Ski Trip 2009

This past weekend was the annual Ashbrook ski trip. This annual event involves staying with my brother in Dubuque, IA and visiting local ski "hills." This usually includes my siblings (and significant other(s)) and my dad (so that we have someone to get injured). I was extra excited this year to take Ethan with us as well. He was excited to miss two days of school!

We drove to Dubuque on Thursday through dense fog the entire trip. We had planned to do a little skiing on Thursday afternoon, but the pouring rain put the brakes on that. Instead, Nick and I took Ethan to see Coraline.

On Friday we headed across the river to Chestnut Mountain in Galena. I started off with Ethan on the bunny hill. By the third time down, he went down without falling. Of course, the rope tow was a fun adventure. After a little lunch Ethan headed off to Powder Ranger school for the afternoon. Nick, Grace, and I hit the big kid slopes while Dad and Chelsea learned to snow board on the bunny slope (suckers). Conditions were much better than we were expecting thanks to cold air and a warm sun. There wasn't a crowd either, so there was no waiting in lift lines. When I picked Ethan up, the first thing he said was "Hey, can we go ski some more?" Mission accomplished! I took him down the bunny hill a couple times and then he decided he was ready for the real hill. After a couple of great trips down the long green trail, he was done for the day. Mom came along and made us some great white chili in Nick's apartment.

Saturday morning, we got up extra early and hopped in our cars for the two hour drive to Cascade Mountain north of Madison. For anyone who's driven I94 up there, Cascade is the ski place right next to the Interstate. They had a little more real snow, and a bright sun again, so snow conditions were fantastic (not as nice as when Chelsea, Brett, Aimee, and I had when we drove up for the day in 2003?). Unfortunately, the Saturday crowd created moderate lift lines. Ethan was ready for the big time after one trip down the bunny slope (and an interminable wait for the bunny chair lift). He was a bit shocked at the speed of the quad chair lift, but he took it in stride. After his first green run, he wanted to know when he could do a blue trail. By the end of the morning, we took him down the Manitou (which was actually marked as a black Super Park on the big maps). It was pretty steep for a little guy, but he loved it. By the end of the day, he'd done all of the blue trails at least once. His favorite was a flat, twisty, and icy trail through some trees called Glades. When we told him it was time for the last run, he was sad that he could not do a black for the final run! While we took turns skiing with Ethan, we all (including Dad and Chelsea who had skis) enjoyed doing all of the various black (not really very black) runs. We finally called it quits around 6 and started the 2 hour trip back. We had a late (9:30) dinner at Salsa's in Dubuque. Ethan and the rest of us were all ready for bed after that!

Ethan ready for Powder Rangers

Ethan taking a break on Old Main

Ethan and Grandpa waiting in line at Cascade

Ethan sizing up "Manitou" at Cascade.