Barb

Mouse Trap Lanes in lovely Woodbine, NJ

unfortunately he doesn't ski. The lanes I leave in "semi" competent hands.

I am getting so excited for our trip next weekend. We are thinking about breaking up the drive and leaving 3/13 in the evening and stopping in NY. Belleayre has a special 3/14 for $15 lift tickets. This would also make the boys tired and less likely to fight the last stretch of the trip. We have slopeside lodging at Bromley. Although the girl warned me the place is very dated, but clean. We plan to hook up with my family who has a house at Stratton. I have a decent amount of lift ticket deals. I have a free ticket to Stratton that I won in that email contest, My 4th grade NY passport book has a free coupon to any VT mountain, Bromley has $29 tix after 12:30 on Sun and Mon for St. Patrick's Day if you wear green you get $17 tickets. So if it all works out we can visit 3 mountains in 4 days for $279(for 3 of us). Not bad. I plan on bringing a camera and my laptop. The main building has wireless internet so hopefully I can post some pics and TR (if anyone cares).

you must fly to get there that fast. I think the fastest I ever made it to my house was 2 hrs 50 min. That was no traffic averaging 80mph. Camelback is another 30 min. I could never to that one day ride, you are a true road warrior.

I doubt they will see late May. May Day is scheduled for the 3rd I think. I would say that would be it. Last season the few weekends in April they were opened were completely dead. It was almost eerie riding around not seeing another person, very quiet. Most people hang up their skis at the end of February. No one is spending any money at Boulder in April, its mainly season passholders. And as BDK said last season they had 100" base.

sounds good to me!

I love the location and privacy of Brier Crest but as far as the people being friendly, I disagree. When we first got the place I took the kids to a few of the community "socials" and basically got snubbed and treated like shit by all the local ladies I tried to talk to. But I am not there to make freinds, just to take the kids skiing. The only friend I have there is the guy who plows the driveway and delivers the firewood, he is clutch. They are not allowed to put for sale signs on the houses per the community rules. Check out century 21 or pocono resorts realty or just the pocono mls. If I see any interesting places for sale I will let you know. Then we can carpool next ski season (just kidding)

if the roads are shitty we will head over to Frost. If not we are going to Blue Sat.

I am really going to shoot for 7:30. I just have to get the kids out of bed.

wow, I don't know why but I thought you were a high school kid.

I am thinking about going to Blue on Sat. It takes a while to get the kids ready in the morning so we can probably be there by 8:30. I've only been to Blue once, so I guess we'll hang around the trails off the six pack. We all have pasr stickers on our helmets. I am sure I can spot Doug pretty easily.

when we were eating lunch at Boulder recently, I was sitting near a father and his I would say 8 year old boy. The entire time we were there over the course of 20 minutes all I heard was the replay of some other snowboarder taking out his kid. He said numerous times "this is why I hate snowboarders." I don't know if the incident happened in the park or not. It seemed like the kid just wanted to forget about it and move on, but the father kept rehashing it. "Did the boy hit you from behind or the side?" "Did he even stop to apologize?" "Did he realize you were hurt, did he stop to help you?' The father suggested the other kid or his parents pay for new equipment because the boy's was damaged. Judging by the way they were both dressed, I'd say they don't ski very often. I was close to turning around and making some comments, but in the end knew this was a guy who was always right. The father didn't see the incident the kid just told him about it. I am sure the father didn't consider that it was his own kid's fault and left out some details. I say make the parents and kids watch the video, for entire mountain etiquette, not just the park.

then you didn't see Sexkitten and I.

I have never seen someone towing their kid in a hoola hoop. That I would like to see.

you're right, I am sure it does depend of the child somewhat. But I think most ski areas do not offer snowboard lessons to kids under 6. If POC wants to spend an afternoon trying to get his 3 yr old up on a board I have a feeling he will want to ski off a cliff by the end of the day. It is usually harder to teach your OWN kids to do things. They know how to play you and say they are cold, tired or just can't do it. They will see an instructor as more experienced than you and an instructor will not let them get away with the whining as much.

I have no idea, but the guys at Alpine will be able to help you.

I forgot to mention to hit up Alpine soon. You know they turn into a pool/hot tub store in the off season. Are you going to get a season pass anywhere?

As far as skis for your daughter, go to Alpine. I got Stephen skis/bindings for $199. They have a junior lease program for boots. Its $35 for the season and you also have to put down a $35 deposit. Go in November to get the boots. Then you have to return them the following Novembe and not before. I just stopped by Alpine the other day to check out the sales and I talked to a guy in both the ski and snowboard dept to see if my kids would need to upgrade for next season. Unless one of them has a major growth spurt over the summer I am going to get a 3rd season out of their board/skis. Not bad for $199 skis. I have heard many people say that kids lack the muscle coordination for snowboarding until at least the age of 6 or 7. David started snowboarding at 7. I had Stephen on skis when he was 3, but the first season was mostly a wash. I put him in the snowmonster program all the time and he was mostly just crawling around with one ski on and eating the fake snow (yuck).

glad you had a nice time at your new mountain, Phillycore. I have to get to Frost one of these days just to switch it up. You and Bigdaddyk must be in some great shape to do that # of runs. On an average day we only do 12-16.

I like your change of plans better than mine. My company for the weekend cancelled and I'm not sure I want to drive the kids 3 hours in bad road conditions. I'll be watching the weather and I guess I'll decide by the time they get out of school.

nice pics, Rob. My friends were watching Stephen and his buddies on every jump. I said, yeah I know that kid he's here all the time and he's really good. Then I was standing right next to him in the lift line, said hi to him twice and he totally ignored me. My friends said, "yeah he must be a good friend of yours."

Believe me I read this message board enough to know when to stay out of a park. There was no one there it was early in the morning. If it was crowded or people were waiting to hit the jumps we would not have done it. All 3 times we went down we let a big group go ahead of us and waited until there was no one behind us. I also gave both boys talks about what to do if they fall, especially on the landings. That is the trail they are always looking at when we go up the lift and they just wanted to try it. Eventually I would like them to try every trail. This is the one they wanted to try next. I wasn't going to say "well you are not going to hit those jumps and fly in the air so we can't do this one." They weren't in anyone's way or cutting anyone off. Plus, the lift lines always get crowded earlier on the other side of the mountain near Freedom. I' ve never been down Love, but I know if you go down Upper sizmarck you end up at the Tannanbaum lift and that line gets busy too. We try to stay over near boulder park lodge and do those trails. When you are dragging around 2 kids all day, they get tired going from one side of the mountain to the other. So that's my reason.

Sat was absolutely beautiful at Boulder. At 8:15 am it was 14 deg but felt much warmer since the sun was shining and there was no wind. Brought friends along and they put their kids in ski school and the boys and I headed over to Bunny's Elbow. The first few runs were miserable since my younger son was having issues with his gloves. I think he was just in a mood. He wanted to take a break after an hour. After that things went much better. No lift lines at all until around 11:30. After lunch one of my friend's kids who is 4 wanted to practice her new skills so David and I dragged her around near boulder park lodge for a while. Sun we got there around 9 and the temp was 27 but felt colder than Sat because it was cloudy and a bit windy. We threw the kids in ski school again but the adults hung out with the boys and I. We got Stephen to go down Boulder park and after one run he was hooked. I just went down the side and wasn't even going to try to go up and down those big jump hills. He got to the top of the second big jump and stopped at the top. I thought he was going to be a little freaked out because it was steep. We were like "well what are you going to do now?" He just said "watch this" and went down it like it was nothing. He tried the box at the bottom of the plaza but fell and got a little shaken up. There was no one around but I was proud of him for trying. David kept whimping out and wouldn't try it. Then got mad when we were telling Stephen he was the man. Here are some pics from my new Pentax camera (which I love). Yeah and I know Stephen's helmet cover is a little gay but he's 7 he can get away with it.

holy shit BDK, 50 runs!

tailbone injuries suck. Two years this coming weekend that I broke mine and I still can't sit in a hard chair or take long road trips without discomfort. Heal up.