie...you can see the freezing rain on our goggles and helmets!

After taking a few runs it was time to warm up and dry off in the lodge for some lunch.  One one of our runs down to the lodge, Evan and I found some of the Mardi Gras necklaces that had been tossed in the trees (that was the theme for the week).

Waiting for his brothers so we could get some lunch!

After lunch we tried to get in some more runs, but it was just not fun anymore.  The chair lifts were so cold and wet from the freezing rain and we were getting soaked!  Unfortunately we still had an hour before our room was going to be ready but we were all so done skiing that we decided to get out of our ski stuff and hang out in the lobby.

The Hotel Jay

Once we got our room we were able to get our skis and put them in our room locker.  Check out the ice that formed from them sitting outside.

We headed up to our amazing room (a two bedroom with a kitchen and living room space) and got all our things organized.  We hung up all our wet stuff, so that it would hopefully dry for the next day, and got our swim suits ready to enjoy the indoor water park in the hotel!

Ready to play!

After some fun in the water park, we made a quick bite to eat and it was off to bed.  The weather reports for Thursday were showing heavy rain during the night with clearing in the morning before a second round of rain came through in the afternoon.  We needed to be ready first thing to make it to the Tram.  Our goal was to go to the summit as a family before the rain.

When we got up, we continued to check the weather reports.  It was foggy, but not raining so we got all our gear on, grabbed our skis from the locker and got in line for the Tram.  It was too bad that it was so foggy because we missed out on the views.  But we made it to the top!

We made it to the summit!

And I made it all the way down and lived to tell the tale!

It was very, very slushy and in fact you could see a river of water running down the side of the very top.  It was so warm so at least we knew it wouldn't be icy, but it was still a challenge for me, but I plugged away at my own pace.  I was proud of Evan and it was on this run that I realized he had passed my abilities as a skier!

After that run I was ready to go back to some smaller hills.  My legs were jello.  I did one more run and waited for the boys to come back from another trip to the top, including Evan, who was able to keep up with his older brothers!

Evan and I were ready for lunch, but the David and Shaun went up with Dad to the summit for one more run before the rain really started back up.  Unfortunately for them, it started right after they got on the Tram.

David, Shaun and Dad riding on the Tram

After that last run, they were soaked!  We grabbed all our skis put them in the locker and headed back up to our room for some lunch (the nice thing about having a kitchen was being able to bring some food).  After lunch and a realizing that it was going to be raining for the rest of the day, we gave up on skiing anymore and headed down to the water park.  It was crowded, but the boys still had fun.  You could see that the rain was quickly changing to snow and the wind was picking up.  The temperatures were going to drop from 50 to 10 in less than 12 hours.

Shaun trying out the boogie board!

Chilling out in the lazy river!

The lazy river was fun, there was a section that was almost like a wave pool!

David in line getting ready to try surfing

He didn't have the balance but managed to stay on long enough for me to take a quick picture!

Evan trying the boogie board

Waiting in line for the slide

After some time down in the water park we headed back to our room to get ready for dinner.  We were going to take a shuttle to the other lodge to eat.  There was a restaurant that had diner style food on their menu we thought the kids would like.  Their pancakes were SO good!  We had some time to go back to the water park and let the kids swim and it was much less crowded.  Then it was off to bed, we had to pack and check out in the morning.

On Friday morning, we packed up our room and got all our ski gear on.  We were going to brave the wind and cold for a few runs before heading home.  The bellhop came and took all our bags and brought them down to store them for us until we were ready to go and we headed to the lockers one last time to get our skis.  The wind was gusting so hard that they shut the down the Tram.  I was worried about ice, since all that slush that was on the trails on Thursday would have frozen and even though there was about 3 inches of new snow, the ice would still be underneath all that.  

We headed up on one of the quads and it was COLD!  The snow was blowing all around and I knew it was going to be tough skiing.  We managed to get in a few runs and while I was right about the ice, it wasn't icy everywhere, only in places where the wind could really blow the snow off the trail.  The boys skied a few runs in the woods and Charlie said it was some of the best skiing he's done in a long time and that it was too bad it was so cold.

Look at all the snow blowing around!

We had some lunch and then it was time to hit the road.  Evan went with Charlie for a couple of extra runs me and the other two got all our bags and skis to the lobby.  We got all our things from the bellhop and packed up our van and said goodbye!  We had a blast and the boys are already asking when we get to go back again!