Skiing!!!!!

On Saturday we woke up early, well David and I did, the boys were already awake, to head to the slopes.  Luckily we arrived early enough to get parking up top!!!  Everybody was excited except Michael.  He chose to do lessons with me this time and AJ was doing lesson with Thomas school again and David was also since this was the second time he has ever snowboarded.

The boys ready to go!!!

David working on getting his snowboard boots on.  He commented all day long about how nice it was to walk in these boots instead of ski boots.  He thought he was hot stuff.  :-)

My boys are sooooo hilarious!!!!  I asked them to pose and this is what I got.  :-)

Now one with their faces, much better!!!  I didn't plan the color coordination it just happened.

David is always good about taking pictures of me and the boys!!!!  I don't quite join in the color coordination, but I still think we look good!!!

AJ riding the drag lift like a champ.  Just like riding a bike - he took to it quickly.  He had about 30 minutes to ski before his lessons started.  Since he was put into the intermediate one this time, I thought it might be good to take a few runs before he started lessons.

This is what Michael wanted to do - play in the snow and have a snow ball fight!  Unfortunately the snow wasn't good packing snow, but that didn't stop him from having fun!!

I had never seen snow bikes before.  But they are pretty interesting.  You put small skies, boot size, on your feet and head down the hill.  Very different, but they seemed to have fun.

AJ skiing down the hill ready to hit the lessons!!!

Michael found a comfy seat, when I told him it was time to get out off  because we were going to ski.  So as I said Michael didn't want to ski.  So we started off with me dragging him up the hill a short ways and then skiing down with me walking in front of him.  I can tell you I got my workout in for the day!!  We did this a few times and he said he wasn't going to do the lifts at all, but I told him  yes he was because I paid for one.  Michael wanted a break so I told him I was going to go and look for his dad.

David learning about the snowboard before they get on the hill.

David also did a lot of hiking, since he was a beginner, they didn't do the lifts at all during the 2 hour lesson.

You can see how foggy it was, this is even a little cleared up.  David sitting and waiting for his turn to go down.  So after that I went back and hauled Michael up the hill some more.  He finally said he would go on the lift but only up to the first orange one (this is where I had been hauling him up anyway, but at least this way I didn't have to pull anymore).  He was able to get the drag lift right away and up he went.  Then he was done and we had about 30 minutes to wait for David and AJ so we went and sat in the car for a little bit.

Then off for some lunch with my goofy boys.  AJ by this point wanted to get back on the mountain.  So he took off a little before we did and was skiing.  I am sooooo glad he loves skiing!!!

And of course their pouty faces!!!  They always make me smile.

Michael skiing - he was getting braver as the day went on.  He went to the 2nd orange pole which was about half way up.  I told him I would follow him and get off when he did.  I didn't want to push because he was actually skiing!!

AJ caught up with us.  He would go to the top and then ski down to meet us.

AJ having a great time heading up the lift!!!

You can barely see him - but that is David snowboarding.  Our visibility was getting worse as the day went on.  But he was doing really well!!!

Michael's turn going up the lift.  He said he wanted to go all by himself and I was to stay at the bottom!  I finally had him comfortable that he could stop when he wanted to stop which was a huge improvement over last year!!!

David heading up the drag lift.  He hung with us the rest of the day working on his skills as well!!!

Michael in action, concentrating hard.  I am so proud of how far the boys have come with skiing!!

And when they were done, it was snowball fight time.  I asked for one run by myself up the big mountain.  I had been going really slow all day and wanted one run to go my speed.  So I headed over to the chair lift while David stayed with the boys.

The boys skiing/snowboarding down the mountain!!!!

I LOVE this picture!!!!  Look at those smiles on their faces - all of them were having a great time and so was I!!!!  We left the mountain around 4:30 and we were all pretty tired.  Luckily I had a crock pot at home waiting for us, we played some games and then had dinner.  We had a discussion at dinner as to whether they wanted to go skiing the next day or not.  It was unanimous, everybody wanted to go back skiing, even Michael (the one who didn't want to ski)!!!  I was excited to go back!!!  So after a little wrestling, a few more games and a little packing we hit the sack.