Boyne Highlands 2012

As I mentioned yesterday, this last weekend we spent up at Boyne Highlands. We left on Thursday, getting on the road at 10am. My plan had been to get out at 9, but somehow this seems to be our fate right now. Really we were mostly packed the night before, just had to get it in the van.

Here is where I should give a short life update. After become very frustrated with his job (long hours with little regard to his family commitments, etc) Mark applied to and was hired on to a company call eFolder. While based in Georgia, many of their employees work remotely from around the country. Mark's old boss from Kansas now work witht his company and had encouraged Mark to apply. So Mark's last day at his old job was the Wednesday before we left. And he started his new job on Tuesday after we got back.

Ok back to my main point. We would have gotten out shortly after my goal of 9am, but we had to run to the grocery store for garlic bread (I was cooking that night) and by Mark's old work to drop off keys to the company van that he forget and brought home with him the night before. :) Oh well. We did make the trip in 6 hours which was really really good.

Skiing weekend tends to go like this. Drive up on Thursday. Depending on age of family members, some leave before dawn in order to ski in the late morning and all afternoon. We then gather at our townhouse, eat a meal and either lounge around playing games and hanging out or for some go night skiing or to the pool/hot tub at the lodge. We take turns cooking meals and I cooked Thursday night. The great part of being the first one to cook is that I get to relax and enjoy everyone else's cooking the rest of the weekend. :)

Friday everyone that skis goes skiing. This is the day Mark and I have choose to put boys into ski lessons. This year, like last year,  Ian went to all day ski camp; from 9:30am till 4:30pm. In addition to morning and afternoon lessons, Ian got to eat lunch and have an afternoon activity there with the instructors and other kids. I'll mention here that Ian really wanted to learn to snowboard this year. But the snowcamps do not start till age 7 for snowboarding. You can get private lessons for younger kids but they are more expensive, much more. So I convinced Ian to ski this year, with the promise that when he is 7 he can choose to snowboard if he still wants to. Anyway, after showing the instructors he remembered how to "pizza" or stop they worked with him and other kids at his level on turning. He had a great time, to the point of being disappointed about not getting to go back to lessons the next day.

Ian with his instructor

Cai too got to take lessons this year. However, since he still naps in the afternoon I decided that a morning lesson only would be better. I could tell in the beginning he was nervous. He looked at me with "I don't want you to leave but I want to ski so I'll let you" look in his eye. I think it helped that Ian was there even if they didn't stay together and that Ian was so excited to ski. Cai had a great time though. And his instructor only had positive things to say about the morning. Cai spend the afternoon back at the town house with Aiden and his cousins Josiah and Oliver. My mother-in-law doesn't downhill ski so she spend alot of the weekend watching over kids. I was so very grateful for her excitement to watch them, allowing me to ski.

Mark and me sitting on the lift

Mark and I spend the morning with Rachel, Mark's sister, on the front runs. Then we spend the afternoon just the two of us on the back runs. It was nice to ski together. And as Mark commented at some point over the weekend, it was nice to ski together with the knowledge that we could wait at the bottom for each other. This is especially nice for Mark who likes to go faster and is much, much more daring than I am.

me at the bottom of one of the runs

That evening was spent relaxing, reading, knitting, playing games and for Mark sitting in the lodge hot tub. Several people went out night skiing, but I can't remember now if Mark did or not. I know he went night skiing at least one of the evenings but whether it was Friday or Saturday I can't remember. And really it probably doesn't matter.

one of the boys took this

Saturday morning Mark and I took both Cai and Ian out to the bunny hill to ski. We started on the magic carpet and then went up the lift. Both boys had a great time. Cai was having trouble with his "pizza" so Mark ended up keeping him in-between his legs with his arms draped over Cai's shoulders to keep him steady.

Mark and Cai at the top of the bunny hill

 Ian was doing really well turning when we went up the magic carpet, but decided the big hill was too hard to turn. He would race down only using his "pizza" (tips together) to slow down. Scared me silly. But he had a great time. We are purchasing a helmet for that kid next year. He is too daring for my taste.

Ian skiing down the magic carpet run

 The afternoon we spent back at the townhouse while Daddy went skiing. Then we all went down to the lodge (Aiden included this time) and swam in the heated outdoor pool. This boys love this and they get to see the hill and skiers while swimming. Plus the pool has an elevated area surrounding by bars that they can swimming, walk and Ian can even sit in, that is part of the larger pool. This way Mark and I could be in the deeper area and the kids could be near us but in their own area where they can touch. It's lots of fun.

sitting the the lodge waiting to pick up Ian

Saturday evening is much the same as any. I should state here that we played an awesome game called Pandemic on Saturday night. Rather than playing against each other you have to work together to save the world form the spreading diseases. Sadly we lost and the earth was over taken by the pandemic. But we sure did have a great time playing.  Friday night we played my new game of Anomia. I had played this at Winter Retreat with my Jr High Youth and thought it was so much fun that I bought a copy. It's a word/ random knowledge game. And lots of fun. Especially when you have two teenage brothers playing against each other. ;) Oh sibling rivalry is so much fun to watch when its not me.

We headed home on Sunday after breakfast. The car trip took longer coming home, but we were okay with that. Mostly because we stopped so Aiden could use the potty. While we changed his diaper twice in 7 hours, we probably could have used one diaper the whole way. He was that on top of letting us know when he needed to go. Potty training is here. And while its overwhelming cause we were not expecting it, it is still very exciting.

new goggles were a big hit

tired after a long weekend

As always I was sad the weekend was over. I could spend many more days up there skiing and hanging out with friends and family. But alas our time is done and I get to start dreaming about next year. The thing we look forward to: Cai will go to all day camp and Aiden will get a morning ski lesson. Our boys are going up.

To look at more of our Boyne pictures visit Mark's picasa site