Red Lodge, March 27-29, 2009

On Friday, March 27, Michael and Jonathan headed off to Red Lodge around 8:30am. It's a 3 1/2 hour drive, so they stopped in Billings to get lift tickets at Costco. (a great savings trick, btw. $70 for a pair ($35 ea) full day lift tickets compared to $47 full day/$37 half-day on the mountain) They got there in time for a half day Friday. The skiing was great! This first pic is of the snow on the lift line.

Jonathan already having a great time! Isn't he cute?!

Powder hound!

Then they took a few rides on the Magic Carpet.

That evening, Uncles Bret and Jon arrived. And the next day was a blast with them...as usual! Here's a taste of the fun they had. Bret and Jon were on snowboards. Check out this great wipe out by Bret. At :10, Bret says, "Did you get it?" Haha! I think it's great he wanted to make sure Michael got the video of the fall! At :27, Jon snowboards up to Jonathan, "Braack" (like a chicken) and says, "come on, get up!"



Jonathan was ready for the next step...an intermediate (blue) slope. Here are Uncle Jon, Jonathan, and Michael at the top of the Lazy M, a fun intermediate run.

Here's the video again of Jon messing around and Jonathan giggling about it.



And this one shows again how far up the spectrum Jonathan has come. At :25, Jon says, "What?!" And Jonathan says he's going to take a rest. "Oh, come on..." And Jonathan responds, "It's OK!" So cute!

Riding up the lift with Uncle Jon.

Cruising...

Uncle Jon, in his perfect ski form, (I mean, look at his parallel skis! beautiful!) demonstrating "post and turn" to Jonathan. Jonathan says Uncle Jon is saying, "Pokey turn!" because he pokes his pole into the snow when he turns.

Middle of the Lazy M. Isn't it beautiful?

That white ridge below is Miami Beach.

3/29 Jon left the night before, but Uncle Bret stayed on. More snow was blowing and falling! Jonathan was getting used to powder. At :45, he says, "Uncle Bret, I like the powder!" He kept going over to the side of the run where it wasn't groomed.



This is a sweet pic of Jonathan resting his skis on Daddy's snowboard while riding the lift. Michael is so proud of Jonathan coming up the curve so fast. He feels comfortable snowboarding while J skis. Just need to watch out getting on and off lifts. Once we had a big pile-up.
Finally, lunch at Midway Lodge! They always knew when Jonathan was hungry. He started getting whiney and not listening on the slopes (a dangerous thing, you know!). Jonathan really likes the waffle fries there! Looks like he had a corn dog too.