Ski Monsters!

We planned a trip to Timberline Ski Resort in West Virginia over the winter break, with the hope that the kids might take to skiing and that we might be able to get in a little skiing ourselves... We had low expectations and booked this resort because it also offers tubing, ice skating, and swimming, which would be good alternatives should the boys hate skiing. We also invited their Auntie Barbie, Uncle Jim, and cousins Zach, Kayla, Brooke, and Leah, to come along and join the fun!




We arrived at Timberline on the Tuesday before Christmas, just in time for the 1:30pm kids' lesson. (Thank goodness for school closure due to snow, which allowed us to leave home in the morning, rather than waiting until the end of the school day!) Both boys got private 1 hr lessons - Joshua was required to take a private lesson because he's under 6 and Daniel got a group lesson in which he was the only participant! They both did exceedingly well, and were raring to go down the slopes with us. I was terrified that they would ski off the slope, or into a tree, but they pizza'd very well!

On Wednesday we signed them up for the 10am lesson - same deal and, luckily, the same instructors! Joshua's instructor was Ed and Daniel's was Jennifer. They were both great instructors, and the boys really liked them. After their lesson we took them on the bunny hill but Daniel soon tired of that and went all the way to the top of the mountain with Stuart to go on the 2 mile green run. Joshua was a little scared when we went higher, so I stayed on the bunny run with him, which we did over and over until he had perfected the skiing and the lift!

They took one more lesson on Thursday, learning how to do turns. Joshua was ready to ski the long green run, so we took both of them up to the top of the mountain. They had a great time skiing down the run several times. On the last run Joshua decided to make it a little more interesting by skiing up the banked sides of the slope where people had created some jumps! Daniel was more interested in bombing down the hill at breakneck speed...

So much for the tubing, ice skating, and swimming, none of which we did! The boys loved skiing so much, we're heading back for a long weekend at the end of January!