The boys got a snowboarding trip from Santa!
With Arizona's not so white winters, I was worried there wouldn't be anywhere to go!
I saw on the news that Snowbowl was open and making their own snow.
Casey took the day off of work and we headed up the day after Christmas!
The girls weren't invited on this trip.
Alison spent the night so she wouldn't have to get up at 4am to drive to our house.
She is the best babysitter, ever!
We woke up bright dark and early.
The lady on the phone said they were expected huge crowds,
being first in line would be best.
They opened at 8, ugh!
With a 2.5 hour drive, we had no choice but to leave super early.
Our timing was spot on!
After a quick breakfast and potty break at Jack in the Box,
we pulled at the base of Snowbowl right at 8!
We hurried and got dressed in our snow clothes.
I practically made them run to the lodge... to find us first (and the only ones) in line, lol!
The early bird gets the worm!
We rented our gear, put our stuff in lockers and off we went for a day of fun!
They had a deal where you got 2 free hours of lessons with the purchase of a lift ticket.
Casey was skiing for the first time, and I hadn't been since I was 12.
So we took advantage of that.
We paid extra for the boys to be in all day school.
It ended up being the BEST decision!
Ain't no way I was going to teach them!
They were mad at first, but at the end of the day admitted they had fun
and were glad they had an instructor to help them.
Here they are walking off with their instructor.
They only had one other boy in their class.
Which left us two!
It felt like a date since we had no kids to deal with:)
We ended up with an amazing instructor who was super helpful!
There were 3 others in our class.
Here we are at the bunny hill
The 2 hours flew by quick and it was already time to pick the boys up for lunch!
The lodge food was actually pretty descent.
They had a green chicken chili soup that was yumm-o!
As we wolfed down our food, I kept reminding the boys to drink lots of water instead of soda.
Getting dehydrated is no fun.
They basically rolled their eyes at me and said they were.
Hmm, we'll see about that later.
After lunch we dropped the boys back off to their class while Casey and I hit the real slopes!
Another 2 hours flew by and we went down to the bunny hills to see how they were doing!
Their instructor informed us that he was impressed with both of them!
They were getting their heel and toe side down really well for first timers.
I'm pretty sure their ability to ride the swivel board helped them.
We bid farewell to Brian
We did a few more runs with them.
This moving sidewalk lift was cool.
Snowbowl blew me away, it was so nice and updated!
I was expecting a run down ski resort.
Quite the opposite!
Then it was off to the big leagues!
I was nervous about getting them off and on the ski lift.
But with their new ski lift it went easy breezy!
You can barely see Lane standing up getting ready to go down his first big hill.
Rusty took off with Casey and I stayed with Lane.
He had a couple big biffs and I could tell he was starting to feel defeated.
I kept encouraging him to get up and that it was ok.
I'm pretty sure in his mind he would be able to sail down no problem.
Snowboarding is not that way, at all!
We were half way down when I got worried he would give up right then and there.
Luckily an instructor could see him struggle and stayed with him the rest of the way.
I don't know what he did or said, but it clicked and he made it down with a smile.
I asked if he wanted to go up again and he said yes!
Casey and Rusty had already made it to the top so we hopped on behind them.
This next run was night and day difference.
He was carving and barley falling.
At this point dehydration had hit Rusty and he was DONE.
Lane was itching to get as many runs in before it closed.
I took Rusty to the lodge to rest and get water.
I tried to take a good picture of him before we went up.
He was spent, and not willing to smile.
Poor kid.
Lane ready to head back up!
We spent the last 30 minutes with Rusty laying on a picnic table
while I video tapped.
He walked up to me to watch for a bit.
The sun setting looked so pretty.
The pro!
Why do kids pick up things so much faster than adults?!
Casey did awesome with skiing!
I don't think he fell once!
On our way down the mountain, Rusty was miserable!
His head was pounding and said his stomach hurt.
We pulled over to let him barf.
Instantly he said he felt better!
Definitely dehydration.
I had heard about an amazing pizza place in Flagstaff called Fat Olives.
Yep, it was mighty tasty!
We ate every single bit of food you see in this picture.
And you cant see the Caesar salad we already ate as an appetizer.
Can you say famished?
