Tuesday, June 11, 2013

We took a baby on a ski lift

Flagstaff is always about 30 degrees colder than Phoenix.  In the winter, when it is 70 here it is 40 in Flagstaff.  In the summer, when it is 110 here it is 80 there.  That was the case on Friday when we thought it would be a good idea to go to AZ Snowbowl and take a 17 month old on a 30 minute long ski lift ride.  And that's 30 minutes each way.  1 hour total.
 
During the summer only one of the five ski lifts run.  We took that one all the way to the top of the San Francisco Peaks.  It's 11,500 ft and about 20 degrees cooler up there than Flagstaff.  It was great!
 
I thought ahead and brought the baby belle carrier so that Elliott could be strapped to my body the whole time.  We thought about doing this with Spencer when he was a baby (we never did) and I've had horrific images of a baby falling from the ski lift bench stuck in my brain for the last 4 years.
The Grand Canyon is about 70 miles to the north and you can actually see it from up there, although you can't see it in these pictures.



 
Elliott "hiked" for about 20 seconds and then he was done.
 
We took the picture of a couple in exchange for them taking a picture of us. 
Snowbowl got a decent amount of snow this past winter (219 inches.  I googled it) and there is still some of it left in the shady areas.
Spencer had been in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans before he turned 3, but this was his first experience with real snow.
 
It was Elliott's first time too.
 
I dug for a clean chunk because I knew this was going to happen.

 
MMMMMMM!







 
We actually had a mini snowball fight.  It was really fun until Spencer threw one at me and part of it fell in my pocket where the camera was being kept.  That little bit of water broke the camera for 2 days.  By Sunday it had dried out enough that it started working again, but I think we need to buy a new one with just a tad more water resistance.

2 comments:

Sherry said...

Yay, you found a neat place to cool off and let the boys see some real snow! Man, it is amazing I can still find "new" similarities between us. I totally feel you on the anxiety/paranoia about the ski lift. It is just weird the things that will come into my head and make me suddenly anxious about the kids' safety. I wake Eddie up so often at night because of my anxiety. I foresee lots of "where's the baby" outburst in the middle of the night coming up. That has happened frequently with the last two. I guess I fall asleep while feeding them and then Eddie puts them in the bassinet, but I wake up later searching for them afraid I've smothered them or something. *Sigh* Anyway, great idea to use the baby carrier. More shots of gorgeous views. We'll add these places to our list of places to visit one day when we come out to AZ (Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, etc.) :-)

k and j said...

You guys do such fun stuff! I too re-run crazy shit in my head that "could" have happened to my kids in certain situations. Being a mom is so crazy! Our minds go to some interesting places!