Lunar New Year 2011

Last year we went skiing up north for Lunar New Year and this year we decided to make it a tradition. (We went to the north of South Korea, not the NORTH). Sasha mastered skiing last year, but Teddy fought it tooth and nail so the goal this year was for Teddy to SKI! Jeff started him out on a little walk-up slope at the base of the resort. Sasha did it too just to be a good big sister and show him the ropes. Of course it's easy to get up the walk-up hill when you have Daddy the human ski lift!

Go Ted!

We took turns skiing with Ted and taking Sasha on more challenging runs. Got her a helmet this year due to her crazy speed!

By the end of the 2nd day Jeff had Teddy doing a pretty good snowplow. Of course being stooped over and hangin' on to Ted's jacket was pretty tiring and there was this one time where Jeff's hand slipped and Teddy went rocketing full speed to the bottom of the hill like a bullet, but other than that the system worked OK. Jeff had plans for improvement though...

The BEST thing about the resort we went to is that they had a HUGE soft-play area with trampolines, ball pits, climbing structures ect. So we skiied with the kids every morning, ate lunch as a family, and then checked them into the kid zone for the afternoon (16$ for 2 kids!!) and then Jeff and I got to go snowboard together for the first time in 7 years!

The Smith's went too! Here's me and my buddy Zoe. About 10 families from the compound all went up to the same pension. We took over the place!

By day 3 Jeff had obtained a rope and was using it as a make-shift ski harness. That worked incredibly well and Jeff didn't have to stoop and hold his jacket.

Jeff and his leashed pupil. Way to go Dad!

So finally we got to the point where Team Stolasz was skiing as a family - What a dream come true!

Sasha and I took the gondola up to try a black diamond.

What a kid! She never got freaked out or lost control. Kept her turns nice and even and got all the way down. You can't really tell from this picture, but that hill was STEEP!

Then we went to lunch. There were pictures on one side of the room and Korean descriptions and prices on another.  Jeff wanted spicy chicken, Sasha wanted shrimp and Ted wanted chicken fingers. I figured we'd err on the side of moderation (a big moment for ME right?) and I'd just share with the kids since they'd never be able to eat an entire serving each. Well I should have known there was a problem when the order came to $52. Hmmm.... Korean food just doesn't cost that much. Of course I had no way to say "Geez, must be some mistake, let's sort this out...do-over!" so I just went back to the table scratching my head. Turns out we ordered 3 family sized meal packs. Aaaaand Sasha's picture of shrimp that I pointed at turned out to be chicken too so we ordered a life-time supply of chicken for lunch. Meal time ordering FAILS are all part of the Wegugin life-style.

Teddy with enough chicken to satisfy a "Biggest Loser" contestant:

The best part of the whole thing was the Koreans we ordered from watching us the whole time like "will they? won't they? I mean we heard Americans eat a lot but this is ridiculous!" I swear money was changing hands as they watched us eat. Half way through one of the watchers walked up and handed Jeff a 1L bottle of coke. We figured that's the freebie throw-in if you buy more than $50 worth of food at the ski restaurant. Jeff had no complaints.....

And someone must have lost money because we didn't even make a dent in all that chicken. We packed it all up and took it home with us. Later that night we all had a pot-luck for my 23rd birthday party and then had a bon-fire later. Guess what I served? CHICKEN!!  It was a fun night and a great opportunity to sneak in an easy B-day party!

Teddy givin' mama a Birthday hug:

Sasha wrapped this present all herself and schemed and hid it and brought it on the trip. She was in kahoots with her Dad and did such a good job keeping it a secret. She is such a sweetheart!

We had a blast and by the last day of the trip Teddy was off the rope and zooming down the runs so fast on his own that we could barely keep up. He finally declared that he liked skiing and wanted to do that run and that run and that run..... but by the time he got to that stage we had 30 minutes left on our lift tickets and it was the last day. Typical TED!!! Oh well, hopefully he remembers how to ski for next year!