In the morning we had a hot breakfast and then prepped for the drive over to the ski resort. The roads and weather were better than the previous night so the trip was uneventful. After all the joy of checking in and getting our skis we managed to get on the slopes around 11:30.
The boys tried out the bunny slope first but I, dare devil and perfection in physical form that I am, went straight to the green slope. Alice had some struggles that Mom tried to work through, although the worst part for her (and Charles) was trying to get up some of the slopes while wearing skis. They lacked the ability to not slide backwards when shifting poles (the idea of always having at least one pole set never quite took). At one point I told Alice to just side step up the slope. She responded that it was “too much work”. I countered with the idea that endlessly pushing forward then sliding back would turn out, in the long run, to be even more work.
After some bunny hill trials, I was sent to take Charles up for his first green run. This did not go well. Charles crashed getting off the lift, then crashed again on the first curve (which is quite steep on the inside curve that Charles took). We got moving again and Charles was doing quite well until near the end when he crashed again and melted down. He seemed far more upset that his body wouldn’t ski as he wanted than any actual injury. After some calming, Mom took him up again and, while he crashed off the lift again, he made the run without any falls, which helped.
Around this time we had lunch and then parked handed Alice off to an afternoon ski school. Mom, Boyen, and I then spent some time on the green and blue slopes. I worked with Charles on the lift dismount and got him to crash less often, although near the end of the day he dismounted nicely and then got smacked in the back of the head by the chair, which layed him out for a minute or two. By the end of the day, however, Charles was zipping down blue slopes and becoming a speed addict.
We had dinner there, and then it was time for some night skiing. Corwin abandoned us to go back to the cabins and only one other person in the group stayed. While we missed the sun and it was noticeably colder, the wind completely died out so it was actually more pleasant than the afternoon. It started snowing part way through and the snow in the sky was lit up by the lights. I told Alice it was Jesus and the Apostles having a pillow fight but I don’t think she believed me.
Charles and I did a green run then I hung out with Alice doing the bunny slope. After a dozen or two runs Alice was doing well and getting excited about going fast. The ski school apparently taught her how to do a final turn to stop at the end of the run which she did well. We headed back around 7:30, did an evening devotional, and then our family went to sleep (I think Charles and Corwin were the first people asleep, and I wasn’t far behind).
Charles on an early run