Word to My Mother

There is no doubt who makes these McLaughlin Family vacations possible. It is my mother Sharon. She is the one who comes up with where to go, arranges a time when all 10-15 of us can get together, arranges for lodging, coordinates transportation, food, laundry, games, activities, music, movies and even quiet time. She does all of this without ever asking for any recognition from any of us. She is self-less and the most giving woman any of us have ever known. We are lucky to call her mom and grandma.
Today's post is all about you mom. We love you.

You're the best. Thank you for everything.
Love Darrin

Yeah what he said,
Love Brian

I agree with Brian
Riley

thank you gramdmama, love you
love avery

Thank you for taking the time to plan everything for the trip. This has been the best vacation ever. I love the condo and the time we spent together with everyone. thank you for being concerned about my knees and doing anything you can to help me. i love you lots and you keep us together.
ex oh ex oh
Catie

Sadly there's not a whole lot else to be said. I could go on about how I get to skip a week of school to hang with the family. I could talk about how great it is to finally have the 5 kids together for the first time in 6 years. I could even mention how great she was to me when the whole family was pissed at me for keeping everyone up with my loud snoring. But why bring all that up? The real greatness to this trip isn't the skiing, isn't the scenery, isn't the lack of responsibility; it's the fact that once again my mother has pulled a rabbit out of that hat of hers and brought us all together to have an amazing time together. We love you mom, even if we don't show it in all we do, that love is still there, and we appreciate you more and more every single day.
Tommy

Mom, you have always given me a road map for a great life. I love that you create these memories and I promise to create them, too, for as long as I am on this planet. Love, Maura

Day something or other here in Aspen

As always happens on a standard McLaughlin vacation we have sort of reached a point where we are not sure if we are sad it's almost over or can't wait to go to our own homes and get a decent night's sleep.
Today's plan went to hell almost the minute we stepped out the door. It became a bit of a fuster-cluck. And when one thing becomes a Fuster-cluck so does pretty much everything else. The videos sort of went to hell in a hand-basket and this post is admittedly NOT one of my best. Please have pity... it's been a long week so far and we are all exhausted. Enjoy the videos.

Getting creative on the slopes

Today was the absolute BEST skiing so far. The sun was out, the snow was groomed and the boys were having a fantastic day out there. We were feeling like shooting some cool video and Brian took the camera and provided some follow shots of Riley and me. They look pretty good and his camera work was awesome. Hope you enjoy.

PS... You're going to love the shot of Brian (self-portrait) at the end.

Darrin


Riley




Brian

The Cirque Bar

No day of skiing would be complete without a stop off at the world famous Cirque Bar and Grill. We all strolled in and took over the biggest table they have. The band was rockin and the beer was flowing. A great way to cap a great day of skiing and boarding.

Terrain Park

Snowmass recently hosted the 2007 X-Games. The terrain park used for many of the Extreme Snowboard events is still intact. We took this opportunity to show our vast skills in this arena and took several runs to shred the gnar gnar. Unfortunately my table top run was deleted before I could download it, but there are some good shots of Riley on that section. The clips are relatively short. Enjoy

Riley




Avery




Darrin


Brian

Small jump

We found this little jump on the way down and shot a little clip of each person hitting it. I was taking the video so you won't get to see the backside rodeo 540 I threw on it before sitting down to take these shots. The clips are short.

Avery


Caity


Brian


Maura


Tommy

The Gondola to Elk Camp

Here at Snowmass they have several Gondolas that will whisk you to the top of the hill. They are very convenient and warm and will hold pretty much our entire group. We have a great time craking jokes on the way up but they require great skill in properly exiting them. We McLaughlin's have worked hard to perfect such a maneuver with military perfection. This video shows exactly that.