January 19th – January 21st 2018
What started out being only 6 adults and 3 kids that planned on going, ended up being 12 adults and 10 kids. Our very first snowboard trip as a whole family and celebrating my cousins 25th birthday. Being the planner of this whole trip was a bit stressful to tell you the truth, but definitely was worth it in the end even with a set back. However, I’m not sure if snow trips are really in my favor. Our very first snowboard trip with just me and my husband I hit my head while snowboarding, our 2nd trip I was pregnant with my oldest daughter (so I had to watch my husband snowboard the whole time, which was torture), and well the 3rd time (the most recent trip) I left Utah with a sprained ankle. Yup you heard that right…
After a 3 hour drive from Las Vegas, we finally arrived in Brian Head, Utah Friday night. We all stayed in a 2 bedroom condo at Giant Steps, which was located right off the ski lifts and next to snow tubing.
Luckily, they offered a dumb-waiter for all our belongings and food because lord knows we.. or actually I should say my mom likes to take her whole house with her. For those of you who don’t know what a dumb waiter is (like me for instance until I found out) it’s pretty much like a mini elevator, except people are not to go inside of it. Why do they call it that horrible name, is beyond me, but dumb waiter is what it is.
Now you are probably thinking there is 22 of you people and you just said a 2 bedroom condo, hell no! Well, surprisingly it was very accommodating. It slept everyone comfortably. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of the condo before everyone arrived inside, as there was too much excitement going on. However, it was a 2 story condo. The master bedroom had 1 king size bed with a restroom and the 2nd bedroom had 2 queen mattresses and 1 pull out futon with also a restroom in the room. Downstairs in the living room was another sleep sofa and another queen mattress that you can pull down.
The very next day they issued a **winter storm advisory** which meant it snowed all day long! It was so beautiful and peaceful. Of course when everyone woke up, everyone started getting hungry and wanted breakfast to be made, and well my beloved husband FORGOT THE EGGS at home! So that meant no scrambled eggs and no french toast! Well, we found out that there was a little store right by our condo that carried some groceries (for people like us); so the adults (including myself) decided to be brave and walk through the snow to get some eggs. Walking through the snow for the first part was great, we took some beautiful pictures, and threw snow balls at each other.
Soon after that all changed. About 50 feet away from being inside of the store was BLACK ICE! This is where it was all over for me and the trip. Boom, I slipped from below the snow, and sprained my ankle. Talk about pain! It didn’t help that I kept slipping from the black ice after spraining my ankle, which made it even more painful (yes, we all had proper gear and boots on). Soon after my fall, my aunt fell and hit her head on the ground, and then almost immediately my husband fell too. BLACK ICE IS NO JOKE! Luckily, no one else broke or sprained anything except for me.
After finally making it to the store and sitting for a while, the adrenaline ran down, and the pain kicked in even more. I didn’t know how in the world I was going to make it back to the condo, let alone make it up 3 flights of stairs. Little did we know, there was a shuttle that can take us from our condo to where we were at, and back to our condo, which is obviously what I did. There was no way in hell I was going to walk back and risk breaking my ankle. After making it up to the condo, the rest of the trip for me consisted of staying inside, which definitely sucked! Snowboarding went out the door, snow tubing, and even being able to watch my kids snowboard for the first time. I was definitely bummed to say the least, but I wasn’t going to let my sprained ankle stop me from having a good time.
My husband went out and snowboarded all day long and then helped our oldest daughter, Melia, snowboard for the first time. She loved it and she can’t wait to do it again. As far as my youngest daughter, Avery, she CANNOT stand the cold. She joined me inside as we cozied up eating soup and watching movies.
The cost for a lift ticket per adult is $60 plus tax for an all day pass and if you want to do night-time snowboarding/skiing it’s only $8 opposed to $20 (that’s if you purchase an all day lift ticket). Also, if you purchase an adult ticket and have kids that are 5 and under you get 1 free kids lift ticket per each paid adult. We did have to rent a snowboard and goggles for our daughter which cost us $25 for the rentals. They do offer a free helmet.
Brian Head offers many lifts. There are 2 bunny hills you can practice on and then many lifts you can go on, once you get the hang of things. Not all lifts were open though. They also offer snow tubing, which cost $20 for 90 minutes, which is always fun to do!
We woke up Sunday morning to about 20 inches of snow that had accumulated since Saturday morning. Look how gorgeous it was outside.
After having breakfast it was time for our trip to come to an end and head back home. We definitley want to stay a bit longer next time, as the trip seemed so short, but all in all we all had a great time. Let’s hope next years trip will be pain-free!
All with love,
Christine
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