Ski vacation, the foggy/second half

Day 3 - a very foggy day, but not foggy enough for us to stay away from the slopes. We had a slow morning and bought the twilight pass, which was around 1pm-10pm with a two hour break in the middle. It ended up being a good option but man was it difficult to see in the darkness with all the fog!!

View from our balcony

David got to hang at the ski slope today. Me, Alex and Alyssa took turns watching him.











 Videos from the night skiing..

Day 4 - more fog and now it was raining, too. Still didn’t keep us away from skiing. The good thing was that because of the weather some of our friends decided not to ski and offered to take David so we could all ski together. 



Even though this was the warmest day, it was also the day we got the coldest. Because of the rain we all got soaking wet, despite good clothes. It was the only day we took a break to get some hot chocolate and warm up :-)












During our dinner together with the other families :-)


Day 5 - going home… Temperatures he dropped and the snow came. 

View from our friends’ balcony while we were packing.

Now back to Ormond…

A big empty hole

Two weeks ago I was excited to update my blog with pictures from our ski trip. That was just a few hours before it got to our attention that farfar, Buddy, had passed away that same morning. It came as a shock to all of us as everything seemed normal the night before. 

I am grateful to say that my relationship with Buddy got better and better every year. It would be a lie to say that we always got along but as the years went by and as I got to know him better I learned that all he did was out of love. He always made me feel welcomed and loved and I know that he spent a lot of time thinking and caring for his loved ones. 

Through the years he has gotten us a lot of appreciated toys and fun stuff. Things that Alex and I sometimes would consider “China junk”. Now that “China junk” is worth a lot to us as it reminds us of the love he had for the boys and that they were always on his mind. They always appreciated the things farfar bought and he always found the most fun “junk” ;-) In reality he was not much for junk at all but loved to spoil his sons and grandsons with good quality stuff. Luckily for me it was hard for him to spoil them without including me :-)

Alex and Buddy had a very special and close relationship. He was the rock in Alex’s life, and the one he turned to for everything. Buddy, in return, proof read ALL Alex’s articles, listened to all his radio interviews and watched all his shows. He was a great source for feedback and new ideas. 

I know that Buddy has left a big empty hole behind him and we will slowly fill that hole with all the good memories we have of him. He will be greatly missed by all of us! 💔 Until we meet again! ❤️

In Bro, Sweden, with Marlee

Miami with Marlee


Spain


Ormond


Miami with Raffi


Miami with David


Miami with Marlee


Miami with Noah


Ormond with Gabriel


Miami

Malta


Ormond 


Malta


With Gabriel 


Miami


Miami


Not with us but I just really liked this picture so I wanted to add it 


In Ormond with all his sons and most of his grandsons. 

Ski vacation!!!!

We are on our way home from an absolutely awesome vacation in the mountains of North Carolina. More precisely Sugar Mountain. We went there with three other families and we also brought our own babysitter to help with David while we skied. One of our friends’ daughter. She became good friends with some of the other girls on the trip and it all worked out perfectly. Our babysitter, Alex and I took turns watching David so we all got to ski and during the last day one of our friends took David so we could all ski together. It was a foggy rainy day so we were totally soaked when we got home but the snow was good. 

Driving up in a really full car… I’m surprised you can see out the back window! 😂

Day 1 - Cold and sunny. Perfect, if you ask me! Gabriel and Rafael needed a lot of hands on help so there are no videos from day one. 

Gabriel with his snowboard. He snowboarded a few hours in Sweden a few years ago. 


Marlee on skis. He has skied 3-4 times in his life. Naturally our most advanced child. :-)


Rafael with his skis. His first time on skis ever. 

Noah with his skis (he thought it was very cold). He has skied two times before. 


Beautiful nature!!


The green beginners slope. Alex is skiing with Rafael and Gabriel is sitting to the right of them. 


Alex holding Rafael and Gabriel on the snowboard. Noah standing still.


Rafael in the lift in the bunny slope.

Day 2 - Warmer weather and sun. Gabriel and Rafael showed great improvement. 

Coming next.. into the fog/in i dimman…

Field trip - Reptile Discovery center

Some of you might say “What Reptile thing, did you not just go skiing!?”  As that is true we did actually go on a field trip right before our vacation and I have been too busy vacationing so I need to tell you about that first :-)

With our CC coop we went to the Reptile Discovery Center to watch and learn about reptiles. We went there many years ago and it was fun to be back. We had a guided tour outside and then a visit inside where they have snakes and show you when they milk snakes on their venom (to use as anti venom for snake bites) and the kids could also hold snakes. It was an exciting day!

After the field trip we picked up Alex at the airport in Daytona and then meet up with our friends again for lunch.  A great day!

Petting and African turtle.