Last Minute Mammoth Trip

We had a long weekend a few days ago. We had Friday AND Monday off! We had planned to head to San Diego on Saturday afternoon for a few nights. We were going to go to Seaworld on Sunday.

Friday, we took Brad's truck in to get a check-up.  It was going to cost $2500 to get things "up to par" so we decided to get a new car since we had been contemplating a new car anyway.  We ended up with this beauty:

I really wanted a third row of seats so that we can take other people in the car with us.  And the full size van is perfect for camping, Brad's surf trips, strollers, road trips, etc.

So we get home from buying the van and I start getting us all packed up for our trip.  Why is that always such a crazy, stressful task?  I finally finish and then I get a text message at 9:30pm from one of Brad's buddies telling us that a bunch of friends are up in Mammoth for the weekend and that we should come up.  We thought about it for 2 minutes and then called San Diego to see if we could cancel our reservation free of charge.  Upon getting the "ok to cancel", I started packing again (arggg).  I needed to add warm clothes!  We then hit the hay and were up at 4:30am headed to Mammoth.  And the best part is.... we had the perfect vehicle!!!  It was already time to break this baby in!

On our way... Cade got a hold of not one, but TWO lollipops! 

The 6 hour drive wasn't too bad.  We made a few stops and let the kids out one time to run around, scream, and get the sillies out.  Once we arrived we got out to play in this new stuff called "snow".

 

Some pictures are out of order - sorry.  This one was on the drive back home.  We stopped for some tasty vanilla ("banilla") shakes.

 

Sunday we road the gondola (a mile ride) into The Village.  They had a fun band playing and the kids loved to dance :)  We had 4 families total in this HUGE, gorgeous, house.  It was in prime location - we could walk 20 steps to the Canyon Lodge.  And we had a view of all the skiier/snowboarders!

 

Here is a few of our friends right before the band started:

Cade was pooped after night #1!

All the kiddos plus Brad & I (in yellow top).  Our kids were the youngest by far.  The others were 6, 9, 10 and 12 I think.

Isn't this kitchen gorgeous!?  The island is bigger than our whole house.. haha!

The Gray girls.... Taylor & Katie :)

Kristy, me, and Carrie:

More sledding!  (Or "skiing" as Cade called it).

Kristy went to culinary school and is the MOST AMAZING cook.   I wanted a quesadilla at one point and she offered to make it for me.  I think she felt sorry for me since I was just planning on throwing some cheese on a tortilla and nuking it for 30 seconds.

She added mushrooms, onions and arugula and cooked it on a griddle!  It was seriously the best quesadilla I have ever had!  So good, that we HAD to document it.  Haha!

 

The Hammonds when we rode the gondola into down earlier that day for coffee.

Someone was getting sleepy....

Love this panoramic picture on the gondola.  Brad stayed back for this ride because both kids fell asleep RIGHT BEFORE we were leaving the house.  Don't worry, they were awake for our second ride later that night.

A few people went skiing/snowboarding.  Not us though.

We had the BEST time.  It was crazy thought because there were 3 sets of stairs which were NOT baby proofed.  Therefore, we were playing defense the whole time.  Also, the kids had never been in the car longer than our 2 hour tripos to San Diego.  I was worried how they would do for 6 hours.  They were champs!  Berkley got fussy both ways in the last 15 minutes.  I'd say....successful trip!  We already have the next trip planned with these same families.... opposite temperatures though.... the river!  The river is my absolute favorite place to be!