Happy New Year 2009!!

Have a great new year, and take time to relax!!

First Ski Trip

This year we decided that the kids were old enough to go on a trip to the slopes. We went up to Petoskey. They had been getting a lot of snow early this year, so the conditions were great. We decided that the best approach to get the kids to enjoy skiing was to sign them up for ski lessons. We signed up for private lessons at Nubs Nob, which ended up being a really good idea with the personalized attention. Sydney did a great job and could turn and stop at the end of her lesson. Zack did pretty good, given that he's only 3 1/2, and could stop on command.

After the ski lessons, we enjoyed a frugal past time of brown bag lunches with Little Debbies (which are never forgotten on a ski day - you need lots of carbs to keep going!). We hit the slopes after lunch but were surprised to find the weather had turned rather sour with gusty winds, and ice snow showers pelting us in the faces! To top it off, we made the mistake of taking the kids on a green run, which ended being more of a bowl than a gentle beginner hill. It was a rather stressful end of the day for the kids, but after sitting in the lodge by the fire enjoying some hot chocolate they agreed they would be up for another day of skiing tomorrow. In fact, they were ready to go tubing - so we went over to Boyne Highlands and went tubing for an hour. That was a blast - although Zack was bummed that he was too little to go all by himself :)

The next day we headed over to Boyne Mountain. What a great surprise to find out that the beginner area (with a magic carpet and a chair lift) was free for everyone! We even splurged for lunch in the lodge that day to celebrate the savings. The kids were having a great time, especially after we bought them a real pair of snow gloves. We skied until 3pm, and unfortunately had to drive back home.