I woke up early this morning with some sadness. Four years ago today, my mother passed. I wrote her a letter in Vietnamese.

Around 7:45 am, I headed over to Attitash. As I was getting ready in the parking lot, I realized that I forgot my helmet. I didn’t want to turn back so I went to the rental shop. I told the man at the podium that I am an employee and I forgot my helmet. He loaned me one without any charge. He told me, “We take care of our employees.” Another benefit of being an employee at Vail Resorts.

I snowboarded on the big green trail practice carving. I was loving it. I took three runs and headed back around 9:30 am. The rest of the family was not done packing. We didn’t leave until 11:00 am.

The lift lines were long, but they moved fast. I skied with the younger kids. We did three runs and it was time for lunch. After lunch I went to the blue trails at the big kids. I had to keep up with them. They skied fast.

Another fanatic day in the book. I love skiing and snowboarding.

Last night, I had a Long Island Iced Tea with Thai food. Lacking of sleep the night before with a long day skiing and a bit of alcohol, I got knocked out. It was a good sleep.

I woke up early this morning, wrote up a blog post, and waited for the rest, including my wife’s sister’s family. It was almost 10 am and not too many of them were up yet. I decided to go for a few runs since Attitash is about 5 minutes from our rental house.

The lines were already long when I arrived. I took the green slope trying to carve on my snowboard. I wanted to see if I could go low where I could touch the snow. I did one turn at a time. I was getting a hang of it. I wanted to practice more runs, but the lines were too long.

I hopped on a different lift, which had no line. It turned out that the blue trail was quite icy. I fell several times. By the time I got down, it was time to go back to pick up the family.

The line got longer. I went with Xuân and his cousins for two runs. They got tired of waiting in line so we went in for a late lunch. We took an hour and 40 minutes lunch. By the time we were done, the lifts were closed.

It was time to go home. I’ll head out before 8 am by myself early tomorrow for a few runs.

At 11:00 pm on Wednesday, we hit the road from Virginia to New Hampshire. The kids were sleeping. My wife and I took turns driving. We arrived at Attitash around 9:30 am. I was expecting to take 12 to 14 hours, but we made it in 10.5 hours.

We had brunch then hit the trails. I skied with Vương and my wife on the green trails at Attitash Peak while Đạo, Đán, and Xuân went to Bear Peak. We had a late lunch. I joined the older boys on Bear Peak. Unfortunately, the lift stopped working. We waited 20 minutes and had to take the shuttle back to Attitash base.

Needless to say, I am exhausted and sleepy. I am going to need a nice sleep to recharge. We’ll be skiing and riding at Attitash and Wildcat for a week.

For my third shadow, I observed an instructor teaching 7 to 9 year-old kids to snowboard. He went off the curriculum. It was tough teaching kids. They caught an edge and fell over and over again. By the end of the lesson, they couldn’t do a J turn.

In the afternoon, I decided to take the test to get it done and over with before I take a week off for vacation. I bombed the test because I changed the order of the curriculum and added a few things. I have to do another shadow with my supervisor before I could take a retest.

Today I shadowed two different instructors who taught absolute beginners. They both taught differently. They did not followed the official curriculum.

After a couple of days of thinking about the official curriculum, I find the progression to be well-thought out. I will follow it.

After the two shadows, I was tired. I wanted to stay back to ski, but I decided to head home to relax and spend time with my kids.

I will do one more shadowing tomorrow. I will ask to take the test as well. Once the test is done, I can start teaching classes. Can’t wait.

We wrapped up our instructor training course today from 9:00 am to noon. The supervisor dropped by to see us. I caught the edge on the flat terrain. It was embarrassing.

As new instructors, we had to teach a section of a class. It was nerve-wrecking teachers a class full of instructors. I didn’t do too well in the introduction. I am sure, I’ll do fine with first-time students.

After lunch, I snowboarded with my wife and kids. Tomorrow I will shadow a full class to see how another experienced instructor in action.

I am exhausted. The driving and lack of sleep are taking a toll on me.

I spent the whole day taking the ITC (Instructor Training Course). The expectations weren’t as high as I thought. I just need to remember all the steps. I learned that I will only get paid when I teach. If I don’t have a class, I can ski or snowboard without getting paid, which is what I would prefer anyway. I am not there to make money. I am there for thee perks.

After the training ended at 3:00 pm, I took off my uniform and hit the trails. The trails on the backside were icy. I did three runs and then headed home. I left the house at 6:00 am and didn’t get back until 6:30 pm. It had been a long day. I’ll do it again in the next three days before we head to Attitash and Wild Cat in New Hampshire.

I am not looking forward to the 14 hours drive, but I am definitely looking forward to skiing and snowboarding with the family for a week.

I drove to Whitetail today for its opening day. I spent about three hours skiing and snowboarding. The conditions were icy. I spent most of my time on the blue trails trying to carve. I am getting a hang of carving on skis. I am not quite there yet on snowboard. My feet got burn out the harder I tried to bend my ankles and knees. I am not worrying too much about carving. I am working on my open stance, which I am getting a hand of. Carving to where my hands can touch the snow I still have a long way to go.

I couldn’t work today because I needed to attend the Instructor Training Course (ITC) first. They have sessions for Saturday and Sunday. I’ll come in early tomorrow to do snowboard ITC. I also went to guest services to activate my employee pass and deactivate my Epic pass. I got reimbursed for my pass. The guest service rep also informed me that I could get dependents’ passes for a significantly low price. I am so glad that Vail cares about the family too.

Now I am motivated to work for Vail. We are saving thousands of dollars for our seasonal lift tickets alone. This is such a sweet deal. I made the right decision to work for the perks, not the pay. The only issue I am running into is that I can’t take my kids to skiing on weekends anymore because of my working schedule. I guess I can’t have everything. Something gotta give.

Yesterday, we went to Roundtop. My wife and I let Xuân and Vương played hooky. My wife also invited four of her friends to come.

I spent about 2 hours introducing three of them to skiing. They were able to plow down the hill in the carpet area. One of them started to turn. They just needed a bit more practice.

My wife and Vương were easing back into skiing. My goal this season is to transition Vương from plow to parallel.

Xuân picked up snowboarding. He did really well on the green trails. If he sticks with it this season, we will be proficient in snowboarding.

After skiing for a few hours, I switched to snowboarding. I didn’t feel any discomfort when I bent my knees and ankles. I am going to stick with teaching snowboarding this season. I’ll teach skiing next season.

I’ll have trainings on Saturday and Sunday before I could start teaching.

I didn’t go to mountains yesterday because of the rain. I also needed a day off to recuperate. I ended up staying in the motel room watched 2 films, read, and listened to music.

I felt recharged this morning and ready to snowboard. I did 3 runs on the Spruce Peak side on the easy terrains and yet my feet and legs were burning. I even tried out a new pair of boots I bought for Đán. I took a break and headed over Mansfield. I took the long green trail and yet I had to stop every few minutes to rest because my feet felt uncomfortable.

I took a lunch break and decided to give it another shot. I didn’t even try to carve. I was just riding and turning. Yet, I still had to stop to rest my legs. I didn’t know if the equipment caused the discomfortness or my riding had issues. Perhaps, I might not snowboard correctly.

Around 1:00 pm, I decided to switch to skiing. My feet weren’t comfortable at first, but they were fine after the second run. I was able to keep my legs close in parallel and shift my weight to my outside ski. I also tried to turn my knees so my skis could be on an edge. Carving this way begins to few a bit more natural. The speed was a bit too fast for my comfort level, but I finally got it.

I did 3 or 4 runs on blues and green trails. Around 3:00 pm the lift went down. I also called it the day. I went back to the motel to pack up. I will be leaving early tomorrow around 3 am. I hope to get back home before 3:00 pm. I miss my family too much.