Skiing at Sierra-at-Tahoe

2018-01-21

This season started out very disappointing, with barely any snow at all.  The E's family were planning to go up skiing the weekend of 1/20-1/21 anyway since they didn't have many weekends available to go.  We initially were not planning to go, since Oldest J had a drum performance for his school on Saturday 1/20 from 2:00-4:00pm.  However, when we saw the weather forecast was snow for Friday 1/20, we made a last minute decision to take the boys up skiing anyway just for Sunday.  We booked a 2BR/2BA townhome at Aston Lakeland Village to share with the E's for Saturday night.

Saturday

Saturday was extremely busy, packing all the ski stuff, washing up dishes, doing laundry, and loading up the drums. Hubby had to be there by 12pm to set up the drums. I took the boys out to lunch then drove to the recital hall for 1:12pm sound check.  We made it there with a minute to spare, haha :P  Luckily, Oldest J's performance was the second one, and this year they let Hubby take the drums off stage immediately after Oldest J's performance so that he could disassemble it right away rather than waiting until all the performances were over.  We went home at 3pm during the intermission, unloaded all the drums, loaded up all the ski stuff, and headed up to Tahoe.

The E's had already finished skiing and told us the snow was good, and weather was sunny but extremely cold.  Temperatures were between 18-30 degrees F.  They checked into the townhome first, then texted us later to say they're heading out to a buffet dinner and leaving the key under the doormat in case we get there before they're back.  Hmm.. we were wondering why it'd take 3 hours for them to eat dinner, hahaha.

We stopped in Sacramento to grab dinner at Carl's Jr, then continued.  When we got to the winding part of the drive, both Oldest J and Middle J started complaining about their stomaches hurting and wanting to vomit. We had to roll down the windows to let fresh air in for them, but it was freezing cold outside so we had to bundle up Little J in two blankets to keep him warm.  Luckily, none of them vomit, but when we finally got to the townhome, Middle J was plastered on the bed complaining about his stomach hurting so much.  Not even the E's romping around with the other J's could rouse him from his bed, poor thing. We rubbed his tummy with the Four Seasons Oil that all Asian parents have, and hoped for the best, haha.

It wasn't until 11pm that we finally got all the kids brushed up, changed, and in bed.

Sunday

I woke up at 7:30am the next morning, got Hubby up, and started changing and packing up stuff.  E's Mama was already up and making scrambled eggs and ham for breakfast.  All the kids woke up pretty soon after, and only E's Daddy was still snoring away.  Luckily Middle J was feeling much better, so we headed out first to Sierra a little past 8am.  We got to the resort and unloaded everything and the kids. The older J's wanted to hit the slopes right away, so Hubby helped them gear up first.  Hubby was complaining that he was all tired out just from helping Oldest J buckle up his ski boots.  Oldest J's calves are rather big for his age, so the boots were a very tight fit even on the loosest setting. Hubby then went to park the car while I took Little J to get his "pass" for the season.  When I got back to the table, the older J's were already skiing on Broadway.  Little J wanted to ski, too, so I started to gear him up when I discovered his goggles weren't there.  Argh.  I couldn't remember if I had packed it or left it at home, so texted Hubby to check the car, and just in case, I took Little J to the ski shop to see if they had any goggles small enough.  The smallest googles they had ended up either squashing his nose or squishing his eyes.  Luckily, Hubby found Little J's goggles and brought them over.

Finally, after gearing up and a visit to the restroom, 9:30am Little J and I were ready.  This year, I wanted to see if Little J could ski without the ski tip connector connecting his skis together.  To my surprise, he had no problems!  He was able to keep his skis in the pizza shape and skied down his first run of the season with no falls.  The morning was sunny, and the snow was very soft.. beautiful day for skiing! On the lift, Little J said to me, "Mama, I am having a lot of fun. I like skiing. I want to ski more and more and more and more!"  We bumped into Oldest E who was looking for the older J's to ski with them, but I didn't know where they were, and with the spotty cell signal, I couldn't get a hold of Hubby.

Evidently West Bowl (with all the blue runs) was completely closed, so after Sugar-n-Spice, Hubby and the older J's tried to ski down Lower Main, but the snow was very icy and bumpy there.  They made it partway down and decided the snow condition was too difficult for them to handle, so they tried to head back up to cross over to Corkscrew instead.  It was tough going back up the slope, and both boys' skis ended up popping off when they tried to trudge up.  Oldest J had a fit and temper tantrum :/ 

Little J and I skied non-stop on Broadway until 11am, when he finally said he's hungry and wanted to eat.  We headed in to the tables, and E's Daddy was there with Little E.  Little J ordered pepperoni pizza, and sat there happily eating.  The others slowly trickled in for lunch. Oldest E came over and asked again if I saw Oldest J.  He tried to take off his jacket without taking off his gloves first, and his sleeve got stuck on the glove. He flapped his arm around and cried out "I need help!" Little E tried to help him, but couldn't because the sleeve was completely stuck on the glove. Oldest E had a fit and flapped his arm at Little E screaming "I need help!!"  I told him to stop having a fit, put his arm back in the sleeve, and take off his glove first before taking the jacket off.  He put his arm back in, but didn't bother to take off the jacket.  He said he was gonna ski on Broadway and see if he can meet up with Oldest J.  Shortly after, Oldest J skied in, and I told him Oldest E was looking for him, and in fact I spotted Oldest E skiing down Broadway.  The two of them were so happy to find each other, they immediately skied off without bothering to stop for lunch.  E's Mama came in, followed by Hubby and Little J.    We finished eating lunch, and Oldest J and Oldest E were still nowhere in sight.  Given their display of bad attitudes earlier, we figured they could stand to suffer without food for a bit, do we decided to head back out without them.

 

By this time, the sun had disappeared, and it was freezing cold. My hands froze if I took off my gloves for even a short period of time.  I figured I'd let Little J try the longer Sugar-n-Spice run to see how he does, and Hubby said he'd take us all to the Nob Hill lift which doesn't go all the way to the top of Sugar-n-Spice, but just partway.  Man, I was exhausted just getting Little J into the lift line, because it was up a slope.  I had a hard enough time getting myself up the slope without any poles, and wasn't very successful trying to drag Little J up beside me at the same time.  Finally a Sierra lift operator took pity on me and helped pull Little J up to the chair lift area. I was a bit wary because this chair lift doesn't have the safety horizontal bar in front, but Little J held onto the side bar while I had my arm wrapped around him. We enjoyed a nice serene ride up.  We got off and joined Hubby and Middle J to go down Spur.  This run is a bit steeper than Broadway, so Little J was having to do a bigger pizza.  He ended up falling a few times initially before he got the hang of it.  He made it down the latter part of Upper Main just fine.  When we got to the narrow curvy Corkscrew, I was a bit afraid he might not make the tight turns and fall off the side, so I made sure to flank him on the outside while he was going down.  To my amazement, he made it down just fine around those tight turns.  We got to the top of the last section that connects to Echo, and he stopped.  I think he was tired by that time, and he wanted to hold my hand to go down that steeper section.  I tried to hold his hand going down, but he ended up falling.  I pulled him back up, and next thing I knew, a snowboarder rammed right into him from the back, knocking Little J down and sending him skidding partway down the slope.  He landed flat on his back with one leg in one direction and the other flopped in the other direction, skis still attached.  My heart was pounding as I skied down to him.  "Oh no, oh my god, are you OK?? Are you OK??" I kept asking him. I carefully lifted him up, and he said "I'm OK." I asked him, "Is anything hurting? Your head? Neck? Anything?" He quietly said, "No."  The teenage boy who knocked him over kept apologizing, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." I finally told him, "It's OK."  He replied, "No, it's not OK. I'm sorry. I'm not good enough to control..."  A ski patrol came over to check Little J out, and luckily seems Little J wasn't hurt anywhere.  I asked Little J if he can still ski, and he said, "I want Mama to hold me".  I told him I didn't think I could hold him and ski all the way down.  The ski patrol asked if I wanted to let him ride down in a toboggan.  Little J said, "No. I want to ski. Down there. I want Mama to hold me down there."  Evidently, Little J still wanted to ski, but just not down the steep section, hahahaha.  The ski patrol helped carry him down to the bottom of the steep section where Hubby was, and set him down.  I joined him, and off Little J went, skiing the rest of the way down Echo and Broadway and straight back to the Nob Hill lift for another run.  Geesh. I was soooo relieved he was OK!  

We struggled again to get up the lift line, and luckily they still had pity for me and helped pull Little J up to the chair lift area.  We got to the top of Spur, and Hubby and Middle J were nowhere in sight since they had gone ahead.  Little J made it down just fine, until we got to the fork where the left side goes to the latter part of Upper Main / Corkscrew, and the right side goes to Ego and the rest of Sugar-n-Spice.  He stopped and told me he didn't want to go down to Corkscrew again, too steep.  But he didn't want to go down Ego either, as that section was also a bit steep.  Sigh. I was already pretty tired.  There was no way I could carry him and ski that far down Upper Main and through Corkscrew.  But the thought of pushing him through the flat sections of Sugar-n-Spice and trudging up the slope to get back from Grand View Express to Easy Rider Express wasn't appealing either.   Welp, I decided to go with the safer route, so I carried him and skied down Ego to Sugar-n-Spice.  After that, he skied on his own, whew!  But, I had to push him through the flatter sections, and when we got towards the bottom of Sugar-n-Spice, the snow thinned out, leaving patches of dirt and weeds poking through.  I almost lost balance when one of my skis went over a dirt patch. That ski stuck and wouldn't glide, but luckily I caught my balance in time, hah.  Little J came to a complete stop about 50 feet from Grand View Express lift.  I tried pushing him, but that was too hard.  Then I tried to carry him, but with his weight and skis it was too difficult for me to generate any speed.  Then I set him down, attached leashes to the front of his ski harness, and towed him.  That worked slightly better as I could move freely to generate some speed, but once I got halfway between Grand View Express and Easy Rider Express, the slope was too steep for me to haul him further.  I gave up, took off both his skis and mine, walked the skis over to Easy Rider Express lift, put the skis down, walked back to carry Little J over to the lift, put both our skis back on, then got on the lift to continue skiing on Broadway.  Geesh.  I was pretty pooped after that, hahaha.

We went for several more runs on Broadway, and it snowed lightly for a bit.  At the beginning of each run, I'd remind Little J that if he's tired, he should ski back to the tables, otherwise he can ski back to the chair lift for another run.  He kept saying that he wanted to ski more, but eventually he could barely keep his pizza shape, and I could tell he was getting tired. He finally admitted he was tired and skied back to the tables around 3:30pm.  I texted Hubby to let him know, and he texted back that they were gonna go for a couple more runs. Little J and I enjoyed our packed snack of fruit and nuts.  After I changed his diaper, everyone else was back from skiing and packing up. 

We didn't end up leaving the resort until close to 4:30pm, and we crawled along in traffic for a good while.  Little J collapsed in the car, and the older J's soon followed.  Since we weren't going to get to Sacramento by dinner time, we decided to stop in Placerville to eat dinner with the E's at Amerikan Ichi restaurant.  We ordered a bunch of different rolls and vegetable tempura.  The food was delicious and inexpensive... great combination, hehe :D  Little J didn't want to wake up at all, and I ended up holding him through the entire dinner while he slept plastered on me. We saved some food for him, and he finally woke up when we went outside to the car. He started fussing, and I ended up having to swap places with Oldest J to sit in the back next to Little J to placate him. Argh, I had to sit at an angle, squished between his car seat and Middle J's booster seat for three hours until we arrived home a little past 9:30pm.

As soon as we parked in the garage, we started unloading stuff from the car. Part way through, we could hear Middle J inside the house crying and wailing that his legs hurt too much, and that he couldn't stand up or walk up the stairs.  We gave him the portable heat massager to massage his legs while he lay on the floor and made him a drink with electrolyte tablets. Finally his crying subsided and he collapsed in bed.

Monday

Pictures & Videos

Following are videos of our ski trip.