a family vacation at lutsen mountains

Hello, my friends!

Goodness, it’s been a while since I’ve missed a post! It was nice to have a break, though. As you can tell from the title, we went to Lutsen Mountains in Minnesota again this year for a ski vacation! Despite below zero temps (the high for the whole trip was 0 F, burr!) and all of us catching a cold, it was amazing! So much skiing and beautiful sights that I couldn’t help but photograph. 😉

Come along on this trip with me to enjoy lots of beautiful photos, fun adventures, a short video, and more!

We started out on the long drive at around 8 in the morning, usually, we leave earlier, but it had snowed five inches the night before, and we wanted to make sure the roads were clear. The world was sparkling from the fresh snow and the bright sunshine!

We took our annual stop for donuts and gas at Kwick Trip a little less than halfway!

The drive, as a whole, was very chill; I spent most of the time either drawing/handlettering, watching When Calls the Heart, talking to my mom and Grace, or entertaining Zekey who actually seemed to enjoy the car ride for once.

Grace also provided music with her speaker, so that was fun. 🙂

Grace and I also took it upon ourselves to give Dad directions which was eventful. XD Basically, we just repeated was Siri and the GPS on the phone told us, so helpful. 😂 (Sorry for the blurry photo!)

When we still had around two hours left of a drive, we stopped for lunch at Olive Garden, like we usually do. But first, we had to drive through the city which was pretty neat, since we’re very much used to small towns.

All of these ships were so cool to see! The drive up is always interesting to see all the familiar sights that we see only twice a year. (These photos aren’t the greatest since I took them from inside the car window. :P)

Lots of cool architecture and neat buildings!

I love the angle of this bridge that we drove on.

We reached our destination just as the sun was fading away; it was so pretty! I got soo many sunset photos this trip from our balcony which looked out upon the mountain. (One of the ski lifts actually ran by our bedroom window!)

I planned on reading a lot during this trip, did I? I mean if one book counts as a lot of reading. XD The two other books I brought along turned out to not be very interesting (I don’t normally photograph books I don’t enjoy but this was my bed and the lighting was lovely, so of course, I took a picture), so, I read The Green Glass Sea in one day, and then didn’t read anything else the entire trip. 😅

The next photos aren’t in any specific order, just bits and pieces from our trip. This is the view from the top of one of the slopes. So beautiful!

Despite it being below zero the entire trip, Mercy and I both agreed that it felt like spring. . .the air was so crisp and fresh, and the sun was shining. It was lovely! (As I’m writing this post, it actually does feel like spring; the snow is melting outside (:P), and it’s warm out. I doubt it’ll stay, but I’m looking forward to real spring and maple syrup season. (which I’ll be posting about soon!)

Isn’t this view breathtaking? From nearly everywhere on the mountain you could see Lake Superior.

The siblings contemplating which hill we should ski. 😉 (Also please observe the fact that that garage is a normal garage, it was just buried under nearly 8 feet of snow. o.O)

Mom is going to print a canvas of one of these photos so we have this view all year long. <3

A random selfie from the top of the mountain; the sky was so blue, and it matched my helmet and goggles perfectly. 😀

The gondola was only running once and it was a day that was dark and cloudy, so the lighting was harsh. I was hoping to bring my camera, but we rode it while we were in the midst of skiing, and I didn’t want to attempt to ski with my camera, haha. This is the view from the top of the mountain.

And now, the fun part of this post! I created a video from smaller videos I took during the trip while we were skiing, and then after editing it, I thought it’d be fun to post it here! It’s quite shaky, in both senses of the word, but it was fun to make and I hope you enjoy watching this short snapshot of our trip! 🙂

your turn!

Ahh, it was such a wonderful time, despite the cold weather and colds, and so beautiful. <3 Writing this post made me want to go back, but these photos will have to tide me over until next year.

What was your favorite photo from this post? Have you ever been skiing?

Have a lovely day, my friends, and thank you for reading!