We spent the week before Christmas in one of my favorite places: Steamboat. Every year we take a vacation with hubby’s entire family to this magical winter wonderland. The kids have so much fun skiing and swimming with their cousins and being spoiled by their grandparents. The adults love it, too.
As you can see in the pictures, Steamboat was behind in the snow department. The mountains usually have WAY more than this by late December, but we made the most of it. The kids honestly couldn’t tell the difference between the manmade stuff and the usual “champagne powder,” but those of us over age ten could definitely feel it. Way icy! Thankfully, no major wipeouts to report.
Guess who showed up our first morning!?!?!
Poor Chippy had a major wipeout. He must’ve hit a patch of ice.
We encountered more fun visitors later that afternoon…
Santa and a few of his reindeer! One of my favorite things about Steamboat is that the town and the mountain still embody an old western vibe and ski town spirit. I met Powder, a Saint Bernard puppy, while dropping the kids off at Ski Week one morning. She’s a tourism ambassador. So adorable!
Emery and her cousins participated in a Ski Week program. If your children are really into skiing and want to spend their entire day zooming down the slopes, this is the program you need. Students need to be in first grade or above and should be able to perform basic skills (turn, snowplow stop). Ski Week is different from Ski School in that there’s no downtime (arts and crafts, games) and the kids’ groups are the same the entire week. It’s a fantastic way for the kids to make ski buddies while seriously improving their game. Bodie wasn’t old enough this year, but he’ll definitely do ski week next year.
Grandma was so happy to see her little skiers love the sport as much as her sons. Hubs and both of his brothers skied competitively in college, so I guess these little shorties are destined to be little shredders. In fact, our little Bodie’s name was inspired by none other than bad ass Olympian Bode Miller.
One afternoon after ski week we tried out the new mountain roller coaster at the base. SO MUCH FUN!!!! We loved it. I highly recommend if you’re in the area. You can see the track behind us in the photo below.
The highlight of the week, for me, was watching Emery and her cousins race the Nastar course on their last day of Ski Week. This is the same course hubby raced in college! She did incredibly well. They all did. Austin even won a gold medal for his age group.
Prior to our evening soak in the hot tub, the whole fam gathered at One Steamboat Place’s amazing Apres Ski happy hour. We are so fortunate to have such an amazing place to stay when we visit Steamboat. Nothing beats that nice glass of wine and some delicious snacks in front of a roaring fire after a day on the slopes. Until next year, Steamboat!
Although I failed to take any pictures during our multiple dinners out, I have our faves listed below:
For on mountain dining, we can’t get enough of Truffle Pig and Cafe Diva. Truffle Pig is located in the same building as our condo (One Steamboat Place) and the truffle fries, burger and seabass are phenomenal. Our annual adults’ night out is always spent at Cafe Diva. You can’t go wrong with anything on the menu, but you must get the pork belly sliders. It’s award winning and nearly impossible to book. Make your reservations the second you plan your trip. www.trufflepigrestaurant.com and www.cafediva.com
For in-town dining, Carl’s Tavern is a great, kid friendly casual spot. The deviled eggs and burgers were the favorites in our crew. www.carlstavern.com. Another in town spot we enjoy is E3 Chophouse. The food is great and the people watching is even better. This place is owned by Willie Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame, as well as baseball players Jeff, Adam and Andy LaRoche, plus country superstars Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan. Yup, you read that correctly. Steamboat is nothing like Aspen when it comes to celebrity sightings and high end shopping, which suits us just fine. However, I would be more than happy to run into Jason or Luke. Also, we missed Chipper Jones by a day in Steamboat. It’s probably for the best. I would have fainted. Getting to Steamboat from the southeast is pretty easy as Delta has a direct flight. Can’t beat that!
