Birthdays, Blackouts and a Great Time!

This weekend we had the chance to stay at a ski condo at Schweitzer.  Some friends of ours have a guest condo right on one of the runs.....I mean, literally, you gear up and ski out the front door onto the slopes.  Turns out it just doesn't get any better than that! 
The first night started off a little rough.  We had some angry, howling winds throughout the night that kept me awake.  For some reason, my thoughts turned to that book by Jan Krakauer, "Into Thin Air", and how torturous it would be to be into mountaineering and be stuck in these types of conditions out in the elements....and then those thoughts led me to..."what if we have an avalanche or something?"...I was making escape plans for myself and my family as the winds kept howling.  Eventually, I did drift back to sleep, but my dreams were crazy!
In the morning, we awoke to no power!  The high winds had knocked a tree over and the power went out with it.  Schweitzer was only running a couple of lifts on auxiliary power.  It was tough to be disappointed though, because it we also awoke to our youngest daughter's 7th birthday on Saturday!  Since it was going to be tough to toast up Eggo waffles without power, we decided to eat cupcakes and open presents at 8 a.m.!  Here's the birthday girl and a few of her gifts:

After a quick trip down to Sandpoint for some hot breakfast, we heard power had been restored so we headed back up the mountain for some skiing.  The winds and the temperature kept things pretty chilly both days, but it was still a great time.  Thanks to our friends for use of their amazing condo!