Vail 2011 - Day 4

Olivia 'graduated' from ski school on Monday at Level 5, so she hit the mountain with Will on Tuesday.  There was a bit of drama surrounding her decision to move up to Level 5.  I think she was intimidated by the idea of Level 5 and using poles.  In the end, after MUCH discussion and persuasion from all around, she agreed to move up so that she could ski with her dad the next day.  She was so excited to ski with Will and Dawn... and her ski instructor convinced her that poles are a good thing.

All set and ready to go.  Check out that blue sky.  People everywhere were talking about what a great week of skiing we had.

Heading out to China Bowl with my ski class.  One of the men in my group insisted that we ski Poppyfields and I'm so glad he did.  It was a really fun run. 

 I also had a little brush with fame.  The girl who trained Natalie Portman for her role in Black Swan actually took this picture of me.  She's from Charlotte, but moved to New York at age 15 to dance with the New York City Ballet.  Now she has her own studio where she helps her clients get the figure of a ballet dancer.  She was really nice and a much more confident skier than I am.

Everyone was excited for Tubing Tuesday.  We met at the top of Eagles Nest to warm up by the fire and wait for our tubing time.  The kids thought it was great fun to throw snowballs into the fire and listen for the sizzle.

The snow cat driver took this picture of us in front of a wall of snow that someone built.  It's hard to see in the picture, but they had carved the snow to look like bricks so it looked like we were entering a snow castle.

We only had an hour to tube so I didn't stop to take pictures.  Everyone had a blast, even Peggy Pa and Big Pa.  The 'tubing staff' were happy to give riders a big push down the chutes.  The kids loved linking up and asking for the 'pukinator' where they gave you a big spin as you went down the chute.  It wasn't so bad when we were hooked together, but I wasn't about to ask for it when I was tubing solo.

Dinner at Bistro 14 in Eagles Nest