Ski Trip with Friends... Dec 2013

Our first ski trip as a family and the first here in Korea... wow what fun it was.  We went to Pyeong Chang with 9 other families.  Pyeong Chang will hold the next winter Olympics so we were excited to see the place and do some runs on what is about to become a famous resort.  

With our 10 families there were a lot of first timers (including adults) and a lot of kids... so we were not sure how it would work out but Blake was eager to get on the mountain and bless him he did not have any expectations for how much skiing he would get done (usually he is the first one on the lifts and the last one before they shut down).  It was a lot of fun and so much fun we did it again in Feb with friends again.  There are a lot of pics but I just could not leave one of them out.  

We all piled in our cars and drove the 6+ hours to the mountains.  The road trip was so much fun as we caravanned down the highway.  Our car was packed and loaded down... the boys were happy, us parents put on a book on CD and off we went. 

Anticipating the cold... wow look at that.

First signs that we were close... we started seeing the Olympic rings everywhere and signs welcoming us in.

First stop our home for the weekend... cute little house with lots of rooms.... we rented out the whole place.  Each family had their own room and we meet in the center for breakfast and dinner.  We paired up families for each night to be responsible for the food so each family only had to cook once.  It was a perfect plan and worked really well.  Yummy skiing lodge style food like spaghetti, chili, and fajitas.

All the bags unpacked and now we are playing in the room... we had a great little room with a kitchen, living room, bathroom and loft upstairs.  Perfect for our family of 4.

Next stop... ski rental place... if you have ever gone skiing you know this is usually the most challenging part especially if you have more than 1 person and if there are newbies in the group.  We did pretty good for our big group but I can tell you the kids were ready to leave and get on the mountains (I will let you figure out who the kids are???)

Pierce was all decked out and ready to go... thanks to his ViVi and GD he got the coolest helmet cover for Christmas.  Everyone at the resort wanted his hat... thinking of buying a lot of these in the states and selling them at the resort for some extra money (I think I would do pretty well).  I loved it bc I and many others could spot Pierce on the mountain.  I stayed at the resort area the whole time with Asher and others would come and tell I saw Pierce on this and that run.  So fun.

Asher with his buddy Michael... they had fun watching all the people come and go from the lodge.  The next picture is of the kids fighting over who was going to ride with who and who was sitting in the front of the car.

Some fun shots of Daddy playing in the show with Asher... this was Asher's first experience with snow... he was not so sure of it at first especially when he touched it.

These next pics are of our gang all together for dinner.  The room was not insulated so it was very cold inside.  It did have a small heater and we would take turns getting close to it... but it was kind of fun staying all bundled up in our clothes and hats for dinner.

Here's the gang that stayed at the resort during the day.. Three of them are prego and most of us had little ones to chase around.  It was fun staying at the resort and chatting all day.  The men and big kids would check in with us every now and then and eat.  Us ladies ate all day... he he he.  You see Asher in the bottom right hand corner he had lots of entertainment and even took his daily naps in his stroller.

These next pics were taken on day 2 (day 1 was a bit crazy) and both Pierce and Blake were eager to get on the mountain.  Pierce had ski lessons all day and the 1st and 2nd day he shared his instructor with other children and the last day he had a private lesson.  After the first day of lessons he came in for the day with a huge smile on his face totally wiped out but so excited saying "I loved it"... which made Daddy so happy... so they were thrilled to be back out on day 2.

While they were waiting on a missing instructor... the kids decided to do snow angels.

Off Pierce goes with his instructor.... the instructor ended up leaving one of the kids behind accidentally so Daddy saved the day and took her up to meet up with the group.  So that put Daddy at the top of the mountain without any skis so he walked down and helped Pierce as he went.

See daddy without any skis and Pierce next to him with his hat.

There's the instructor stuck with the other two kids trying to catch up to Pierce.

Now its time for the video's... there are 7 of them and they were taken both the first day and the second day of skiing.  These are very short videos but give a good picture of Pierce's progression on the slopes.  He had no fear and I am so thankful I was not taking these videos bc I would have been a  nervous wreck especially the last one.  Enjoy

The first video is of Pierce first run on day 2 down the mountain with the instructor and with Daddy... I stayed at the base filming and Daddy walked it down with Pierce.  I love this video for so many reasons, one bc he did a great job down and secondly he is encouraging his friend Russell by saying "fantastic Russell".

All the remaining videos are in order of progression (and time) and were taken by the ski instructor.

The next one is fun bc Pierce had learned how to really just go straight down the mountain and he was fearless... so this video records the instructor yelling at him saying "You to fast, follow me".

Slow and Easy.... even Pierce thinks so...

Pierce was now learning to turn... i love the body movement here.

Last and final video... he is now flying down the mountain and I guess the instructor is ok with it... Pierce came in from this lesson on cloud nine... he loves flying down the mountain and reported that he was faster than EVERYONE.

One of the longest runs had a gondola ride to the top and if you did not want to ski down you could take the gondola down... so most of the gang hoped in and we headed to the top to take pics and check out the snow (for us non skiers)

Some of our gang... hated that we had some missing but what a wonderful group of people.

On the last night we were all together for dinner we sand some carols and prayed together... now tell me does it get anymore special than this?

One of the days (they are all a blur now) our good friends the Faske's took their boys to a near by water park and they offered to take Pierce... so off they went... indoor water park and then they kept him for a sleepover as well... I love the Faske's.

On the last day of skiing Heather and I finally got our turn... I really did not have any expectations of skiing but as it turns out... I would get too... I was thankful but sad for Blake bc he ended up getting hurt on the first day he got to really ski.  He fell on his back and heard something pop.  To make the story short I will speak in short sentences... He took awhile to get up, got up and skiied down in much pain.  Went to the clinic at the resort they sprayed him with something.  He sat down at the resort.  I talked him into going to the Emergency Room.  We had no idea where one was.  So we drove and drove and finally found one about 45 min away (they are going to have to fix that before the olympics get there).  We had a quick visit and they said it was a bad bruise.  I drove the whole time for Blake was in a lot of pain.  We went back and went to bed eventually.  Blake was still uncomfortable after a nights sleep.  He ended up driving us home the next day.  Still in a lot of pain.  Finally home still in pain.  Decided to go to a doctor the next morning.  After exrays, etc. they said the same it was a bad sprain/bruise.  Still uncomfortable.  Got a phone call later that day after they checked the exray again and they found not one but three breaks in the lumbar transverse process'.  Poor Guy... He is all healed now and very blessed it was not worse.  See pic below.

Heather and I had the whole mountain to ourselves since the lift had closed right behind us... it was amazing and so much fun to do whatever we wanted the whole way down.  All the next photos were taken our last morning before leaving... Blake was in a lot of pain but was a trooper to stop and take photos.  The man in our pics was the owner for the lodge he was so helpful.