Easter in Rossland

We stayed home for Easter this year for the first time in I can't even remember.  My sister didn't have her kids and we had just been to Vernon, so we passed.  Instead the three of us had a great weekend of fun.  Skiing on Friday, egg hunt at a hobby farm on Saturday, egg hunt when the Easter Bunny came and then skiing to the top of Granite on Sunday, and then our last ride on Monday.  The boys liked the egg hunt and checking out all the animals at the farm in Oasis, but mostly were obsessed and have been since about candy.  Its a bit of a challenge during Easter for a kid with peanut allergies but there were lots of other candies to be had.

Mmmmm

Awesome candies

After the farm we headed to Gyro for a ride.  Its spring and they are back to being obsessed with their bikes.

On Sunday the Easter Bunny came and left all kinds of goodies all over the house.  The boys had lots of fun trying to find everything and we were still finding stuff in wide open spaces the next day.

Boys on top

Until yesterday we have only skied with the boys on Silverlode and the magic carpet.  Going all the way to the top is a big adventure when you are 3.5 years old.  Skiing down is even bigger, as it is 7 km back to the bottom.  Doing it with two 3.5 year olds alone is pretty big too.  I wanted to try, and the boys are tough enough to do it, if we pick the right day and conditions.  Yesterday was warm, sunny and everyone had had a good sleep.  I was worried about loading the chairs with the boys as they are old and don't really slow down, unless you ask them to slow them.  The boys can't load themselves, so we shuffle up to the line and I scoop them up under my arms to get them on the chair, but if they dilly dally or fall over things get hairy.  I was also concerned about the cat track on at the bottom of Rino's Run where it is narrow and people are skiing as fast as they can to get to the lift.   One unexpected turn by one of the boys and smack.  The boys were pretty excited about going to the top, loading mother lode was fine.  Once we got up the views were beautiful and the boys were pretty excited about how high they were.

Not everyone you ask to take a picture is a pro, but hey, we are on top!

Cole with the views from the top of Granite looking east, Trail and the Columbia River way down in the valley

From the top we headed for one of the only green runs up top, Silver Sheep.  You access Silver Sheep by a long cat track across the top.  Usually no problem for an adult to slide all the way there, but apparently not for little kids.  In the hundreds of meters of flat section I had to skate and push one kid, turn around and repeat for the other, again and again.  Eventually I figured out how to pack us all up together like a train and push us.  Phew!  Once we got to the top of Silver Sheep we were all good though.  Cole was skiing much faster than Grayson, so he kind of took off, and I just hoped that at some point he would stop and wait for us.  Grayson was having a mellow speed, chatty day, stopping and talking all the way.  We were headed for Paradise Lodge for a snack and luckily Cole stopped high enough to wait for us so we could actually duck in.  The deck was packed as it is on a sunny day, especially retro last weekend days, when we haven't had any good sunny spring skiing all year.  Snacks, hot chocolate and beers all around.  I was wearing Connie's old one piece from the 80's and a crazy wig.

We finished our tour of the mountain with a ride on the Paradise chair where we barely made it on the chair in time for it to sweep around and scoop us up.  I was on but the boys were hanging until I hauled them up.  Yikes.  Our last run was 7 km back to the bottom on Rino's Run. The boys were tired, Cole was still skiing really fast and Grayson was slow and falling and stopping a lot.  Eventually I would just scoop him up and ski really fast to catch Cole.  To be fair Cole was stopping and waiting lots and doing a good job.  They were getting at the end of their rope a bit right before we hit the top of Silverlode, but once we were there they knew where they were again and how much further they had to go.  We missed the Dummy Downhill, but still had fries and a beer on the deck for the deck party.  Yeah we did it!

Ski videos

I'm sure it doesn't take a genius to figure out that taking out one new skier is hard ( ouch my back), but 2 on your own is way harder.  Luckily a long time ago I was a ski instructor so I was a little better suited to having newly skiing twins.  They first skied off leash, and alone the last ski day Trev was around, but the problems with 2 on your own are numerous.  As a parent you have to let many things go.  When your one kid skis fast and out of control, as the parent you ski to catch up....when you have two, you always play the same twin game as always, who is in the most danger.  Today Cole skied straight down as fast as he could down a new run he'd never been down, while Grayson and I watched as he disappeared around the corner.  Many explitives were muttered under my breath as i grabbed Grayson football hold at 30 lbs under my arm and skied down after him.  I think Grayson quite enjoyed the ride and when we found Cole safe under the chair, in a flat spot, those on the lift quite enjoyed the choice words I had to say.  On most occasions though the boys listen very well and are very conscious of their brother and actually wait, for some reason I can only chalk up to twin instinct.  I really don't think i taught them that they should wait for their bro "like a team", they just do.  Amazing really!  Its been a great month of skiing with the boys,  I just wish Trev was here to see it all.  He worked hard to get them to ski on their own and never got to see the real benefits of his hard work.  And now it'll be next year before he does.  I am hoping that I will get them to the top on Sunday, but its a fine line with kids. Sometimes 7 km is a long way to ski down when you are 3.5 years old.  I know they can do it and it'll be so great, but not all days are worth going for it.

 

Mini snowballs

Around here hail is mini snowballs.  Just like a proper tree planter/mail person's spawn, come rain, snow, sleet and hail, the boys are out there.  Cole was more reluctant so when this picture was taken we were actually watching Grayson from inside our cozy warm log house.

Luckily this doesn't happen too much anymore...pick it up...

and eat it!

Chair photos

As all things you start when your kids are babes and sleep a lot (leaving you time to do stuff), you intend to keep it up in the long term. Chair photos was something i wanted to do every month, and then at about 2? years old it got way to busy to even remember what day it was, never mind what month. But once in a while I remember and the boys are kind of cooperative enough to get good ones.

Still holding cars

Still cars in the mouth

Here's a very cute video of Twinkle, Twinkle FOR DAD

Last ride of the year

Easter Monday was the last day of the year at the hill.  I still feel like I could ski a few more days, especially in the awesome 300 com base spring condition we still have up here.  We spent the morning shovelling the back garden. Grayson had the great idea of grabbing our summer toys and the boys played happily with their dump trucks and loaders moving the snow around that i shovelled off the garden.  There is still tons of snow in our yard.  About 2.5 feet on the garden and much more in the shade on the north side of the house, probably 1 metre.

By 1 pm we headed to the ski hill for a few last runs of the year.  We did 2 on Silverlode and then had a snack on the deck.  Good bye skiing for the year, can't wait until next year when the boys are bigger and stronger, we will be all over the mountain.

Fish eye Cole

Grayson 

Last chair of the year

Cole insists on carrying one of his skis