Sledding, Check … Night Riding, Check … Wiping Out in Terrain Park, Check …

QT and Mr. Terry had a condo for a week up in Breckenridge, so we headed up Saturday morning for a weekend in the mountains! It was WARM up there . . . 43 and sunny . . . which is WAY too warm for this time of year in the mountains. We started our mini vacation with some sledding at an awesome sledding hill some friends told us about.

The view of Breckenridge Ski Resort from the top of the sledding hill. One of the many things I will never tire of seeing in this beautiful state is the deeeeeeep blue sky. It is simply amazing. Down in the lower right corner are the kiddos and Hubby walking up the hill after a trip down.

Me and Princess go for a ride! Because it was warm, the snow was quite sticky. The kiddos had trouble getting up enough speed, so Hubby and I got on with them to give it some more weight and man did we FLY down that hill! It was so much fun! I have always loved sledding. Of course we had to have the obligatory “wipe out” at the bottom of the hill so we could roll around in the snow

Hubby and Dude off for their trip down the hill. On this particular trip down, they ran right over a Dad and his little kid. Hubby did all he could to steer around them, but the other Dad did not help by standing right in the middle of the hill forEVER after they had stopped. And, instead of picking his kid up and stepping out of the way, he JUMPED in front of high-speed Hubby and Dude to try to stop them. Needless to say, that didn’t work out so well. Hubby apologized profusely and everyone turned out to be just fine.

After trudging up the hill about 6 or 7 times at over 10,000 feet, we were sweating to death, so we packed up the sleds and headed to the lodge for some swimming and hot tubbing! After QT and Mr. T arrived, we checked into the condo and got geared up for some Night Skiing at Keystone! We’d never done it before, and it seemed like a brilliant idea a week ago, when it was colder and there was some fresh snow up there.

Here’s the fam at the top of Keystone mountain with the sunset over Breckenridge in the background. We look all ready and confident, don’t we. If we had only known what was to come. Turns out, when you ski at dusk, it starts getting DARK! I know - big shocker! We were ill-equipped with our shaded goggles, but it was OK because it was warm enough to just put them up and not use them. But, also at dusk, you know, when it starts getting dark - the huge lights along the trails don’t really light things up because the sun is still kind of out. So you can’t see ANYTHING. The depth perception is totally off and you can’t see any bumps or anything in the terrain. For semi-beginners like us, it was a bit of a challenge, but we did OK. OK for the first 3rd of the 2 mile long run!

Here’s Dude boarding with the lights on - it really was pretty cool! Princess isn’t in any of the night skiing pictures because she was with Mr. T. Mr. T also skis, and very fast, so Princess had a blast following him down the run instead of hanging out with the rest of us slow pokes. Toward the bottom of the run, Mr. T and Princess took a wrong turn and went around some ill-placed Trail Closed signs - OOPS! They ended up at the bottom of a run, but there was no gondola or anything - including LIGHTS! QT ended up going after them since she had a cell phone on her. Hubby, Dude, and I finished on the open trail, which was ICY, NARROW, and CURVY. We made it, but it was NOT fun at the bottom.

Me and Dude resting at the bottom while we try to figure out where to meet QT, Mr. T, and Princess. Turns out they caught a bus back to the village where we met up with them.

Proof that we were indeed in Keystone, at night, with our riding gear Oh, and that we all made it down without injuring anything but our egos!

Sunday, we were up for some more punishment! We headed to Breckenridge for some lessons . . . Hubby and I were ready for another lesson, so we put the kids in lessons as well. We had a GREAT time! Hubby and I learned a ton and have gotten up on the blues, which don’t seem nearly as steep now that we know what we’re doing. I bailed on the lesson after lunch and went out to practice while Hubby finished the day of lessons. I ended up riding up the lift right behind Princess in her class, so I cruised down the run so I could get some shots of her. She’s the one above in the purple coat learning how to make parallel turns. She did GREAT! And she was ecstatic to finally get to go on the big chairlift up to the blue runs.

I also ran into Dude in the lift line. He totally lucked out and ended up with a private lesson all day because he was the only level 5 snowboarder that day. He had a GREAT time and did awesome. I ended up following him up the lift as well. Dude yelled back to me that they were going to the terrain park! He’d been there already working on some small freestyle moves, etc., but now they were going to go over some of the jumps. I heard his instructor tell him that they were going to go slow so they didn’t actually jump - he was just going to ride over the jump so he could see what it felt like. I tried to cruise down the run so I could get there before they did, and I did get there in time, but not in time to get my camera out. I was soooo bummed because I wanted some video. I got turned around just in time to see Dude drop in, lost sight of him at the bottom, then saw this flash of red come FLYING over the jump! Dude caught about 5 feet of air and landed about half way down the jump on the other side - ON HIS BACK!!! Knocked the wind out of himself and had no clue what had just happened. His instructor was absolutely in awe! They came out of the terrain park to where I was to talk . . . Dude was obviously hurting - I was just glad he landed on his back and not his tailbone or his neck! His instructor told Dude that he couldn’t believe he did that! He said he’s never had another kid catch air like that because they’re always too afraid to go fast enough and they barely make it up the hill. So he said he was impressed with Dudes lack of fear of speed, but that he needed to work on slowing it down a bit for next time It was the last run of the day, which was fine since it was 3:15 and there were only 15 minutes of lessons left. He put an ice pack on his back for the ride home, and is doing just fine today. He’s definitely got a story to tell his friends at school!

Before I went to get Dude from the lesson area, I saw THIS! Princess on the lift with another kid - without an instructor! I was kind of REALLY unhappy with this. First, the instructor and the 3rd kid were in the chair in front of these two - they always should be behind them so they can see what’s going on. Second, Princess should NOT be on the lift without an adult, especially with another kid who is messing around and trying to lift the bar up the whole time! I had to yell to them from the ground to stop messing around. Third, I’ve been telling Princess she has to go with an adult until she’s 7, mostly so she’d quit asking me. Well, this kind of ruins that! She made it up safely and had a great lesson.

So, in review . . .

We were SO excited to find that awesome sledding hill. If you’re heading to Breck, make sure to leave an hour or two open to go sledding. It was a BLAST!

I STILL think Breckenridge is the best place ever to take lessons, especially if you have kids. They certainly know what they’re doing, and they certainly have cornered the market on the family day of skiing.

Parking at the Gondola for $5 and riding up and back down for a day of skiing is the best way to go. It’s cheap and easy. And what kid doesn’t like a ride in a gondola

Do NOT eat on the mountain unless you want to drop $40 on two burgers and two drinks. If you’ve got at least an hour, ride the gondola down, walk 2 blocks to Subway, and ride the gondola back up. Much cheaper - and healthier. If you’ve got an hour and a half, ski/board Four O’Clock to the gondola parking lot and head to Subway. Or, pack a lunch and have a parking lot picnic - always lots of fun

Night skiing at Keystone was totally worth it! I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance. I know, they have night skiing a lot of places, but this was just really cool. The snow was terrible and some of the folks on the trail weren’t so great (as in rude and totally out of control for the conditions), but it was a great experience and another check in another box. Ya always have to try new things.

Watching Dude fly over that jump in the terrain park was AWESOME! I knew right away he was gonna hit hard - I only wish I could have seen his eyes when he hit that jump. He was certainly a trooper, and I’m SOOOO glad he didn’t hurt himself!

Hubby and I had great lessons - the season passes for the fam and unlimited lesson passes for the adults were definitely worth every penny - and pretty inexpensive since we bought them last summer. We’ve had a wonderful winter spending time together learning a new sport