Snowshoe 2012

Dear Kate,

Well baby girl, you made your first (well, sort of) trip to Snowshoe, West Virginia - where we go skiing every year. I say 'sort of' because last year when we went you were in my belly, but we weren't telling too many folks back then! Anyway, we'll call this your first trip, and what a trip it was. Because you and Christopher joined our family, we had to change up a few things, including separate cars and bringing Mimi along to help out!! And man alive, what a help she was. But first, we had to get there. And man alive, what an adventure that was! It's a 10 hour drive, so we were prepared for that and maybe even a little bit more, but what we were not prepared for was being stuck in the same spot on the interstate for 6 hours. Yep. SIX hours. With you. And your sister. In our Pilot. Yes, adventure is probably not the appropriate word! But we survived and believe it or not, you (and Sister) did pretty darn good, considering. You did a lot of sleeping in the beginning, so that helped, and even when you were awake, you were content in your seat...

But then the minutes crept into hours...
And we all were moving around! You liked sitting in the front with Daddy and Pic-pic and your sister did a good job of entertaining you...

Thankfully Mommy was fairly prepared and lots of formula already made up for you. We did have to wash a bottle out with water (rather than soap and hot water and a dishwasher), but I'm pretty sure you will survive! I wasn't quite prepared in the diaper category. See, we were planning on stopping at Walmart before our hike up the mountain and so I just brought enough to get us there and maybe a couple more. Thankfully Christopher was a couple cars ahead of us, but unfortunately he's 3 months younger and is still wearing a size 1! We squeezed you into it though and saved the last size 2 for the overnight diaper!! It was a long six hours and towards the end even you had had enough. You wanted to stand up and walk around just like everyone else, but we just could not get you out in that weather. So Mommy did the best she could and cranked up the sound machine that I packed (see, I am a little prepared!) and rocked you as best as I could. Eventually you fell asleep (no so much your sister...) and eventually we started moving. We got a hotel room that night and you were so exhausted you did not even wake up when I transferred you from the car seat to pajamas and then your sleep sak! (again, not so much your sister!).

We picked back up in the car the next morning and eventually we made it to the top of the mountain! Hooray! While you didn't get to ski, you did get to watch your sister...

And you got lots of playtime with Mimi and Pic-pic and Abs!!!

Unfortunately, your Momma is a little obsessed with skiing and taking every opportunity that's available to do it and just wasn't real good with taking pictures! In my defense, we did TRY a couple times to get us all out in the snow to take family pics but either the weather was terrible or someone wasn't there or we were all just too exhausted!! Next year I'll be sure to make up for my lack of camera attention on you!!!

As I said, you hung out a lot with Mimi and Pic-pic stepped up a lot, too. One afternoon we left you napping with Pic-pic and sort of lost track of time. When we got back to the condo, you were awake, just hanging out with Pic-pic! He said you were about to break down, but he was able to calm you down. He keeps talking like that and he may have more opportunities :)

We also stopped by Nona and Papa's for dinner one night and you got some play time in with Christopher (and Abs and Ellie, too!)

Overall, a fun trip even if you didn't get to play in the snow!!! Thanks for being such a sweet, sweet baby, even when you are cramped in a 2 bedroom condo for 6 days!!!

Love you sweet Kate!!!