Spring Break :: Keystone

WARNING : lots and I mean lots of pictures ahead....

For Spring Break this year, we rented a condo with another family and headed to Keystone, CO.  Both kids decided they wanted to snowboard this year, so we rented Jayden's equipment and an extra helmet for Willow (they didn't have any boots or boards small enough for Willow) from The Slope here in Wichita - they really are so fantastic to work with.

We packed enough food to survive a zombie apocalypse and warm weather clothes while the kids tried their best to entertain themselves - like reading books on the top of dad's truck...

Then early Sunday morning we left the house in a little snow storm and headed West!

We had to make a quick stop at the Denver Airport to pick up Papa and while waiting for his plane to arrive, we ate ice cream and rode the escalator a bazillion times.

After we picked up Papa we drove the extra 90mins to Keystone where we met up with our friends, ate some dinner, and tried to get the kids to bed.

Monday : Day 1
We opted to take the first day off from skiing/boarding and get lessons set up, equipment rented, play in a snow castle, and go tubing!  It was an awesome day, sunny, and in the mid 40's!

All the kid's (Mac (Kerri's nephew), Jayden, Kyle, Briley, and Willow)

Riding the Gondola back down to the base.

Day 2 : Skiing and Snowboarding
The weather on Tuesday wasn't really ideal, the wind was blowing and it snow literally all day, and was really cold.  We put the kids in snowboarding classes, which lasted all day.  We dropped them off at 9:30 and picked them up at 3:30, they got lunch and snacks and played games and learned how to board.  We tried to get down the mountain and peek in on some of their classes.
Jayden riding the magic carpet up - that magic carpet is clutch, way better than the rope tow I learned on - and then coming down the hill.

Willow riding the magic carpet up and coming down the hill

Both kids had so much fun and Jayden came out of his class begging to go back in ski school the next day.  He started out not wanting to take lessons at all, but we insisted he take at least one lesson to get going and then if he really didn't want to do any more, we would board with him the next day.   While I am much better at skiing, I do know how to snowboard and I brought my snowboard with thinking that I could just ride it with Jayden, figuring he'd probably be better than me in no time.  :)  But Jayden begged to be put back in lessons, with his same coach, Shelley.  Willow wasn't too sure about doing it a second day, and that was one of the reasons we brought Papa with us, so he could hang out with the kids who didn't want to go the second day, but in the end Willow decided she too wanted to be put back in lessons.


After both kid's lessons were over, they weren't ready to be done and they both walked up the hill with their boards, strapped in, and rode down.  Willow only a couple times, but Jayden did it for another hour after they had shut down the magic carpet.

 Day 3 : Our last day on the mountain!
The weather was fantastic on Wednesday!  It had snowed about 6 inches the previous day and the sun was out with a high of around 35.  It was beautiful out on the mountain!
One last morning getting ready with our friends!

We ran into the kids right around lunch time - Jayden was coming out and Willow was going in.  Willow wanted to be done with her lessons, she was good enough that they had moved her from the small magic carpet hill in the 3-6 year old section to the bigger magic carpet hill that Jayden had been riding on. and she was not a fan of the bigger hill!

Jayden with his coach.

After lessons I rode up the hill with Willow to try and video tape her coming down, but she forgot to put her gloves on, so after falling twice and hurting her rear once because she wouldn't catch herself with her hands, she sat down and pouted, "I AM NOT DOING THIS!" and unclipped her board and handed it to me and started stomping down the hill.  I was on my skis so I just snow plowed next to her while she was walking and she ended up just jumping on the front of my skis and riding on them the rest of the way down the hill. :)

Jayden with his coach.  Jayden came out of his lesson saying, "You know mom, they have these packages for kids like me where I could come ride every weekend with Shelley.  Maybe you could look into it."

This was the view from our room.

The kid's lessons were on the right bottom section of the mountain, so if we would of had some binoculars, we could of watched them right from our room!

Jayden is definitely hooked.  He is begging for one more trip to the mountain, or better yet to move to Colorado or Washington, somewhere near a mountain.  Just this morning we were talking about what he might want to do for his birthday next month and he said, "Well, my first pick is to go snowboarding.  My second pick is to fly on a plane to Washington and spend it with my counsins"  I was like, "No party? You don't want to do something with your friends?"   To which he says, "Nope, either snowboarding or send me to Washington"