14 in 2014: Family Ski Trip

Okay, so I hope you didn't think I would really go all out and do an overnight, stay-in-a-cabin kind of family ski trip.  What I meant was more along the lines of "I asked for a groupon for lift tickets for Christmas so I can take the kids skiing, grab some hot cocoa, and drive back home" kind of thing. Knowing that the mountains are not going to be open for much longer, I knew it was time to finally fulfill this item on the list.  Plus my groupon expires soon.

So in order to make the trip go a little smoother,  I brought my son up to the mountain for a private lesson and some fun just with me first in order to determine his reaction.  He's the kind of guy who will either love something or hate it.  I did not want to end up out there with two kids and find out that one hates skiing, mountains, boots, going downhill, chair lifts, who knows what else.  If he hates something, he HATES it.

It turned out that he not only enjoyed it, he was super good at it!

This was us on our preemptive ski trip.

So then came time for our day long family ski trip. My daughter, who has skied before and is pretty good, decided to try her hand at snowboarding (thank you Disney channel). So I arranged for my son to meet up with his teacher for a little reminder session because he would so not want to hear it from me and I got my daughter in a group snowboarding lesson because I don't know the first thing about it.

Things went pretty smoothly while they were in their lessons. But I can't explain to you my trepidation as we approached the chair lift. Just me (basically a beginner) and two beginners. It wasn't horrible, but we had our share of struggles. The first time my son jumped off too early and ended up pretty much under the chair lift. One time my daughter's snowboard ended up twisted under my ski and we all ended up in a big heap. One time we made it off smoothly, but I didn't realize big man's ski popped off and we totally tripped the poor snowboarders on the chair behind us. But we all had fun skiing/snowboarding, eating junky food (even though I packed lunch),  and spending time together as a family.

I have to say overall it was a total WIN.

Tips and Takeaways:

 - Seriously think about getting a locker.  I decided to just put our boots on top of the locker as most other people did.  But I didn't take into account the fact that I am short. Like I had to stand on the steps adjacent to the lockers and reach over from the third step just to get our boots on there. And as more people came, our boots got pushed further back and further from the steps.  It took me a good 8 minutes to get our boots down.  Here I am on the steps, stretching, grunting and groaning like a sick cow, looking probably pretty ridiculous, until finally, for just a second, I am able to balance on the very edge of the steps with one leg outstretched to help me balance against the locker and my arm extends just far enough for the tippy tips of my fingers to grab a boot and fling it off of the locker to the floor.  Once I figured out this magical extendo-arm ability, I still had to repeat the whole ordeal 5 more times. Ugh!  Yep, I looked insane and wibbly-wobbly, but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do, right?  Well then maybe next time, I will be prepared and not have to do it at all.  We can get a nice low locker that we all can reach and this may also help prevent giant pocket syndrome.  This occurs when you have 3 neck warmers in your pocket because you know that if you didn't bring them, necks would be cold.

 - I can not give you one iota of advice about lunch.  The first time I went, I did not pack lunch so we bought lunch but were basically right next to the car.  I could have gone to the car and gotten a freezer bag I had packed in the morning.  So that is exactly what I did the second time we went, but this time we got there just as they were closing the parking lot because it was full and we had to turn around and park in the overflow lot.  It was too far away.  So the food sat in the car all day and we bought junky food and fruit at the cafeteria.

 - HAVE SO MUCH FUN!!! This is great family time.  Don't take it too seriously.  It's awesome to spend time with your kids and share your hobbies with them.  Also be prepared for them not to enjoy the same hobbies you enjoy. It happens.

What other tips can you share with me?