Yesterday, the Boedies logged our 3rd day on the slopes this season. One of the bonuses of both of us being self-employed and working for our own company – Thursdays on the mountain!
We typically avoid the slopes during holidays, but Hubby was feeling a huge weight lifted off of his shoulders since quitting his “other” job, and I wasn’t ready to actually do any real work yet, so we packed up the kiddos and headed to Breckenridge for the day. It was CHILLY out there! When we got to town, the thermostat in the car said -24! Cold? Yes! But it was sunny and there was no wind, so we were good to go. At this point, I wish I had a photo of how differently the 4 of us dress for a day snowboarding.
No matter what the temperature . . . Hubby and Princess wear:
- Long underwear
- Another pair of Underarmourish pants
- A 3rd pair of warm pants
- A pair of super warm wool snowboarding/skiing socks
- An underarmour shirt
- A warm sweatshirt
- Another warm wool shirt or sweatshirt
- Snowboarding/Ski Boots
- Toe warmers inside boots
- Boarding/Ski pants
- Boarding/Ski Jacket, with liner
- Mittens
- Hand warmers inside mittens
- Head covering fleece gator thingy
- Helmet
- Goggles
Those two can single-handedly fill up the back of the SUV with their stuff.
Dude and I, on the other hand, were born polar bears. No matter the temperature, we wear:
- Sweatpants (him) / running pants (me)
- Underarmour
- T-shirt
- Regular boarding socks
- Boarding pants
- Jacket, without liner
- Mittens – without hand warmers
- Snowboarding boots – without toe warmers
- Helmet – without fleece head cover gator thingy
- Goggles
Hey – whatever gets you on the mountain, right?
Back to yesterday … -24 when we arrived, but sunny and no wind. Our oldest Colorado friend, E, brought his daughter, L, up to ski with us for the day. We had a blast! E was a huge skiier before Hubby and I got into it. Then he got married and had a daughter at the exact same time Hubby and I started snowboarding with Dude and Princess. This was the first time in the 17 years we’ve known E that we got to spend the day on the mountain together. It was awesome! L is 6 and sooooo cute in her little outfit! She and Princess had a blast cruising down the runs together, with E skiing right beside them trying to take pictures – most of which are blurry because the girls were going too fast! Fearless – I love it!
Dude had fun trying out all the little jumps and moguls on the sides of the runs while Hubby and I enjoyed cruising down the runs without injuring ourselves 
For the first time I can recall, the Boedies didn’t head down to lunch at 11:00 on the nose. It was 12:30 before any of us even realized we were hungry! Then we looked at the lift line and realized everyone else had gone to lunch, so we couldn’t resist another quick run with such a short line during the Christmas holiday season.
After an awesome run with the mountain pretty much to ourselves, we actually decided to have lunch. A quick gondola ride and short 2 block walk to Subway and we were all refuelled and ready to go! We did one more run before calling it quits. The sun was setting behind the mountains, so half of the lift ride was FRIGID with no sun – and half the run was shaded, too. Hubby, Princess, L, and I all got our boards and ski’s off to head to the Gondola for the ride down, then realized Dude and E were heading up for one more run. E hasn’t gotten to “ski ski” as he puts it for at least 10 years. And we all know that the rest of us are just holding Dude back 
So they headed up for one last last frigid ride on the lift and run down in the shadows. Of course it was a race . . . the almost teen-aged snowboarder against the 40-something skiier.
Alas, my Dude was outsmarted yet again by the older wiser Uncle E. They had agreed to go through the moguls to see who could do them faster . . . but E was sucked in by the steep icy slope and couldn’t resist a bomb down the empty run while Dude navigated his way through the moguls as quickly as he could.
Had it been a warmer day, I’m sure the 4 of us would’ve been sitting at the bottom of that run while those two raced each other until they were kicked off the lift.
We were pretty chilly at that point, so we got a lift to the lodge on the shuttle for some hot tub time! After everyone was sufficiently thawed, E and L headed home while the Boedies headed to Dorothy’s in Fairplay for some bigger than your head bison burritos smothered in bison chili - soooooo good!
We had a great day and can’t wait for it to snow so we can get back up there again!
What did you do on one of your last days of Christmas break?
It sounds as if you had a fabulous time. I had a great day. I played Scrabble with my best friend and she beat me three out of four games, but we laughed a lot and we both love our super deluxe set. My friend said that we are wearing out the numbers. It is so great to spend time with someone who has been a friend for forty years.