3rd Day Skiing with Boys

Aden with Mom on Boulder chair.
Aden sitting in the snow right before lunch.
Andy getting back up after he fell.
It was snowing "popcorn" at the end of the day. Lots of it.
Aden trying to catch the "popcorn snow" on his tongue.
Aden and Grandma Beth on North Bowl chair.
Andy, Mom, Grandpa Willy and Jordan on Stagecoach High Speed Quad Chair.
Aden on Boulder.
Andy on Olympic Downhill.
Aden and Andy riding with JJ on Boulder.

Raw Videos of Future Olympians
Andy on Boulder


Aden on North Bowl
Our third day skiing at Heavenly was really fun. It snowed on and off most of the day. We had two times where the sun peeked thru the clouds and we saw blue sky. It was pretty cold and foggy most of the day. We had found goggles for the boys earlier in the week so they were just fine with the inclement weather. We started on Bolder and did two runs. The boys were asking to go on North Bowl (the next chair up) from when we pulled into the parking lot. After Grandma did her check in at Ski Patrol we took the shuttle to Stagecoach Lodge. That was fun. It was hard climbing up the stairs to the chair carrying our skis. When we finally got on the chair the boys were so excited. Andy said, "This is like a rollercoaster only slower." He explained how cool it was. When we got to the top we skied around to the top of North Bowl chair and down to Olympic chair (which is now a high speed quad also). It was pretty treacherous heading down to the chair. It had snow at foot or so during the night and it hadn't been groomed so there were lots of mogals. The boys struggled with the big bumps but they made it down. We rode up the Olympic Chair and took it slow heading down the Olympic trail. Since it was pretty bumpy every we headed back down to Boulder. By then it was lunch so we headed out to the pickup to eat with Grandpa and JJ. The boys were still asking to go on North Bowl even though we had already gone down the runs. We hadn't actually ridden on the North Bowl chair. They didn't put it together that when we went on Stagecoach we went on all the North Bowl runs. So after going on Boulder one more time, we headed back up to go on North Bowl chair. That was soooo Freezing!!! It is a 3 person chair and it is the longest chair. Brrr! When we got off the chair I was explaining to Andy that we already skied it. We were all pretty tired at that point so headed it slow down the mountain. Andy fell a couple times because he was so tired from plowing the heavy snow all day. Even Grandpa said it was a hard day because the snow was so heavy! When we got to the bottom of Boulder the boys collapsed in the snow. I asked Andy if he wanted to go up again. He said, "No, I'm done!" The first time in 3 weeks I didn't have to force them to go home. It was fun!!

Freak Snow Storm Feb 20

We had a freak snow storm last weekend. It had been 55 degrees all week and we were playing outside and riding bikes. Then on Saturday a storm blew in. It started snowing at 6pm and it didn't stop until morning. We got two feet over night. Church was canceled (Yeah! We got to see Dad on Sunday!). Charles shoveled a maze thru the driveway for the kids to play in. (This was the driveway after Mom shoveled 6" the night before.) The camera was foggy because it was so cold. The kids enjoyed a day off. We went down to Donya's for most of the day. Grandma and Grandpa Mathews were visiting so they really enjoyed the day off because everyone showed up at Donya's. We were sad school didn't get canceled the next day. So the freak part about it was no one else got snow. Grandma Beth in G'ville was jealous. She had now snow and still had to go to church. Carson City was sunny and clear. It was just in Reno/Sparks.

The boys learn to ski

Lunch on the tailgate of Grandpa's pickup.
You can almost see the slopes behind.
Practicing pizza (snowplow).
Andy riding up the magic carpet
Aden riding the magic carpet
with Grandma Beth behind.
Grandma Beth showing us the
ropes of the magic carpet.
Aden and Andy had a great first day skiing. We went to Heavenly Nevada on February 13, 2010. The boys were asking the whole way how much longer it was going to be. I finally showed them the mountain we'd be skiing on and told them that when we turned we would be about 20 minutes more. They were really excited when we started up Kingsbury Grade. They kept looking out over the Carson Valley and asking what the blue squares were. When I could peek over I noticed they were taking about the ponds in the middle of the farm land. Just getting to the ski resort was an adventure. We got there about 830am. We saw Grandpa and Grandma, JJ, Aunt Aubrey, Jewely, and Rob Pumphrey. It took us a long time to get on all the gear. Aunt Aubrey got us free tickets from the booth. And we started up towards the bunny hill. Grandma lead the way and was explaining a few things about skiing. (Grandma taught ski school at Heavenly for a few years. She's an expert at teaching newbies.) The magic carpet wasn't opened yet so we tested out the skis on the flat part trying to get a feel for them. The boys were first in line when the magic carpet started going. The first thing they learned was how to point your skis into a giant pizza. Andy had a hard time with this until Grandma asked him what her skis looked like. he said a triangle then it clicked she meant a slice of pizza not a whole pie. He had it after that. Aden caught on to everything very quickly. Each of the boys were neck in neck in learning each new skill. Grandma took them on the big magic carpet around 11am. They kept practicing until lunch. When we stopped to eat that was when Aden started asking when he could go on the big chair lift. I told him he would have to ask Grandma since she is the teaching expert. She said that if he could go around all the cones on the bunny hill without crashing or missing any then he could go on the big chair lift. After lunch he was very determined to get every single cone. It didn't take very long before he had made it around every one. It was hard to convince him to go a few more time before we would try the big lift. Around 3pm we finally gave in and headed to Boulder chair (big lift). It is a beginner run but it is about ten times longer than the bunny hill. I was nervous about letting them go down but they did great. It did take us 45min to go down the first time. But the second time they were faster. We were only able to go twice that afternoon before it was time to go. The boys had a blast!! They keep saying skiing is the best best best best best (add a few more) thing ever!! We have plans to go the next few weekends so I hope they will continue to get better.