snow, skiing and snowboarding

What to do on a winter PA day from school when we finally have snow?  Head to the ski hill of course!  First though Leah had her morning gymnastics class.  I was quite annoyed at both Kyle and Jillian and thisclose to cancelling their ski and snowboard lessons this afternoon.  When I told them to get dressed to head out for Leah's gymnastics both of them whined and complained...why do we have to go...not fair...WHAT?  Leah spends every Thursday night at the gym waiting while they do gymnastics class.  Plus we were about to go to a ski hill where Leah would be waiting around, in the cold, for hours while they had fun on the ski hill.  After a little talk both changed their attitudes very quickly, thank goodness.  Normally I find my kids are quite good about doing things for each other and waiting for each others activities.  But we all have our days when we are annoyed and shouldn't be, it happens to me more often than I'd like to admit.

Once we had the van packed up with all our cold weather gear and a lot of snacks we were on the road.  Snow Valley is just over an hour away, we got there in plenty of time to get Kyle and Jillian registered for their lessons and get all their ski and snowboard gear. 

Both did amazing, I didn't get a chance to watch Kyle's class but he finished the lesson very excited to go back up on the lift.  That last run however did him in...he had quite a tumble which included somersaulting with the snowboard and it hurt.  Now he's insistent he'll do a skiing lesson next time and wait until next year to try the snowboard again.

I was able to watch the last bit of Jillian's lesson and I was very impressed with how great she did, lots of control coming down the hill, no hesitation.  And the one time I saw her fall she managed to get up all by herself without getting frustrated (it takes a while to get up on skiis!).

Leah and I played outside in the snow for a little while before heading inside to warm up.  Leah's goal when we arrived was to find a patch of untouched snow and make a snow angel...mission accomplished. 

Inside Leah and I hung out by the nice warm fireplace and had hot chocolate and snacks.  I'm excited to get Leah out on the hill next year. 

I haven't been skiing in years and would love to get out this year with Kyle and Jillian. Although I'm not sure if my ski equipment is still usable since it was bought in 1994. Hopefully we can make this a regular family activity, it would be fun in a few years to be able to get out there all together. For now we'll be split between regular hills, bunny hill and a preschooler playing in the snow. But I've already promised Leah I'll get her out on the hill next winter when she is 4!