A snowy vacation!

We've been saying for years that we were going to go visit my cousin Carrie and go skiing in the Poconos. (So she's not really a 'cousin' but she is my mom's mom's sister's daughter's daughter. Did you follow that?) Regardless, she and my mom have always been like cousins, so cousin it is. Carrie and her husband, Brian, and her boys, Andrew and Michael, have come down to the lake a couple of times to visit, always leaving with the invitation for us to come up in the winter to visit and ski.

Finally we decided this winter was the time, and my mom and dad booked their flight from Florida and mine from South Carolina - and decided February would be a good time where snow would be a sure thing. After all, they have a condo in the Poconos near Jack Frost / Big Boulder ski area and a snow mobile all about 2 hours north of their home outside of Philly.

We head out for a VERY early flight out of Greenville - girls happy (so far) with their sausage McMuffins. The flights actually went pretty well even with a plane change in Atlanta with a cold rain that eventually moved up the East coast and turned into "Snowmageddon."

Friday we hung around the condo and played with the girls in the couple of inches of snow that was outside. It doesn't take much to thrill them when it comes to snow!

Saturday we headed to Jack Frost early in the morning to enroll Claire in the Snow Monsters ski school. According to the weather guy, it was 16 degrees when we headed out with an expected high of 18. That is why we all look like bank robbers in the pictures - but the 15 layers of clothes did actually keep us warm. The huge snow storm hit the Mid-Atlantic states Friday night and into Saturday. Unfortunately, the Pocono's only got 3 inches - which was really a good thing because it would have been difficult to ski on all that fresh powder.

We took turns with Chloe in the lodge, and Claire did fantastic in school. She couldn't wait to hit the big slope and Brian skied with her using their harness, and she just loved riding the chair lifts. All the skiing was great - no broken bones or frostbite!

Sunday we went back to Thornton (20 min from Philadelphia) where the boys dug and blew through the 28 inches of snow. We got the sleds and saucers back out and all had a great time playing! I couldn't believe how much snow there was! That night, Uncle Steve and Stephen (Carrie's dad and brother) came over for pizza and the Super Bowl. What a family reunion!

Monday was our travel day, and thankfully we didn't have any major delays with it being the first day the airport operated in 3 days.

We took tons of pictures, so here they are in a slide show. (All the good ones were taken by Carrie!)