Good Morning, Colorado!

On our first full day in Steamboat, we awoke to this glorious view.  Wow!  

It was simply breathtaking.

Our condo faced the opposite side of the mountain and gave us a never-before seen view of all these amazing homes.

After breakfast, it was time to see if we had remembered all our ski clothes. 
Check!  Who's ready to go skiing?

We put everyone in their skis and zipped down to the base of the mountain...

where we met the Cody, the ski instructor.  Such a nice guy! 
I knew this group would have a great time.

Then we took Cami to Ski School. 
Despite this face, she was really excited to see what it was all about!

After that, Dad, Jared and I took off for a few quick runs down the mountain.

Who wore it best in 2018?

In the meantime, the rest of our ski team was busy brushing up on their skills and having a blast.

And then it happened.  We skied down and saw Cami going down the bunny hill.  We hollered her name and waved, giving her a thumbs up for a job well done.  She looked straight at me, and the tears just started to flow.  Sobbing soon took over and I knew we were doomed.  She cried for the next half hour, with me on the other side of the fence, encouraging her to keep going.  And then the head ski school lady walked over and told me, "you know, sometimes it's best if the mom will just L-E-A-V-E."  Uh-huh.  Yeah.  I don't really see that turning out well.  This is not your "hey, mom's gone now, so I'll just go with the flow" kind of kid, but hey, what do I know?  I'm just her mom!  So against my better judgment, we walked away.  And I just felt awful.  When we got to the top of the next lift, I checked my phone and saw two missed calls from Ski School.  Yep.  I knew it.  I called back and the lady said, "So, Miss Cami got so upset crying that she actually threw up.  We're going to need you to come get her."  My heart just sank, and I got to the base as fast as I could.

We went to pick her up and she was all smiles when she saw us.  The lady actually said, "well, she looks fine now, so would you like to leave her here for the afternoon?"  Let me think...NO!
 

Turns out that Cami wasn't afraid of skiing at all, she just didn't care for her instructor.  Like she told us, "I think he was speaking French or something!"  He wasn't, but he did have a very thick accent of some sort.  We decided to go back to the condo for lunch and regroup...

where we ran into these two ski bunnies. 
Turns out their first half-day on the mountain couldn't have gone any better!  

Everyone ate a good lunch...

and then were back at it.  Jackson's friend, Caleb, who was in Steamboat the same week, came over to ski with him for the afternoon.  Finally a buddy for Jackson!

I took Cami on the bunny slope by myself and we were making good progress when Lila and Maddie spotted us from the lift.  They skied down to see what Cami could do...

then we got on the lift again and went down another run.

This was our breakthrough moment.  I skied farther ahead than I had before, while Cami followed Lila.  All of a sudden, she was skiing 100, 200, 300 feet without stopping or falling.  Amazing!!!

Gigi met us at the condo just in time to see Cameron coming down the mountain.  Go, Cami, go! Lila and I were super proud of her.

Cami said she was tired after all that hard work, so she stayed with Gigi. 
I took these precious girls up to the top of the gondola.  

We found Jared, Dad, Caleb and Jackson...

and took off on a few runs.

Let's do this, ski team!

They loved going through the trees...

just as much as going down big hills.  Whatever floats your boat!

After the lifts closed, we headed back to the condo and the kids got ready for the pool. 
They just love it.

All 8 of us had skied.  That's one heckuva successful first day on the slopes!  We couldn't wait for Day 2.