The weather had been very cold for the week leading up to the getaway but warmed all the way up to a balmy 15 by the time we left for the U.P. The drive up was uneventful and we arrived at the American Inn in Iron River by 4 PM. since it was too late to do any skiing, we amused ourselves by eating dinner and going swimming.

The next morning we were the first in line at the equipment rental desk and were quickly geared up for the next two days. The kids all were signed up for skiing and snowboarding lessons at 9:30. For everyone but Matt, these lessons were more a refresher course. Matt spent last year's trip being sick so he had some catching up to do and spent an hour and a half with his instructor.

Yumi and I spent the morning hitting the intermediate slopes without much difficulty. We broke for lunch and got right back to the slopes for the afternoon. Todd and Nick spent their afternoon hitting the diamond runs while Matt was content to practice on the easier hills for the rest of the day. I don't know where Sabrina was, nor Yumi as Melaina and I spent the afternoon skiing together. Grandma was probably on the bunny hill.

After taking a little time at the hotel to swim, we went to Kermits for dinner and gorged ourselves on greasy food. Some more swimming rounded out the evening.

Morning found most of us very sore but we still managed to get checked out and to Ski Brule by 9 AM. Yumi signed Matt up for another snowboading lesson. When he was finished we spent the day alternating between the beginner hill and an easier intermediate run. Had it not been for the numerous moronic patrons stopping in the middle of the runs he would have been fine. We spent most of our time cursing at these idiots who obviously had no clue what they were doing out there. We did have a good lunch at the Homestead Lodge, however.

I finally met up with Yumi around 3 PM and told her I'd run point on our departure knowing it would be a total zoo at 4 PM when they closed for the day. As it turned out, we left the parking lot by 4:20 and avoided the crush of folks returning their gear.

Everyone had a good time. As Matt said "This is awesome!"