I was not planning on skiing or snowboarding today, but the kids were still staying home because of the snow. I didn’t think the kids would join me, but they all did. I was super stoked about it.

As they are growing older, they have their own interests. They would rather spend time on their digital devices than skiing and snowboarding. Trying to get them together isn’t easy these days. I didn’t want to waste the opportunity.

We hadn’t been to Liberty this season; therefore, we headed there. The conditions were great. The double-black-diamond terrains were all opened. Đạo, Đán, and Xuân head to the backside for the blue and black terrains. I chilled with Vương on the green trails. We did two runs and went back to the lodge to meet up the crew for lunch.

After lunch, Xuân switched to snowboarding to join us. I took Vương to the blue terrains and he did fine. I am glad that Vương can now join us in the back side. I didn’t practice carving on my snowboard much. It was a fun day. I want to get back to Liberty tomorrow to practice my carvings.

This morning, I was in bed binging season two of Squid Game and a friend called asking me to go to Whitetail. I complied. I wanted my kids to go, but Xuân and Vương were too tired from sledding yesterday. Of course, Đán wanted to stay home to play video games. He wondered why I didn’t get him anything related to computer and video games. Đạo didn’t want to go at first because Đán was not coming, but he decided to join me, which made me really happy.

A friend asked me to teach his son snowboarding. I complied. His son is eight years old and the kid is on the heavy size. I knew it would be a challenge to teach him how to snowboard, but I didn’t expect a different kind of challenge. He refused to learn at the bottom of the hill. He didn’t want to learn to skate. He told me he could already turn and stop. He wanted to go to the top of the hill to snowboard down. The learning area was somewhat flat so agree to go to the top. I helped him strap in both feet so he could show me what he could do. He fell as soon as he stood up on the board. After three falls, he gave up. I asked him to go back to the bottom so we could start fresh, but he refused. His dad told me, “You see why I couldn’t teach him anything.”

I ended up working my own carvings on my snowboard. I am making progressions. Seeing the clean line I left behind when I carved wass just satisfying. I just needed to stop trying to touch the snow and focused on balancing my posture. I want to spend more time on the trail to practice my carving.

I woke up this morning with over 8 inches of natural snow on the ground. I didn’t have to go anywhere to ride. After shoveling our cars, driveway, and walkway, we headed over to George Mason. I took out my snowboard and rode right on the streets.

The hills at Mason were about blue to easy black terrains. The kids rode on the sledge. I rode on my snowboard over the powdery snow. We rode to the bottom of the hill and walked back up. It was quite an exercise. We had fun.

I don’t get to ride powder much; therefore, it was a wonderful experience. The kids won’t have school tomorrow. We’ll just snowed in and relax.

I headed to Whitetail early so I could catch the eight-o’clock skiing clinic. skiing on freshly groomed snow felt great. The ski instructor was very nice, but he made us ski in a wedge, which I hadn’t done in years. It felt awkward.

At 9:30 am, I stood in line with all snowboard instructors to teach. Four of us didn’t get assigned to teach. The other three instructors were a bit bummed out, but I was not. No teaching meant I could go riding. I worked on my carving on the green terrain. My wife texted me to let me know that little Vương wanted to go skiing. I was happy about that.

At 12:45 pm, I stood in line once again and I still didn’t get assigned to teach, in which I was hoping so that I could go ride with my family. The lead instructor felt bad for me that I had no lessons all day, which meant I didn’t get paid. He asked me to take a clinic on body movement analysis, which I already did. I thanked him, but I preferred to leave.

I spent the rest of the afternoon with Vương, Xuân, and my wife. Ðạo went to the backside. Somehow, my wife let Đán stayed home with grandma to spent his whole day on his PC. That kid needs to get out of the house.

I went back to work today at Whitetail. In the morning, I did my fourth shadow with a fellow instructor. One of his students caught the edge and fell flat on his belly. It took the wind out of him. Learning to snowboard can be miserable.

In the afternoon, I retook the jacket test with the lead instructor for snowboarding. He gave me tips along the way. I brought up catch-the-edge issue and recounted what I witnessed during my shadow. He understood. I shared with him the technique I learned to not catch the edge anymore. He agreed, but told me to make it simple. I was glad about that. I passed the test and now I can teach first-time learners on my own.

At the end of the day, I approached the instructor who encouraged me to become an instructor. She didn’t recognize me, but I soon as I recount the story and how I become an instructor, she gave me a hug. Such a sweet lady.

It has been a long day. I couldn’t sleep much the night before. I am exhausted after a long day at work and four snowboarding runs afterward. I am going to bed early today. Tomorrow I will get up early and do it again.

I accompanied my six- and eight-year-old sons to see Sonic 3. I tried to get out of it, but I couldn’t. Nevertheless, I was glad they both enjoyed the movie. We shared a large cup of fruit punch and two large buckets of popcorns. As expected, I fell asleep for a few minutes even though the film was filled with supersonic moving effects. To be fair, I did not dislike the whole movie. In fact, there was a touching moment when Sonic said to Shadow, “Even though she’s gone, your love will always remain.” It made me think of my mother.

I used to read many books on jazz and many of them were about Miles Davis. I picked up James Kaplan’s 3 Shades of Blue just before the winter break and had been savoring it. I read quite a bit about Miles Davis and John Coltrane, but not much about Bill Evans, and Kaplan has done an excellent job of weaving them together. The majority of the book is still about Davis, but Coltrane and Evans added a significant perspective to the book. It takes a skillful writer to piece the history, the music, and the personality together. Kaplan has done his research and his writing is just excellent. He has done all the hard work. I just enjoyed the fruits of his labor. I wonder what is size of audience for this book. Is it still large or just a small number of jazz lovers like myself? If you are into jazz, this is one of the books to read.

The lead-off recording, “Granadas,” opens with a quiet piano intro from Evan’s. Then the classical orchestra joins in. At the climax of the strings, the jazz rhythm section swings in. It’s a breathtaking jazz-meets-classical beauty from start to finish. I enjoyed listening to the album on the road in the middle of the night when I was the only one awake.

I woke up early this morning and snow was falling heavily; therefore, I didn’t catch the 8:30 am first chair lift. We didn’t get out of the rental house until noon. The kids spent way too much time on their digital devices. It’s a shame that they wanted to spend more time online than on the slopes on a ski trip.

Nevertheless, I snowboarded for about two hours. My wife decided that we should leave right afterward to avoid freezing temperatures on the road. We went back to the rental and packed up.

We didn’t leave the rental house until 6:00 pm. We’ll be on the road all night. That concluded our ski trip for 2024/2025.

Happy New Year!

We didn’t hit the terrain yesterday because it was raining hard all day. We went shopping instead. I bought a new ski jacket and two pairs of Adidas shoes. The kids also made dinner for us. We had fried chicken and ratatouille.

Today, the rain stopped. I headed out early to catch the first chair at 8:30 am. I snowboarded four runs and headed back home around 10:00 am. The older kids didn’t get up yet. I suspected they were on their digital devices until the wee hours. We didn’t get to Attitash until noon. I got tired of trying to get them up early. They cared about their digital devices more than all the money we spent on a ski trip. As long as I got my runs for the day, I didn’t bother trying to get them out early.

I took Vương and his cousin on the black slope. He did well, except for the steep slope. It was all icy. He almost made it to the bottom, but he slipped out, which was fine. He flipped the fuck out. He screamed and cussed at me, “I hate you, motherfucker.” I wondered where he learned it from. YouTube of course. I popped out skis and asked him to strap back on so we could go down, but he continued to cuss me out. I called the patrol and we waited. The patrol asked him to strap in and ski down. Vương did what the patrol told him.

He was done for the day. I went on to ski myself. I hit both Attitash Peak and Bear Peak. The conditions were icy and the slopes had bare cover. I didn’t fall at all. I must admit. I ski better than snowboard. I had better balance.

It was a good day. Tomorrow will be our last day at Attitash.