Greetings and hope everyone is having a blessed start to the New Year.
Something that is important to me is to spend meaningful time with my kids. It's easy to let life take hold and to lose track of time, so I like to be intentional with making time to spend with my kids. I constantly think about how fast time flies and I don't want to look back on when my kids were little and think to myself, "I wish I would have made more time to spend with my kids."
So I made time this past week to take my son (8) and my oldest daughter (4) skiing to Keystone. If you haven't been to Keystone I highly recommend it. It is a great mountain in Summit County here in Colorado. It has awesome back bowls and a great variety of beginner to expert terrain. Plus, the town and mountain have a very laid back vibe, which I appreciate.
I woke my kids up at 4:30am, which was surprisingly easy! Here we are shortly after waking up just before we got on the road.
Keystone is about 2.5 hours away from us and the lifts open at 8:30am so we have to leave early to get up there in time to get a free parking spot, get our snow clothes on and get the kids' gear rented. We stopped at McDonalds on the way up there to get breakfast and stopping at McDonalds for breakfast on the way up to go skiing has been a tradition of mine since I can remember. And I don't care what anybody says, McDonalds breakfast is incredible!
After the 2.5 hour drive we finally made it to the parking lot, got our clothes on and were ready to rent their gear.
On this particular day the weather was really cold. I think it was 7 degrees outside when we got there. That's one of the downsides of starting to ski first thing when the lifts open, is that the air is still really cold from overnight. Make sure you dress warm!
I rented my kids their gear, dropped off my daughter for her half day of ski lessons and then me and my son got on the lift to hit the slopes together.
Nothing compares to that.
Being able to ski and ride with my son is the best. He is getting really good and has no fear and I just absolutely love to see it. When I am on the mountain with him nothing can explain the feeling of watching him ski. I get overwhelmed with gratitude and realize that this is what life is all about.
It was so cold that day, that we stopped a little early. We returned my son's gear and put some of our stuff away back in the car and decided to kill some time before we picked up my daughter from her ski school lesson that ended in about an hour.
At Keystone by the Gondola they have a large, life-sized chess board. My son had recently took some chess classes at school and wanted to play, so we did!
Needless to say my son still needs to practice his chess skills because his dad beat him!
After some chess, my son and I picked up my daughter from ski school. She had a blast! Maybe only a few more lessons and she can hit the mountain and the slopes with me and her brother? That'll be the day!
To wrap things up before we headed back home, we went to a pizza place called "Pizza on the Run". My son and I shared a pepperoni pizza and my daughter got mac and cheese (of course). The mac and cheese was an overpriced bowl of Kraft mac and cheese that I could have made at home for a fraction of the cost, but hey, it was just part of the experience right?. After our lunch together we headed home, exhausted from a good day of making memories.
These days are what life is all about. Life is not just about working and making money.
Making money is great, and you want to earn a nice living, save, invest and grow your wealth. But you do those things so that you can be in a position to bless your family and bless others. If you don't take time to spend time with your kids, you spouse and anyone else that is important to you, then what's the point?
Can't wait to get back out there and hit the mountain again with these kids!
Cheers.