Cole’s Date with Oma!

Cole’s Christmas gift from Trish, Andrew & Mandy this year was a trip to the mountain on a snowboard. Another WOW!

Picked up the snowboard the night before so he practiced in the living room to get the feel for the board. Walking, laying down and getting back up, buckling and unbuckling the board AND the most important part of snowboarding the JUMP!
Though he learned that the snow is quite a bit slicker than the living room carpet.


Practice.Oma’s coworker, Brandon, came up to give both Oma and mostly Cole some private lessons. (Mom says thank goodness)

First lessons were flat land
and then a very small slope to
get a feel for the board and
how it moves.

And what Mom thought to be utmost important…
proper falling techniques.

Flat land lessons over, off to the lifts and up the mountain.
(ok, first they went to the bunny slope for a couple runs and then the larger lift)

Down The Mountain!They spent the rest of the day on the Twilight Lift and
boarding down the Rough Cut run.
(BS Groupies? This would be a Blue trail, a “more difficult” run according to the trail map)

He had a blast today! Brandon thought he would last about two full runs but what Oma figures counting the bunny lift Cole managed about 8.








Brandon informed us that as they would board down the run people on the lift overhead would cheer Cole on and others on the ground were giving some sort of boarding kudos’. Folks were asking, “How old is he?” or “What grade is he in?” I was not quite sure about all the attention until I was standing next to them at the chair lift and two young men (probably teenagers) looked at Cole and said something like “DUDE, we saw you on the mountain! Keep it up!” and then gave Cole knuckles. (Same as a high five to those who do not know what knuckles are. It’s just cooler than the old high five.)

Brandon and Cole
After Cole’s last run of the day.

You would think Cole would fall asleep on the way back home. No. He chatted a bit, played his DS and at one point said he wished he were still on the mountain snowboarding. He just wasn’t done yet.

Thank You Trimand for another gift that was a perfect fit!

And Brandon,
Dude…You Rock!
“knuckles”

Oma? Well, she did very well and is already in bed with some sort of medication in her to kill the back pain. (that’s the only place that really hurts.) She informed me that her worse wipeout was when she was walking UP the stairs inside the lodge. Yes, she fell “up” the stairs and when she tried to get up as people around her were asking if she was ok, she stumbled again! Oma says they looked at her like she was drunk. She did take a another spill by running over Cole (trying to go slow to watch him) and wound up catching her ‘vertical smile’ on the edge of her board, there’s sure to be a butt bruise, but the stairs hurt worse (perhaps its just her ego)!!