We have had more snow so far this winter than we have had for the last two winters combined, plus it's staying cold enough for the snow to stay on the ground (it's 10 degrees out while typing this). Snow on the ground = sledding, sledding (for boys anyway) = desire for bigger hills to go down. The school organizes family ski nights at Bogus Basin and the first one of this year was this past Saturday night. It really is a great activity. As the Resort winds down for the day, you can go up, get discounted lessons and lift tickets and ski under the lights.
I'm not a HUGE fan of the road up there, it's windy and steep (duh) with no guardrails and makes me a little tense during the day, so driving up and back down in the dark was not something I was looking forward to, but the road conditions and the weather were perfect on Saturday, so up we went.
This is the 1st year that Tanner was eligible to take snow board lessons and he was all fired up. Once we got their rental boots, boards etc., we headed out to meet their instructors. For whatever reason, most kids here ski, not snowboard. That combined with the fact that it was at night, meant that Tanner and Jake each had an hour and a half private snowboard lesson, equipment rental and lift ticket for $25.00, which was awesome.
I wasn't sure how Tanner was going to do being dropped off in the freezing cold, but he was good to go. Jake had taken snowboard lessons before and was familiar with the process. Marisa, Faith and I went into the lodge to get out of the cold (it was five degrees out) and so I could try to watch the end of the Broncos game. There were a ton of parents from school in there and we found some friends to sit and chat with while the boys got their X-Games on. They both did really well.
At one point Marisa saw Tanner out the window and it looked like he and his teacher were heading back in. Fearing the worst, I bundled up and headed out to meet them. Tanner saw me trudging across the snow and raised his arms like, "what?". When I got out to them, he said, "What are you doing here?". I asked if he was okay and if they were done and he said, "I'm fine, we're going back up.", which loosely translated, came across as, "Get out of here Dad. You're embarrasing me.". So I turned around and headed back in to finish my burger and wait them out.
Once lessons were done, we collected the boys and brought them inside for snacks. After about a 20 minute rest, they were raring to go back out. They left us in the lodge and went back out and boarded together for another forty minutes or so. I got a sense of foreshadowing for what trips up the mountain will be like as the boys get older.
Once we had decided that they had enough, we returned the rental gear, loaded up the car and headed down the mountain. Everyone had their ipods on (Mom and Dad included) and it was a quiet and uneventful drive back home. We just pulled the Suburban into the garage, left the unpacking for the morning and got everyone (Mom and Dad included) off to bed.
There is another Ski Night scheduled in the next couple of weeks and I'm sure we'll be headed back up for some more fun on the slopes.
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