After some sledding, we headed over to downtown Truckee for lunch, shopping and to pick up our ski rentals.
That night Steph and Luke cooked up a super fancy New Year's dinner of steak and shrimp. It was delicious! They even surprised us by bringing the bottle of wine we passed out at our wedding. Unfortunately, it's not one of those wines that really gets better with age. Ha.
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| sparkling apple cider for the kids! |
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| Each night Steph told the kids whoever fell asleep first would win a prize. Well, that was no challenge for Evan. As soon as that kid hits the pillow he's out! |
Wednesday morning we were all up bright and early to go skiing! Steph and Luke get access to the Alpine Club that is up on the mountain. One perk is that they stored all our skis for us which was super nice because we got to wear our cozy snow boots on the bus and then just change into our ski boots at the club. I remembered how uncomfortable ski boots were, but gosh I had no idea how much work it would be to get your kids ski boots on and help them lug all their gear around. Shawn and I were both sweating before we even left the Alpine Club.
Shawn, Emily and Evan have never been skiing before and I had only been once before, 14 years ago. Since we were all newbies, I decided to sign us all up for a full day family private lesson. We rode the gondola up to mid mountain to meet our instructor.
We started the day on flat land. Our instructor, Bob, showed us how to put our skis on and how to get comfortable moving in them. After about 20-30 minutes, we were on to the magic carpet and the bunny slope. Bob attached bungee cords to the front of both kids skis to help keep them in a wedge. On this hill he taught us all how to stop. After about 30-40 min. of practice on this hill, we moved on to one of the lifts and a green run called the Big Easy. It was super packed this day. Bob said it was the busiest he had seen it in the last year. Luckily with us having a private lesson, we got to go in a special lift line and skip most of the lines. Getting off the lift seemed to one of the more difficult tasks and something both Shawn and I fell on a few times. Bob led us down the run and both kids did really well. Evan wore a vest with a handle on the back of it, so if he ever fell, Bob could help him back up. Em was by far our quickest learner. She was a natural! Both kids loved going fast. We continued to ride this one lift over and over, but each time, Bob would change up the path going down and we would have to follow him.
By lunch time Evan was really starting to fade and I got worried he might not make it all day. Luckily after a quick lunch, he was re-energized and ready to go. 2 more quick trips on the big easy before Bob took us on a different green run, the village run. The great thing about the village run was that it was super long and you didn't have to take a lift up. . you could take the gondola up. Now that's my perfect scenario. :)
We all made our way down the village run and the kids and I loved it. Shawn had a little more difficulty on this one, so for the second run, just Bob, me and the kids went. Em and I skiied down ourselves the whole way, while Evan needed a little assistance from Bob when he fell a couple times.
At the end of the first day, Evan finished up a level 1+, Em was a level 2 and I was a level 3. Shawn's card didn't read, so I'm not sure what level he finished up. We were planning on trying to ski on our own the next day, so we before we headed home for the day, we stopped at one of the stores and bought the bungees to put on the kids skis. After dropping our skis back off at Alpine Club, we headed for the bus.
We took the bus back to Steph and Luke's house and Evan passed out. Skiing all day wore him out!
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