Bear Cub Snowboarders

We are not spontaneous people, and a spur-of-the-moment, 24-hour trip to the snow is usually not our style. (And with five kids, can you blame us?) But, we decided to be spontaneous one weekend in February when Matt was able to take one day off of baseball and we could spare 24 hours (literally!) for a quick snowboarding adventure. Mop and Pop had just closed on their new cabin in Arnold, and needed some small female visitors :) Packing for this trip, including snow gear, was no small feat, but Mary helped!

 

We left town directly after Megan's basketball game, and made it to Arnold about four hours later.

When we arrived in Arnold, we got the grand tour of the cabin, which was complete with lots of plywood, paint samples on the walls and drop cloths over the furniture. However, the "kid room" was all decked out and construction-free. Mop even made up all of the bunk beds so they were ready for sleepy little girls. It's really a perfect room for the kids, and is sure to be the scene of many happy Arnold memories! 

The next morning, we rushed through breakfast with some excited snowboarders-to-be, took a few pictures and then headed off to Bear Valley.

Annie and Tessa had a fleeting moment when they thought they wanted to go snowboarding, too. They quickly realized they wouldn't get their day with Mop, though. Mop won that one, and the little three stayed back for a day of spoiling.

Bear Valley is only 20 minutes from the cabin -- so convenient! No excitement was lost on the drive there.

Our girls do not see snow often, so we couldn't pass up making snow angels on the way in to the resort!

The girls lit up when they saw "The Bear." I'm sure he has a different name, but I'm choosing to not look that up right now :) The bear was a good sport for this picture with our little bear cubs!

"We're snowboarding!"

We took these pictures before their lesson started. This is where it was extremely helpful to have a 1:1 ratio.  Matt took charge of Megan, and I had Bridget. Neither one of us had a snowboard at this point.  We just set the girls up at the top of one of the bunny hills, and held them/ran alongside them as they got the hang of snowboarding. It happened really quickly! We would then carry the girls back up the little hill and do it over and over again. It was a workout for everyone involved!

After our amateur hour, the girls' private lesson started, with a female instructor named Jenny who had no idea how important it was that she was a she :) Jenny taught the girls everything we hadn't thought to teach them, including getting them to be self-sufficient with their board buckling and unbuckling. The lesson was only an hour long, but it proved to be so worthwhile. Afterwards, Matt and I were able to ride the magic carpet lift up the bunny hill with them and work with them some more.

The best part of a day on the slopes: taking a lunch break and warming up for a bit. Maybe I'm the only one who thinks this ;) I saw parents sipping hot coffee in their seats by the windows, waiting for their kids to come in from their runs. It was a little glimpse into our future. Someday, the kids will be old enough to ride the chairlift on their own and meet back with us at designated times. It makes me really happy to know that we're setting the foundation for a skill like this, and that they'll be independent, able snowboarders or skiers if we keep this up.

What a treat to have just two girls for a meal, and especially such happy girls!

Bridget proved to be small but mighty on the slopes, which was a huge, pleasant surprise.  When we finally decided to round the girls up and be done for the day, it was mostly because Megan was having an epic meltdown from frustration and exhaustion ...and jealousy. Bridget, the little 5-year-old who is the size of most 3-year-olds, was better than her at snowboarding. The world had turned on its axis.  Bridget?!  Better at something athletic?! During Megan's final moments on her butt on the bunny hill, Bridget glided past her like a mini-Olympian.  It was quite the finale for Bridget (hence the smile below), but left a bitter taste in Megan's mouth. 

By the end of the day, er, afternoon, these two boarding bunnies were wiped out.  We were happy that we held off buying our adult lift tickets. We wanted to see how long the girls would last, and I'm glad we waited. We'll buy lift tickets for ourselves next time, and possibly enroll them in ski school for the entire day. For this first time, though, leaving for the day at 2 was perfect.

If you've ever snowboarded, especially for the first time, you know how exhausting it is, and how rough it can be on your body. I'm so proud of how well they did and how hard they tried to master this hard sport. All of that work took it's toll. Just look at these faces. Not surprisingly, they immediately fell asleep in the car on the way back to the cabin.

We arrived back to the little girls' club, relaxed a bit before packing up, went out for pizza and headed home. I think the entire trip was 28 hours :) It was so much fun, though. I can't wait to make it up there again and see the girls on snowboards again.