Spring Break

Our Spring Break trip was exciting enough I felt it deserved its own post even though Ariel was not there (and that was part of the excitement).

We got up to Breckenridge Tuesday night so we could ski Wednesday. Sadly, ski school was full on Wednesday and Jeremy and I had planned on not skiing with kids. But we were there and had already rented the kids skis so we took them up a lift.

Here's Adam on his first lift ride:



Unfortunately getting down did not go so well. Alex had forgotten what he learned at his last lesson and Adam was over his head even with Jeremy holding his shoulders. We decided that not only were Jeremy and I not helping the kids, but we were probably harming them so Jeremy took them to the lodge and I did 3 runs. Then I watched the kids and ate some fries while Jeremy took his turn.

On Thursday, we did get the kids into school and Grammie came skiing with us too.



Both kids did great in ski school. Adam never did leave the magic carpet but his snowplow is getting stronger and he's still having fun. Alex rode some real lifts and remembered how to turn. And Jeremy and I got in as full a day of skiing as we could.

Jeremy had to leave Thursday evening so he could work on Friday. But Ellen and Ted came up to join us for more skiing.

On Friday, Grammie took Adam home with her and Alex and Ted did a day of ski school. They had a great day and made a lot of progress, especially Alex.

And on Saturday, I took the boys up while Ellen watched from the base. Their ski school instructor took them through the baby half pipe which they thought was the best thing ever. I took them down that run several times and then we went over to the big chair and did a few blue runs. They did a great job following my line and staying in control.



Ellen took a lot of pictures and video. In this video the first little skier is Alex. Then Ellen says, "Here comes Wendy" but then a skier goes and then I go on my board. As you can see, I'm not a half pipe expert. It looks like a good way to land on your head. But I did like doing the baby jumps in the park and maybe next time I'll be brave enough to try riding a rail.



I liked the half pipe better than the Ski-a-lot trail though. That was a narrow little tree run with 3' high tires to go under. Needless to say, I am taller than 3' and I did not do well on that run. So I nixed it after two attempts.

Ted and Alex on the gondola home:



So all in all a great ski trip. I rode 4 days and Alex did 3 full days. Alas, I did not complete my life long goal of riding from the tippy top of Peak 8 all the way into town. I attempted this at the end of Saturday but I got to the last lift (it takes 3 lifts and a 1/4 mile hike to get to the top) at 2:46 and the lift closed at 2:45 and the operator would make NO exceptions to let me on a minute late even though there were still people in line. Someday though, I will complete this dream. It's good to have goals.

Oh, and one more thing, mud season ROCKS. I found $7 in change this trip buried under melting snow. Sure, some quarters required some tools like beer cans to extract but it was all worth it. $7!