Ski Trip #1

 

Earlier this year I had a grand idea that we could try to do something a little different for New Years Eve - something more kid centric (ie: with a family that had kids vs just us adults at the house) and that we could use the time we were all off on break as a way to get a 2 day ski trip in.  We've had the kids skiing now for 3 or 4 years and every year we go once and then it's a full year before we get the kids back on skis and it takes a bit for everyone to get their ski legs back.

So my idea?  Start the ski season early (in December) and that we'd use Christmas break as a way to get the kids out two days in a row.  We'd go for the evening ski one afternoon, pay 1/2 price for the half day, and then do a full day the following day.  Seemed like a great idea right?

Well, here's what we learned.  There is no half price afternoon ski during holiday weeks - makes sense, but a bummer none the less.  And, this year it was roughly 40 degrees in the days leading up to New Years so it was far from ideal skiing conditions.  The "snow" was fake, (it always is in the Midwest) and it was mostly slush.  It was foggy and moist most of the day, but everyone had a great time!  Honestly this was the best the kids have ever done.  It took a few runs on Rookies Ridge to get the Bigs onto the bigger runs.  And it took a few runs with the Littles to get them feeling confident but before we knew it, the Dad's had the Bigs.  The Littles were having the time of their lives doing solo runs on Rookies...and Jamie and I had the freedom to do whatever we wanted.  We've arrived!  We're there.  It's happened.

The downside to a trip on NYE is that we missed out on New Years Day with the Peso family.  I doubt we'll be able to pull off a trip like this again next year - it was hard to miss the party that's been a family tradition for nearly 100 years, but it was fun to try something different and I know the kids had a great time being with kids their own age.

We had the best day!  We arrived around 9:15 and were out on the hill by probably 10:30 or so.  We took an hour break to grill up hamburgers in the parking lot (for which everyone who walked by was jealous of!) and then stayed and skied until about 4:30 or so.  Jamie and I decided we'd had our $75 worth of fun around 3 and left the kids and Dads on the hill.  We hauled our stuff to the car, changed into normal boots and walked our little butts right into the hotel bar where we warmed up, people watched, chatted and had one amazing cocktail (not so much because it was a well made cocktail, but mostly because we were warm, dry and kid free!).  We cheers'd to having raised four kids who finally had the confidence and independence to ski solo.

When it was time to go we nearly had to drag the kids off the hill.  They asked for "one more time" about 10 times before we finally called it.  We're headed back to Galena in February with Betsy and Pat and I hope these kids remember how much fun we had and ease right into where we left off with this trip.