Planning Smart:

How Obermeyer’s Innovative I-Grow Jackets & Pants Grow with Your Child.

Here are my tips how (and what) to pack – and how to let go and be ready to be flexible and travel for less – with less stuff and for less money.

When my family travels, we always pack a few games in case we run into delays, bad weather, or if we just want to enjoy some down time together. Here are three easy to pack games that are available at Target or Amazon.

The sounds of nature are so soothing. Pine needles rustling against each other. Wind whistling through wood. The *farumpf* of snow falling on snow. Ahhhh... Sometimes though, Mama just wants to listen to her jams.

For many of us, shopping for ski clothes for the kids is a real challenge.

The days of numb toes and chilly bottoms have gone the way of feathered hair and parachute pants. All you need to keep warm on the slopes is the right gear.

Ski trips with kids involve an immense amount of planning, starting with how you are going to get all of the stuff you need from here to there. With a family of six, that seems like a ton of cargo!

My husband and I were so excited when our eldest son, John, first went to ski school at age 4. I wanted to make sure that he had the right clothes.

You know how you never can find what you really want and then you make your best discoveries when you aren’t really looking?

I am not what one would call organized.

Case in point: I accidentally grabbed my 4-year-old son’s goggles instead of my own on a recent trip to Park City Mountain Resort--without my son. It did not end well.

Winter hasn't come this early to Park City in several years, so needless to say, I was not an organized Snowmama. Between plastic storage bins in the garage, and hunting through the back of the mud room closet for mismatched ski gloves, I gathered up our ski clothes and gear.

Don't forget to get your skis in shape for your first day on the mountain