We spent a week in Austria skiing and snowboarding in the Alps. This was an incredible trip filled with every single emotion imaginable. There were days we came home with everyone happy and feeling successful and excited for the next day. There were other days we came home all feeling like failures, hurting in every part of our bodies, exhausted, hungry, angry, disappointed and mad. It was such a whirlwind of physical activity and emotions, but looking back, it was amazing.
We arrived in Austria and checked into our Airbnb, which ended up being on the top floor, without an elevator and roof ceilings. We had brought our projector, excited to watch movies at the end of the day, but there wasn't a single wall to project the movie on, and the TV provided must have been in the room since WWII. Luckily, the kitchen had everything we needed. There was a bit of a misunderstanding and originally we were not provided towels (like not a single one), but luckily before we went to bed that night, we were given towels. We wanted to get to bed nice and early so we were rested for our first day on the mountain.
Oh the lines!!! We arrived to a super busy ski resort, there wasn't any parking, so Kevin dropped me and the kids off and set off to find parking. Luckily our tour company told us to get our ski equipment and lift passes the night before, so we didn't have to stand in the super long lines to get fitted for equipment. Kevin joined us and we got in line to take the gondola up the mountain. The lines were so long, and it wasn't so much of a line as a large mass of people just crowded together fighting to get in the front. I had to keep a bubble around Monster using my arms and the other kids, because people were just forcing their way forward without the thought of looking for children. After an hour, we made it up the mountain, and found ourselves 45 minutes late for all our lessons.
Kevin and I paid for everyone to take lessons for all 5 days. Each was supposed to be in their own level, but I think since we were late, it messed up our kids opportunity to be in the correct class. Big Sis and Little A were placed in a kiddie area with Monster. M&M, Kevin and I were sent to a snowboarding group with a teacher names Mia. I wanted M&M to be in her own group since she tends to complain more when I am around. But according to the person helping us find groups, it was the only snowboarding group available.
We gave Monster a hug and left him and the two girls. We bought lunch tickets and all the kids were to eat lunch with their own group. We thought this would be better, so Monster doesn't break down when he sees us at lunch and have to leave us again.
Kevin, M&M and I stayed on this small hill and just went up and down a million times. The constant pressure on my shines was really beginning to burn by the end of the day. M&M complained of the same thing. By the end of the day, we were able to put both feet in our bindings and go on our edges down the small hill.
I felt bad for Big Sis and felt it was a waste of money for her because the teachers didn't do anything with Monster and pretty much had Big Sis take care of him. What made me so mad was they asked him what he wanted to eat and he said french fries, so all they gave him for lunch was french fries. The food ticket coast me about $15, so I just paid for the most expensive french fries ever. Not to mention he kept trying to take the chicken tenders from the little girl next to him. I was so frustrated, but I kept hidden so he wouldn't see me and start crying. Monster has massive separation anxiety, so the fact he wasn't falling apart was pretty amazing. I had prepared him for the past week. I kept showing him videos of little kids skiing. I tried to get him very excited. I also told him every day he would have a ski teacher and I would not be with him.
When we all got in the gondola to go back to the apartment, everyone was smiling and excited to tell about their day. The gondola was full of laughter and chatter and excitement. Kevin and I were so proud of Monster for staying with the ski instructor all day. We bought fruit snacks and gave him a fruit snack for not crying.
We got back to the apartment, and took the evening to make our Christmas Gingerbread houses. We made the gingerbread at home before we left for Austria. Big Sis and M&M helped me make the gingerbread and all the kids cut out all the pieces. We wanted to make sure we had everything we needed to make a house for everyone. We decided to do smaller houses this year, last year we did a big gingerbread temple.
Before we left, we also made the frosting and had it all ready in bags. There were five houses total, so all the kids would be able to do their own house and Kevin and I could make a house together. All the kids were so creative and we had such a fun time making our own houses and each of the kids decorated their own house according to their personality. Kevin ended up helping Monster and I helped Little A. Once all the kids were finished, then we were able to make ours.
The next day, Big Sis and Little A were moved to different groups, so Monster was left all by himself with his group and teacher. We gave him a hug and promised him a fruit snack if he went all the way to lunch without crying we would get him and give him a fruit snack and have lunch with him. So, food on the mountain is a ridiculous price and I learned from the day before that I can't trust the college students to feed my Monster the food that he needs. So Kevin and I decided to pack a backpack with our own lunch. We packed sandwiched, apples, oranges, chips, waters and fruit snacks. We just put the backpack in the snow by the gate of the kiddie area where Monster had his lessons. We got all the kids for lunch and had lunch together, it saved us about $200 a day in food. Not joking! Plus, I think all the kids enjoyed having lunch together. We did have one extra food ticket from the first day, so Little A wanted to have lunch with her group today. I found out at the end of the day that it was really hard for her to be gone all day without seeing us, so we decided all of us would just do lunch together every day.
By the end of today, my shins were hurting so bad it brought tears to my eyes, and M&M felt the same way. All of us were exhausted, but still feeling accomplishment as we were all better then the first day. For us snowboarders, we had to go up this dumb pulley to the middle of the mountain. I fell, every. single. time! I hate that pulley. It was made for skiers and it pulled to the right, which was a cliff, by the way. When I didn't make it up, I would have to unstrap my right foot and waddle up the mountain, and that killed my shin, and made it even worse. I hated the pulley but I hated the walk. There wasn't much that I liked about going up the mountain. But, going down was pretty awesome. I measured my success by how many times I fell. By today, I only fell a handful of times. I was getting more control of the board.
We practiced going down on our edges. My favorite was when we took the lift all the way to the top of the mountain and we took a steep part down to practice our edges and just went down on the back edge of the board the entire time. The views from the top of the mountain were breathtaking. It was so much better for me to go all the way up and then come down the high mountain then continue to unstrap and have to walk, because that just hurt my shin so awful bad.
Since tonight was New Years eve, I was excited to go into the city center and watch the fireworks and participate in the New Years Eve party. The tour company had told us that the New Years Eve Party was one not to miss and there would be kids activities. I think I was the only one who wanted to go and stay up, everyone else was pretty tired and just wanted to go to bed or watch a movie. Luckily, everyone was sweet enough to grudgingly come to the party. There was a neat traditional candle lighting ceremony. Everyone was given a candle to represent the new year, one by one everyone went around and would light their candle from someone else who had used the first candle to light theirs. It all started with one candle and one flame, and then with time, every candle in the center was brightly lit.
After the candle lighting ceremony, there were some pretty amazing fireworks that were shot off. It was a good 15 minute firework show. I'll tell you what though, it was freezing! It was so cold and everyone was shivering. A few hand warmers were still in our pockets, so we opened the hand warmers and kept sharing them. Monster was so cold his lips were turning blue and he was complaining, so Kevin took him into the restaurant where dinner would take place. They came out to catch the last of the firework show.
After the fireworks, we enjoyed dinner (Well, it was actually super heavy German food which just sat in our guts and made us all feel sick, so I don't know if enjoyed it the correct term). After dinner I convinced everyone to go to the tour Rustic house which was where the activities were to be held. I was greatly disappointed as were the kids. I was expecting a room with activities for the kids and the a place for the adults to talk and play games, but all we found was a bar. We stayed for about 30 minutes. The kids milked a fake cow and we talked to a few other people in the tour group, then decided we didn't want to hang out in a bar on New Years eve, and headed back to the apartment.
The snowboarding and skiing for New Years Day was the absolute best because everyone was sleeping in and probably nursing a hang over. Most the people in our groups were gone and most of the kids had private lessons. It was fabulous. Since the groups were so small, we were able to really focus and improve our snowboarding today. I actually ended up moving up a group and went with Hans all the way up the mountain to practice my turns on the steep mountain. I was terrified. Like, seriously scared to death. I could picture myself flying over the mountains edge or racing into someone them tumbling down the mountain and breaking every bone in my body. Hans had to talk to me about mind over matter, and by the third time I went down the mountain I was making turns on the front and back of the board. I was feeling in control and really loving the feel of snowboarding, until my phone rang...
Ring ring, who on earth could that be? It was 30 minutes to lunch time and Monster's teacher was calling to tell me he has been crying nonstop for two hours. I was only about halfway down the mountain so I asked the teacher to put Monster on the phone. I explained I was on the mountain and it would take me a little bit to get down the mountain, and if he stopped crying I would give him a fruit snack and I would come down and get him. He agreed and I left my group and made my way down the rest of the mountain. When I got to the kiddie centre Monster was skiing with his group and was super happy to see me. He finished his last ten minutes of the morning lesson, then left with us for lunch.
For the afternoon session, he started the session already crying and screaming. I found out that they changed teachers on him, and the kids in his group were moved to a different instructor, so Monster was with a teacher he didn't know with kids he didn't know, he was a mess. I was ticked that they would do this, but there was nothing I could do. I made the decision that I would rather have him learn to ski, then for me to continue with my lesson, plus to be honest, my shin hurt so very bad that I felt I had broken it, so I told Monster I would stay in the area and watch if he would do everything his teacher told him to do. So we had an agreement. He learns and continues to improve and I get to rest my shin. I also learned while sitting there that any child that started crying was picked up and put over on a bench and just sat there and cried. The instructors didn't comfort them or try to calm them down, the poor kids just sat and cried in the cold all by themselves. This actually made me furious, because of course Monster didn't calm down! He was with a brand new teacher he didn't know with classmates he didn't know and when he was scared and crying and they put him aside and he just cried in the cold all alone.
Kevin and I made an agreement that we would swap turns going down the mountain, so he went up with the instructor first and when they passed the kiddie area he boarded right in and I grabbed my board and met the group at the lift entrance. We were able to go down about two times each per session. And with one of us there, Monster was improving and actually learning.
As we all got in the gondola we all had a lot of wins! Little A had gone down the back side of the mountain and was doing amazing and learning a lot! Big Sis was loving skiing, but was stuck with still a group that was not her level. Before we left for the day, I voiced myself and told them she needed a group that was much more advanced and they promised she would be in the appropriate group the last two days. But she had still enjoyed going all over the mountains. M&M was perfecting her turns and getting much better and made it down the mountain, and Kevin was getting an amazing handle on his board and had gone down the mountain a few times and by the last time he was really getting the hang of turning. As I listened to everyone list their wins for the day, a part of me was a little frustrated that I had to sit it out on the sidelines a majority of the time, but then I realized by my sacrifice, Monster was able to not only enjoy his day, but was learning and feeling safe and loved. Plus, it was hilarious watching him ski. When he fell, he would just lay there in whatever position he fell in and wait for a teacher to pick him up. He fell everywhere and in every position. Head down, butt up, sprawled on the floor, feet up, hands up, you name it and it was funny. I'm sure the instructors got frustrated always having to pick him up, that made me feel better that he was making them work for neglecting him when he was scared.
As we were sitting there talking about our wins, everyone looked absolutely beat. Poor Little A could barely walk and looked like she was quickly turning into a puddle. Big Sis was talking about how much her legs hurt, and M&M couldn't stop talking about how she felt her shins were broken. Kevin and I felt the same, we were completely beat and so so so sore, it hurt to breath.
If I could do it over again, I would have ended here with lessons. Three days was plenty to get a start, Five was just painful. That night we all pretty much just slumped into bed after taking ibuprofen all around.
Thursday and Friday were the same for me as Wednesday afternoon. M&M and I learned that if we stuffed socked in the heel of our boots it took the pressure off the shins and moved it to the calf, and that relieved a lot of the pain, so that was helpful. We also took ibuprofen before heading to the slopes. We got there early because now all the crowds were gone and it only took 15 minutes to get up the slopes. We had about an hour to just enjoy the mountain and snow. We found a small hill and we let all the kids ski and snowboard. It was fun watching Monster go down and enjoy the freedom. The older girls took the pulley up and went down the half mountain a few times.
M&M chose to stay with Mia while Kevin and I went with Hans. There was only one other guy with Hans, so it was pretty much a private lesson, and Mia had inherited two more students who had to start at ground zero. Hans was a little more advanced then where we were, but to go back to the small hill and turns and edges was just not a challenge enough and a waste of money. So M&M stayed to perfect the basics, and Kevin and I took turns being with Monster and going down the mountain. When I would go down, I definitely felt more in control and was able to make the turns on tip and tail. It still made me uncomfortable going straight down and having to go from straight to the front edge. I always seemed to catch the snow. Another reason I didn't like that is because it required the pushing as hard as I could forward and due to my shins feeling broken, I was either in pain and the correct position, or I wasn't pushing forward enough and would catch snow on the lip and tumble. I kept my butt low though so the falls were not massive biffs. I did take a rather hard biff to the head that kinda shook me up. I am defiantly too old to be doing this. The constant worry of falling and hurting myself was ever present.
We had lunch together and everyone looked like the walking dead. We were all so sore by this point that it was almost humorous. When I asked everyone if they wanted to just make this the last day and take tomorrow off, as sore as we all were, no one wanted to skip the last day. We learned that the last day was the races and the competition in our groups for the gold medal, and all my kids are super competitive and wanted to try for the gold.
The afternoon came and went and Monster was getting even better down the bunny hill. He was able to make small turns and ski with his hands up and down. He was also falling significantly less and was able to make himself go when he was stuck on a flat spot. It was fun recording him and watching him succeed.
Friday came, our last day. Everyone was excited about the races and now the pain was so bad we were all pretty much numb to it, so more ibuprofen and socks under my heels and off we went to the slopes. We were early again, so the kids enjoyed freedom to ski and snowboard as they please for about a half hour. We all got to our last lesson. Kevin took the first shift with Monster and I joined the team. We started with a warm up down the half mountain with the dumb pulley. Finally, by today, I was able to go up the pulley about 3/4 of the time without falling. Mia and Hans set up the race and we all took a practice run. We had to go down half the mountain and pass the double cones. As I was taking my turn, a group of the kiddie groups went right in front of me and I had to menuvier around them, I was pretty proud of myself that I had enough control to avoid hitting any of the little kids, now that is huge improvement.
I finished my race then hurried down to the kiddie area to trade with Kevin. He took the last of the morning time to do his race, then went up the mountain with Hans. By the time he got down, it was lunch time, so we got all together and enjoyed our last lunch on the mountain and everyone talked about their race and morning. The excitement was back and the kids were all smiling. We left for our very last session on the mountain, where Kevin and I again took turns with Monster. When the afternoon session was done, all the kids came skiing and snowboarding in smiling but looking completely exhausted. Big Sis had a spectacular day and went to a completely different mountain. Little A also said she went down the back of the mountain too. M&M talked about how she finally mastered turns and didn't fall, and Kevin made it with even more control. It was a huge win. We left straight from the lifts to the club house where awards were being given for the morning races. There was no way the kids were letting us miss that. We got there and found a big circle table with Mia. We bought hot chocolates for the table and found all the teachers for all the kids. The awards took place and everyone in our family ended up placing in their group. Little A got first place, Big Sis got second place, M&M got third place and Kevin got third because he let me get second, and of course Monster got a medal, because they didn't do a race. We all walked out with medals and feeling very accomplished and tired.
Despite the soreness and the pain and the falling, it was fantastic. Everyone already asked if we can come back next year (except get a better apartment and only do three days of lessons). I will be retiring the snowboard and will be taking ski lessons next year. If we ever want to go down the mountain as a family, I need to know how to ski, so Monster can come down too. With two parents on snowboards, we just can't have a little on skis. I'm excited for next year and am so glad we were able to make this Christmas gift a lasting memory and experience.
