roller-coaster weekend at mammoth

here's our weekend in photos - lots of photos... so if you're up for it grab a coffee and enjoy our visit to mammoth mountain california... :)

it's a 7.5 hour drive from our house to mammoth, so after a busy week of trying to fit 5 days of work into 4, we packed the car and headed out for the long drive - and we drove all night...and up bright and early to hit the slopes...

the view from the first lift was totally worth the drive

Hannah and Chris all decked out and ready to go
Lexie working while strapping on her board..
Bryce, Hannah, Chris and Lexie ready to ride!

lexie

hannah

bryce
bryce, starting to make his move...
chris (bryce faking the fall here...)
and everything was just swell...
bryce bought this new jacket before we left, I had to talk him into the bright green, but I could find him wherever he was...
totem poles
hannah
and then Friday afternoon at about 2 it started to snow - so I decided to do a bit of "apres skiing'
and let the hard core boarders get it out of their systems for the day
lexie and hannah straight on their blackberries checking email...

and back to the chalet for a quiet night in, while the snow fell

and I admired my new bling... :DI took these shots just before we went to bed at about 11 on Friday night to compare in the morning

the next morning we woke to a winter wonderland and some shocking news from Chile, where Bryce's brother Mike and his family live. so we both got online straight away after calling his mum to see what Mike was twittering... it's amazing how connected we are in this world, that you can be in a massive earthquake and report from your phone to the world.

the last update we got was from 8 hours earlier saying that he'd found his wife (after watching the casino in Vina Del Mar shake like crazy with his wife Patty inside) and that they were heading home to find the kids - and then nothing... then to be disconnected and not know was really awful. so many people were frantically trying to get updates, and all we could do was watch the tv, trawl facebook, twitter and the web to try and find any news...

and then, just like that Mike's mum posted on facebook that she'd heard from him and everyone was fine - I wish more families could have received such good news that morning :(

so knowing that they were all ok, we headed out to see what all that snow had done to the mountain

I saw some guys skiing down our street earlier that morning

luckily we didn't have to drive anywhere

they were trying to find places to put all that snow...

my new skis

bryce and cyclops

so much powder

it was hard to see where to goso after a quick lunch at the main lodgeit was time for our last run

then home for a quick shower and a night out in the village - but first we had to get there... so we waited for the shuttle, which wouldn't come, and we bet on times it would come, we sang, and then we took silly photos...

to save us from freezing

our one and only pic of us all

then to the huki lounge (or something like that) where we met Linda and her gang (Hannah's pen pal via email for the last 4 years - who she has only met once...)
then Hannah decided to get this party started and started passing round the jager...
linda and hannah - long lost pen pals...
woo hoo
we found waldo...
linda and court
hannah and I on the dancefloor complete with smoke machine...
dance like nobody's watching hannah!
and then the weekend had to come to and end... and it was time for the long drive home... even flat stanley came too!
my handsome fiance :)
and the ride home was spectacular!
blue skies, sunshine and snow
and mountains all round

our cars with their snow hats

and the rest of these photos are just a few of the many (ok... hundreds) I took along the way home...

I made Bryce stop at Mono Lake for these shots - it was just so gorgeous!

it looked a bit like the moon, or some other planet

and then the snow started to melt away

and the streams were running

things flattened out after a while

then it was back into the mountains through tahoe

couldn't help but snap a shot of these 3

lake tahoe