Winter Holiday

This past weekend we took a trip up to Shiga Kogen, a ski area near Nagano, Japan.  I really really really was NOT looking forward to it.  Packing up tons of gear for the kids, loading up on snacks (because you never know what kind of Japanese food the kids will eat), leaving at 3am, sitting on a bus for 5 hours, just to drive into freezing temperatures and snow.  Sounds fun for any mom, right?  Well, I wasn’t convinced, especially when we get off the bus and are greeted by this….

But the girlies were excited and so along with some great friends, and their three boys, everyone bundled up and was ready to hit the slopes.

Brian took Abbey and Allie up first.

Amber just wanted to play in the snow.  It was the most snow any of the girls had ever seen in their lives. 

She played and played.  And played.

When everyone was exhausted we came in for ramen and beer. Mmmmmmm.

We skipped any food that was labeled, “fish paste”.

We bought silly neck warmers before we took on the next couple of days.

And now the girls are practically Olympic caliber skiers. (This is where the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics were held.

And Amber is still a goofball.

So our family ski trip turned out to be much more pleasant than the catastrophe I thought it would be.  I am still looking forward to our trip to Hawaii in April, but on the long bus ride home, we talked about doing this trip again next year.  And heck, maybe it would even be fun for mommy to try and ski.