Thursday

As savvy readers will notice, this is being posted late... we were just too busy to post on Thursday, plus our internet connection went down in the evening anyway!

Here's what we did Thursday - just so you can get some kind of an idea what a winter holiday at Smuggler's Notch can be like (if you want to take advantage of most of what is offered...)

7 AM - wake up
7.3o AM - breakfast
8.00 AM - get ready (get everyone into multiple layers, helmets, goggles and ski boots)
8.30 AM - Alex, Gabriella and Kiara shuttle to the slopes to get one run in before classes...
9.00 AM - Maritala and Orlando shuttle to Treasures Day Care Centre
9.00 AM - Alex runs to rental center to pick up ski-poles for Gabriella (forgotten from last evening)
9.10 AM - Gabriella's lesson starts. Alex and Kiara head up the mountain for one short run, and then one long (a bit too long!) trip down, right from the top of the mountain.
10.00 AM - Maritala starts lesson, no sign of Alex yet (still coming slowly down the mountain with Kiara
10.10 AM - Alex and Kiara arrive at meeting hall, only to find that her class had just headed back up the mountain! We took a shuttle and caught up with them just in time.
10.20 AM - Alex spots Maritala and instructor heading down the hill - flags them down, and finally joins lessson! We head over to the part of the mountain that we have not yet skiied, Stirling and Madonna mountain. We ski down Stirling.
12.00 PM - kids have lunch with their classes, we have our lunch at the bottom of the mountain, and then head across to Morse Mountain, in order to see the kids doing their "Cookie Races"...
1.00 PM - Cookie Race - fun mini-obstacle course "races" for the kids.
1.20 PM - All 4 of us head back up the mountain, for a couple more runs down.
2.15 PM - Maritala picked up Orlando, headed back to condo. We took shuttle. Took off ski boots - aahhh...
2.45 PM - Shuttle to Nordic Center, for Family Snowshoe Walk
3.00 PM - Family Snowshoe guided walk through the woods
4.00 PM - Played in the Funzone (indoor fun place, with bouncy castles, big slides, mazes etc
5.00 PM - Pizza at the restaurant
6.00 PM - Evening show - video and pictures from the Cookie Race, then a live show, and a part of a marionette show (the Hobbit, so way too creepy for kids, really)
6.45 PM - Ice cream in Ben and Jerry's
7.30 PM - back to the condo
8.30 PM - kids finally asleep! Start packing!
12.00 AM - Packing finished, some bags in car already, the rest waiting by the door. Adults finally asleep...
6.30 AM - up again...

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If you feel like adding a comment, you do not have to be "registered" any more, I switched on anonymous posting. Sorry I forgot to do this when I set up this blog!

Wednesday

We hear that the temperature in Ottawa was an insane -39 with windchill today. Well it was pretty cold here, too, approaching -25, but with a couple of extra layers, and some nice full face masks for the girls it was no problem...

The kids took the shuttle bus to their lessons by themselves today - very simple once they have gotten used to the routine. Gave us a little extra time to drop off Orlando (Maritala stayed with him for a bit, but there is really no need... he has loved his time there so far. The staff are great and the kids are always having fun (lots of varied activities). At the end of each day, the staff send home a little report card for each child explaining what the child did, what they ate for their snacks and meals, how often they changed their diapers, how long they slept etc, along with a little comment - very cute and reassuring.

Good lesson today for us. Same instructor as yesterday, we would definitely recommend Frank if you are coming to Smuggs. Of course, who you get for a group lesson can be a bit hit'n'miss, but he (like most instructors) does private lessons too, and I think you could certainly do worse than ask for Frank...

I thought I would add some video files today for fun. If you want to see the Garden Path run down Morse Mountain, then you could check out this 1 minute (randomly-edited by Windows Movie Maker's "intelligent" auto-editing system... it somehow took 4 mins of raw footage and came up with this!) movie. Be warned, the sound is pretty loud, and I don't know how to turn it down!

Gabriella and I went up together at the end of the day - she's coming on really well and here is some proof!

Tuesday - skiing lessons and more

A view across to the Sterling Mountain... and though it may not look like it, we had quite a bit of blue sky on Tuesday!

Our girls are in two different groups for their skiing lessons/activitiy sessions.
Kiara is in the 3-5's group the Discovers, and Gabriella is in the 6-10 Adventurers. Both groups mix up skiing and other (indoor) activities, as age-appropriate. The younger ones spend rather more time indoors due to their endurance (and sometimes, simply, the temperature outside!)
Both girls had a great first day, and today continued in the same vein. Gabriella was able to go on the chair lift today, and therefore started heading further up the mountain. Kiara also was using the chair lift by the end of the day.

Camp runs 9 til 2.15 (including lunch) and then with some kind of show in the afternoon - sing-along with the Friendly Pirates, magic show etc.

The adults have also been taking ski lessons each morning. Yesterday was a good warm up, getting back in the groove, but today we had a new instructor who was a lot more useful in terms of reminding us of the basics, and then gradually adding more and more ways to think about, and feel, what our feet, knees, arms, etc should be doing. By the end of the session, I felt a lot more secure. Previously, if I had managed to do something right, it kind of felt like an accident. Today, I might actually have meant to do it!

During the afternoon we followed Gabriella's class down the mountain, which was fun. I am happy to say that we are still as fast and tidy as the class of 6-10 year olds....

We are going to go snowshoeing as a family on Thursday, on a family guided walk. We wondered whether Orlando might even be able to walk on showshoes, so we went to the Nordic center to try... He managed to walk pretty well, actually, though he is really unlikely to be able to manage the whole walk. We'll take a little sled too...

Monday - first day's skiing

Gabriella joining her first ski class...
On the starter slopes...
View across to Sterling and Madonna Hills...
Alex & Maritala on the chair lift...
View back to the village...
Kiara's first day...

Some of the smaller kids at the bottom of Morse Mountain...

Sunday - arrival day

After a relatively uneventful and simple drive we arrived near Smuggler's Notch in Northwestern Vermont. We stopped at the nearest local metropolis - Jeffersonville, population 557 - to buy some groceries at the local general store, and headed up the Smugglers' Notch Pass to the resort.

Smuggs is a large resort area, with accommodation mostly spread over one mountain, but with 3 mountains of ski runs (as well as snowshoe and cross-county ski routes) available for downhill skiiing. We arrived early enough that we were able to have a look around, and check into the child care facility where we will be leaving our youngest while the rest of us have our age-appropriate ski-lessons. We ate pizza at the village pizzaria, then got fitted for ski boots, skis and helmets. All done, we hailed one of the busy shuttle buses that buzz around the resort all day and night (it is a bit too large to walk everywhere) and headed to our condo.

We sure got a nice one - 3 bedroom, 2 bath, huge living dining room with kitchen - it is literally bigger than our house in square footage! An impressive start! I got to see quite a few other buildings and room types on Monday afternoon, and they run the gamut from simple studio apartments, to large elegant ones like ours.

Family skiing, anyone?

Yes, another family travel blog! The Robinson family - all 5 - are travelling again for fun and profit...!

Just in case you haven't read any of our previous blogs/travel reports you can check them out here (Disney Cruise) here (FDR resorts) and here (Club Med)... we are a family of 5 - 2 adults and kids of 7, 5 and 19 months. Alex is a travel agent at "Let's Take the Kids Travel Agency" in Ottawa.

This trip we are staying much closer to home - and really embracing winter rather than escaping it.

We are in Vermont, a little over 4 hours drive from Ottawa, in the multi-award-winning family ski resort Smuggler's Notch. We arrived mid-afternoon on Sunday and haven't stopped for a moment since! So I have a couple of days to catch you up on...

I'll try to catch up as best I can!