Jasper in January

Last week when we looked at the weekend temperatures (in the 30's!!) we decided to head to the mountains! When I started looking at hotels in Jasper I realized that they were having a winter festival so our timing could not have been better. We found a room at the Jasper Park Lodge and we were pretty excited to check it out.

Saturday morning we left before 8:00 and drove straight through to Jasper. It took 3 hours to get to the mountains, then another 30 minutes to get to our hotel and then another 30 minutes to get to the ski hill, Marmot Basin. Chris got Max and Mya all ready to head out skiing. Mya was having a minor major meltdown because her feet were burning. (we're pretty sure her boots are a little too small), Max was having a meltdown because he thought he was going to stay on the bunny hill all day and Ivy was melting down because she wanted to go ski down the big hill! Chris's patience when dealing with this was unbelievable. I couldn't have done it. Eventually they got all ready and headed out! They skied for 2 1/2 hours! They did the learning hill a few times and then went up on the big hill for a few runs as well. It was a busy place and the language (and number of people smoking) at the bottom of the hill made it hard for Ivy and I to stand out there and watch for them, but we saw them come down from inside a couple of times. You can click here to see a video of them coming down. My favorite part is when Chris tells them they're doing good and Mya says "but you're doing better!"



After Max and Mya were done, we put Mya's coat (and lift ticket:) on Ivy and Chris took her down the learning hill one time. She wanted more of course, but Chris's back by that point, was pretty sore and he had to ski with her between his skis. She loved the chair lift and everything about it. Next year we'll get her into some lessons and she can join them!



After skiing, we rested at the hotel a bit and then headed to an outdoor concert on the hotel property. It was one of the coolest things I've ever been to. The atmosphere was amazing. There were little fires burning all over that people were sitting around, candles burning on tables, luminaries lining the walkways, the bar was made out of snow, and kids were playing in the snow and dancing in their snowpants. It was just so cool.



We packed our swimming suits just in case we wanted to stop at the hot tub after the concert. Turns out they also had a heated outdoor pool so we decided to do it! The pool was 92 degrees and the hot tub was 103. It was so fun except for when Ivy was waaaay overtired at the end and cried for 30 minutes straight when we got out.



The next morning we were planning on skating on the lake at the hotel, but we woke up and it was snowing and super foggy. We couldn't even see the mountains! We went into Jasper for breakfast, saw some elk just hanging out by the road and then headed back to the pool. It was pretty cool swimming outside while it was snowing. We had lots of fun in the pool and then packed up and headed home. It was a short, but very sweet trip!