Apr 1, 2022

A Day at Catamount Ski Resort (A.K.A Our first time snowboarding!)

Sooo a couple things you may or may not know about us....

2 out of we 3 siblings have birthdays in March.... (Jared and Janna).
That being said, Jenneka was always included in March celebrations for her half birthday - which is in March, (her real Birthday is in September, an exact 6 month difference!) We started this tradition, because we also have a cousin and our Father who also share March Birthdays....telling 3 year old Jenneka she would have to sit these parties out was just not an option for our family....so everyone decided to include her in the March Birthday fun! Haha.
We live and somehow have always lived within 30-40 minutes of some amazing ski resorts.
We in all our years living in and around the Hudson Valley have never visited any of these "said" ski havens.
All of that changed on Monday 2/28/22 !

Every year we say, "We are going to try skiing or snowboarding!" And every year it seems we just can never make it happen. Our original attempt this year got thwarted by a balmy 60 degree day, right before Valentines Day! Completely kabashing our original friend filled ski weekend, it wound up turning into an amazing hike with a bunch of friends and all of our dogs rather than a ski day! (More on that adventure here)

But back to how we finally broke the ice (literally and figuratively). Another friend knew of all the perils of us trying to experience skiing and decided along with Jenneka she would plan a day trip for our Birthdays. She purchased our lessons and with that, the date was set!

Of course we all started feeling a bit under the weather that Sunday night and by the AM were seriously questioning if we should just rest up for the work week ahead.....but that wasn't happening because we found out the ski lessons were not refundable or transferable (also a helpful tip for anyone booking lessons..if you didn't know, now you know)...so, off we went.

We arrived at Catamount about an hour early to our lessons, as per the instructions, this gives time to sort out rentals and gear up for the day.

Originally we had 2 ski lessons and 2 snowboarding lessons, but that morning we asked to switch to a group snowboarding lesson (the website wouldn't allow more than 3 in a group) yet, they kindly accommodated us and switched things around as we checked in. We went on a Monday, so there was a reasonable amount of people...but we got to miss the weekend crowds.

We purchased our Lift Ticket and rentals, signed in for our lessons and then head into the rental area to pick up our gear.

Our friend Jen already owned a board so she was just along for the fun-and to help us with all of our questions on how to put snowboard boots on! Hahaha....Thank You Jen!

We arrived to our lesson on the bunny hill just in time as everyone was breaking off into groups. We had a lovely lesson, minimal falls (which surprised us...haha) but we had some spills none the less.

Fam, to be clear and give proper context🤪 The above pic is of us clipping our boots to our boards and not of us falling and failing miserably! Haha! After our lesson we were encouraged to stick around and keep practicing! It's such a small world as we ran into (thankfully not in a literal sense) Brian, Julia and our "nieces"! We may or may not have been upstaged by Liv and Taya when it came to snowboarding skills and we were definitely blown away by Corra's skiing skills! She had apparently long outgrown the bunny hill and was gracefully speeding down the slopes with ease...hahah!

Jared just conveying how much he enjoyed riding that magic carpet 😜

The new album cover for Aunt Jen and Taya hit the Slopes...

Jenneka and Taya have this in common.....the need for speed, the rush of wind and snow in their hair and a boundless spirit of joy and adventure!

Pretty sure Uncle Jared wanted to be wrapped up in a snowsuit like Rhy's, being held by his bed rather than having his feet attached to a board, sliding down the bunny hill!