Skiing Mammoth Mountain, February 2012

The last few days have been very fun!  We went skiing at Mammoth, CA (a ski town outside of Yosemite).  The winter has been mild here too this year, but there's enough snow to still have fun skiing.  Three days ago my mom, my brothers, and I skied all day and had a ball.  I'm a little more cautious in my skiing now than before I was married and had kids, but I felt like I still kept up with the others pretty well.

Matthew and I

So two days ago it was a perfect day for the boys to start skiing -- it was warm enough out that none of the kids complained of being cold, even after being out in the snow for a few hours.  Papa and Aaron brought the boys and met Nana, Matthew, and I and we all rode the gondola up to the very top of the mountain, where we had lunch at the little lodge up there, and went outside to look around and take a few photos.

Then Matthew, Aaron, and  Dad skied down from the top and met Mom and I at the bottom with the boys.

Kolby and Lijah both got a chance to ski (although by the time they had finished practicing on the little slope at the bottom of the hill, they only had time to ride the lift up once and come back down before the lifts closed for the day), but that didn't seem to bother them -- we stayed out on the hill for probably another hour after things closed down, walking a bit up the hill and skiing down.

Kolby's 3rd time skiing

Lijah's 1st time skiing, age 7

After a while Camden traded his snow boots for Lijah's ski boots and skis, and he had fun going up and down the slope several times too.

Camden's 1st time skiing, age 5

And all of the kids (and the grown ups too) had fun taking turns standing on top of Aaron's and Matthew's skis and riding down with each of them.

At one point Matthew and Aaron both rode down on my skis (Matthew in front of me and Aaron in back).

Aaron, Matthew, and I on my skis

And Dad ended up cutting his shin pretty good when he tried to go down the slope on one ski "snowboard style," with tennis shoes on instead of ski boots.  It really was a fun afternoon with all the kids.  Even Courtland and Isaac had a ball riding Uncle Aaron's skis down the slope over and over.

[I've got some videos of everyone riding on each others' skis too, but I'll have to add those in the next post.]

And yesterday in the afternoon we came and picked up Kolby, Lijah, and Camden (after renting another pair of skis for Camden too), and we took the three of them up to the bunny hill.  Dad got some tethers to attach around each boys' chest and hold from behind to help them learn to ski.  Mom, Matthew, Aaron, and I took turns teaching the three boys.  And I couldn't believe how well they did, what great attitudes they had, and how much each of them improved after just an hour or so of skiing.  Each boy got to ride the lift and ski down about 4 times in the hour or so before the lifts closed for the day (which is pretty darn good for kids just starting out, since it was a rather long ski run for a bunny hill).  Lijah learned how to turn all on his own with Nana, and at the end of the day he carried his skis, hiked way back up the hill, and skied down on his own with no one holding onto him.  Lijah was very confident, and he was really doing great without help by the end.  Kolby went down once with me, and was doing so well that I let him go down with his Uncles and took over with Camden after that.  Kolby learned how to slow down and stop on his own, and by the end of the day he was walking back up the hill and skiing down  on his own.  Matthew said that Kolby went down the half pipe and he even got a little air when he went over a small jump.  He even insisted that he could go on his own down the rather steep hill leading to the parking lot, and he did it -- without hitting any of the kids or gear strewn along the way, and stopping before he reached the cement in the parking lot.  Camden rode down with me, and had so much fun.  He fell down a few times, but he'd just get right back up -- one time he fell and looked up and said, "This is so much fun!" And on his last run he only fell once the whole way down.  He also learned how to turn to the left and right on command, and by the end he also hiking back up the hill a couple times and skied down without assistance.  

On the car ride home Lijah said that he wants to move to Mammoth instead of San Diego.  When I told him that we are moving to San Diego, but we could visit Mammoth, he said he wants to come to Mammoth on the day after we move to San Diego.  And Kolby said he wants to live in San Diego, but that we should buy a cabin in Mammoth too.  :)  I think they enjoyed it.