Split Up Day

Saturday was a split up day for us. I went and registered Kendall for snowboarding lessons first thing and then came back to start getting ready. Lessons at Copper are actually easier, starting at 10, not 9 like the other places. So we had time to get her up, fed, geared up, without too much of  a hassle. Kyle left early to go alone and so after Tia helped us get Kendall over to the rental place, Delaney and I took off.

I had a good day with Delaney, the two of us going up and down the lifts, moving from the blues to the greens on two faces of the mountain, handling things well. We went over a couple times to see how Kendall was doing in lessons. She seemed to do fine, and so we kept going around. It was a good day, cloudy, cool, but not too bad overall. We didn’t really need hats under the helmets, and I even shot some video with the Flip without my hand freezing.

We texted Kyle while we got lunch, but never saw him all day. We did run into another Boy Scout family up for the day, and talked with them briefly, but mostly it was Delaney and I going up and down smoothly. Except for one time. There is a short steep drop on one of the blues that goes down about 20 feet. I hit it on my heels, dropping in and expecting to curve around some trees to the middle of the slope. As I was turning, I saw a kid coming in fast from behind me. I couldn’t stop, and I didn’t think I’d be able to turn back on my toes before the SLOW sign in front of me. So I flattened out, arms crossed, and tried to slip under the sign. I almost did it, but my board caught one of the poles and I took out the sign.

Somewhat embarrassing. Delaney was behind me and came up to see if I was OK. Once he saw I was, he laughed a bit and we headed down the mountain. We timed ourselves, and a complete circuit thanks up and down was about 30 minutes for us. So we went until about 2:40 when it became hard to see. The mountain faces East, and so it darkens early and it’s hard for me to see the bumps in the hill. We headed over to see Kendall and saw her finish her lesson and helped her get up a few times as she moved down the bunny slope. She seemed to be doing well and enjoying herself. She said at the end that  she was OK with either skiing or boarding, so we’ll see what happens.

Afterwards Tia and I tried to relax with a drink in a lounge. They only had happy hour food, and the kids were upset, which was really annoying. We couldn’t relax well, though the beer and vodka helped a little.

Kendall really wanted to swim, so I took her to the health club where I had a short run before playing in the pool with her. As we were closing the day, the center square at Copper announced that is was Fiego Saturday and Santa Claus would be skydiving at 6:10. So we headed back , meeting the boys and Tia in the square. Kendall and Delaney were both excited, which was neat. The weather precluded Santa from skydiving, but they brought him in on a snowmobile, him being pulled on skis with a rope and the kids liked it. Kendall ran over to the tree and was in front of him as they lit the tree. Afterwards she stood there awhile just looking at the tree. The magic of Christmas is amazing sometimes.

Fireworks were scheduled for 7, which was 30 minutes away and we struggled to decide what to do. Tia and Kyle wanted to eat, the little ones wanted fireworks. We decided to get some coffee and hot chocolate, and as it was being made, the fireworks started, with Kendall and Delaney racing outside to watch them. Once they were done, we headed to a nice Mexican dinner, with a few margaritas before heading back to the room. Kendall felt a little altitude sick, so she went right to bed, with me following soon after.

A good Saturday at Copper.

So much so that I think we want to book a week here next Christmas and get passes here. The village is nice and self contained, and unlike most of the resorts our timeshare has, you can easily walk to the slopes from the unit. Keystone and Breck haven’t made it easy, requiring buses to get around. Plus passes at Copper can work at Steamboat, so we could book a week out there as well. It’s a little expensive, me finding an $8 box of Cherrios that I declined to buy, but we could load up groceries and have a good time here.