Snowboarding trips (end of Jan)

We are trying to embrace the cold (yet another winter!) in the Midwest.  I guess we should have thought about how far we wanted to drive to our season-pass ski slope. 2 hours didn't seem that far last year, but this year it's a lot more than what we want to drive back and forth in a single day!

Do we have a muscle guy or what?!  Ha ha, that's Charlie for you. Never a dull moment in these hotel rooms:

Charlie is always trying to be stronger than Graham.  And I keep telling him that he shouldn't compare himself to Graham and at this point, Graham will always be stronger than him.  

So I'm sure once he has the opportunity to get stronger that Graham, he's going to go for it! It seems that Charlie is already eating more than Graham, so it will only be a matter of time!

Okay, we are here!

There's a huge tubing area too that we've yet to try out.  Maybe next season!

Okay, ready!

Okay, maybe not quite ready yet.  Ha ha!

But Graham is really the best snowboarder out of all of us, then Charlie,...

And then, Momma.  Hi!

Daddy, on the other hand - had a fall on his 2nd run on his skis.  Not a happy camper!

Boys are keeping track of Momma:

Looking good boys!

Graham is on his phone... again!

Charlie, being too tired.  Ha ha!

Getting up this beginner hill is no easy task.  At least it wasn't for me last year.  Graham makes that tow-rope look so easy and he doesn't even unbind his one foot off his snowboard:

And Charlie is still on the ground at the bottom of the hill.  Ha!

After a few more tries, YES!!

Despite everything, everyone is definitely improving going down the hill.  You can see both Graham and Charlie in this video.  Graham in black toward the right side of the video and Charlie in green pants to the left:

I made it up the hill a couple of times too.  Yay!!  And survived the day. Ha ha!

There was a food truck selling mini donuts.  Good way to end the day!

When we got home and was cleaning up all the gear, I noticed that my snowboarding boots had a thing for Ride:

And the other side says Walk!

And then, we checked Bobby's ski boots and it had this thing you could rotate with a screwdriver:

It's no wonder he couldn't get into his boots!!

Here goes...

Easy peasy!!!

We didn't get a chance to properly wax our board before our initial trip, so we managed to get our neighbor to help us out with it.  So firstly, just wipe down the board with a paper towel.  Then, get some Goo-gone and clean the board with that. After that, another quite wipe down with a clean paper towel.  Phew!

We should definitely let Jack handle the iron and wax combo!

Press the wax into the iron and let the liquid wax drip in a zig-zag pattern. I guess I need to just find an old iron as well.  And set it between Polyester and Wool!

Once the wax is on, lightly handle the iron and you're basically just ironing your board. Spread all the wax evenly and don't forget all the sides!  And then, here comes the messy part.  Find a metal scraper of some sort (even an old credit card works), angle it about 45 degrees, and start scraping the wax off.  Yup, the one you just put on!

Looking good, Charlie!

Once it's all pretty even, use a scrub sponge to finally smooth everything out:

And we're done!  I think that was it?!  Ha ha, I better look at my notes!

Well, we have another trip coming up.  Graham and Charlie joined the Ski Club at school and Bobby and I are having to chaperone.  Feels like there more stuff than when we go out golfing.  Maybe because the snowboards are a bit awkward?!  

I'm thinking we need some sort of cover and/or sling because the edges of the boards can be quite sharp.

Daddy doing his job announcing the rules on the bus.  Go Daddy! :-)

Mommy survived another night on the slopes. Although I am 0 for 3 getting off those ski lifts.  Why do they have to make it slope downwards when you're getting off the lift??!

Daddy was too lazy to pack his skis so he just hung around the ski resort.  Ha!

You could actually see your breathe but we didn't managed to catch that on the camera.

We might get one or two more weekends of skiing/snowboarding before the season is over.  Hopefully the boys will continue to enjoy it and we'll do it again next winter!