Well last night I noticed I was getting a stuffy nose, so by 9pm I was asleep. That also meant that I woke up by 6:30. I definitely have some sort of head cold but nothing more than that thank goodness. The plan we made was for Ty to catch the early bus at 8:40, and the kids and I would come on the 10:20 bus. This would allow Ryder to sleep in. My kids really enjoy slower mornings, and Ty could get some focused skiing time in. Win-win-win!
Ty made it off onto the early bus just fine. The kids and I had a slow breakfast, then we FaceTimed my mom and got ready to ski, at a non-frantic pace. It was lovely! We skied at Iwatake Snow Field today. A very small hill with mostly green runs, a few reds and blacks could be found. It also had this old school gondola, that fit three on each side.
It was a beautiful day. We had a plan that Ryder was going to ski a few runs, and then take a break with her book. Turns out we didn’t even need to follow that plan! She rocked it today.
We came across this swing that looked out over the valley. It was beautiful and looked fun, so Ryder and I waited in line for it. We didn’t realize it cost 500 yen per person to ride. The boys had gone off on a black run so we sat there and had a mini snowball fight. It was the perfect way to have a small break in the day.
The boys came back and we decided to go ahead with the swing. I wanted to do it but Lincoln did too. So I let the kids go. Lesson learned, stop putting the kids before myself! Just kidding, kind of… Lincoln thought it was baby-ish and too small. He stopped almost immediately and just stood there. It was quite irritating… but look at the photos we got. Doesn’t it look picture perfect 🙂 Ahh real life versus photos…
It was a beautiful day, and Lincoln and I had a talk about the swing “incident”. So I’m glad we can at least talk this stuff through, big or small. The run after the swing was awesome, and Ryder was again, playing around, dancing and having a good time. Yay!
Ty found us this tiny green run. It was wide, and had very few other people on it. So we ran it like 3 times. Ryder was KILLING it! Lincoln was bombing down as fast as he could. Total confidence booster for everyone. After this we went to the chalet and grabbed some lunch. Thankfully things are reasonable here, about $10 for a good size meal. Lincoln of course got just a corn dog, while Ryder got chicken nuggets and fries. Then we made a plan, three more runs on the small hill, and one more full hill run before the kids could get ice cream. The day is going well, attitudes are in check, the sun is shining, we have a win!
Lincoln was doing the moguls on the short hill and had a major wipe out. It scared me actually since I saw his knee/leg bend so oddly. It took him about 5-10 minutes of resting, but thank goodness kids are so rubbery. He was back up and ripping down the hills again.
The ice cream was totally worth it!
After the ice cream we made our way back down to the base of the mountain. Everyone was tired, but no complaints or meltdowns!
The shuttle came about 10 minutes after we got to the bottom of the hill. It felt like a long ride back but we were all glad to be sitting down. Back to the hotel about 4pm and we’re resting, plugging into electronics, and blogging.
Ty was taking a bath and the kids wanted snacks in the lounge. Twist my arm 🙂 After that, Ryder wanted a quick Onsen soak before dinner. Always feels so good! Then we actually left the hotel for dinner. We walked about a block down the street to this tiny little restaurant. They had ramen, and katsu, along with burgers, and sausages. So a little bit of whatever. The kids had burgers, I ordered miso ramen, and Ty had a soy sauce based ramen. Along with some gyoza, and spring rolls. It was all very yummy.
After dinner we sent the kids to the room while Ty and I had a mini date in the lounge. Always good to recap the day, talk about what’s working or not. Then I watched an episode of Wednesday with Ryder and it was to bed for the kids.
Solid good days haven’t been very consistent on this trip but it makes us appreciate them even more when we get one.
