On the slopes

I've been wishing and hoping to go skiing for the last few years.  We haven't gone skiing since Dylan was probably about one year old or less.  I love to ski.  I love the feeling of zooming over the snow, and turning back and forth, going in between the trees on the tree trails, ahhh, I just love it!  This year I convinced Devon we should really make the time and money to go, and to take Dylan and Jayden along with us.  It would have been fun to bring Ethan as well, but we figured the first time taking newbies, and having never taken children skiing at all, we better just start with the two.  Dylan actually got to go skiing once in December with his school, so technically it wasn't his first time, but his second.  We signed the two boys up for ski school in the morning.  Devon and I brushed up our skills while they were in their classes.  We had so much fun, and were surprised at how quickly the skiing came back to us.  It really didn't feel like it had been about 8 years since the last time we were on the slopes.  We were a little nervous, though, and stayed on the blues and greens.  We almost took one blue that had a temporary sign posted on it saying it was a double black diamond.  A guy we rode up the lift with said we should try it because it had some good ungroomed trails.  He didn't say anything about the new classification for it.  We debated whether to take it... could it really be a double black??  The main sign declaring it as a blue was still there next to it, but we decided err on the side of caution and just have fun with the "easier" blues.  It was a blast! 

In the pictures Dylan has a multicolored scarf on and black coat, and Jayden has the grey scarf and green coat.  

Jayden on the left, Dylan on the right

We picked the boys up at lunch time and they were so excited at how their morning went. (As a side note, I had totally forgotten how nasty the food is at the Brighton Lodge.  Total waste of money. We bought cheeseburgers, fries, and a grilled cheese sandwich.  All were not very good, and totally over priced, even if they had been good.) As we started to eat, Dylan fell apart, though. I think he either was exhausted, or had a bit of altitude sickness, I don't know.  He couldn't eat because he was slightly nauseated, and his head hurt and was little dizzy.  Luckily we had some essential oils with us.  I put some DigestZen on his tummy, and peppermint on his head, and while Devon and Jayden went skiing on the bunny hill for 20 minutes or so, Dylan rested his head on the table.   I was so worried our ski day wasn't going to end good. I figured if we had to, Devon and I could take turns with Jayden on some runs.  The sad thing was that Dylan had been so excited to try something other than the bunny hill, so it would be such a disappointment if he didn't get to ski anymore.  Luckily before Jayden and Devon even came back, he started to perk up and was able to eat a little bit of food.  By the time they came back, he was great, and off we went!

Dylan, Jayden, and Devon

Dylan

 We rode up the Majestic lift, and skied down Mary Back, and Lost Maid two times, then skied the bunny hill many times, then went back for one last time down the other two trails.  The first two times down the bigger hills, Jayden and Dylan wanted to go mostly straight down.  They did pretty good at keeping things under control, and would do a controlled fall when they needed to.

 We decided to practice some more on the bunny hill and have it feel a little easier for a bit.  Jayden totally would go straight down the hill.  One of the times I challenged the boys to count the number of turns they made.  I expected to see Jayden make some nice S-turns, only to find myself chasing after Jayden as he went straight down the hill.  At the bottom, I asked him what happened, and also asked how many turns he made.  He told me he did something like 48 turns.  I laughed.  I'm really not sure how he figured that one, but the next time, I had him follow me again, and we worked on some bigger turns.

Jayden and Dylan on the bunny hill lift.

Our last hurrah down the hill, both the boys did better at turning and keeping their speed under control better.  Dylan exclaimed "This is so much easier!"  Its always nice to see those little successes!

Jayden

Jayden

Jayden

Dylan

Dylan

We came, we skied, we conquered!

Ethan got to participate in crazy hair day at school while we were off skiing.  How does he look?

And, last but not least, a big shout out to my Dad for taking my two little ones for the day while we played.  Mom helped some too, but she had meetings most of the day.  She came home at lunch time to help put them down, only to find he had just finished getting them down for naps on his own.  They are both so awesome to be willing to help us out so we could have some fun with the big boys.