The entire family went to Whitetail today. The crowd was chaos. I bought Đạo a new pair of Atomic Maverick 86 C Skis ​+ M 10 GW Ski Bindings 2025. With the employee discount, I paid $415, which was 40% off original price. He loved the skis.

I checked in at 12:45 pm and one of the lead instructor assigned me to Kid Mountain Camp (KMC). I taught a class for the first time. Luckily, I only had two students: a 9 and a 10 years old brother and sister. They did well for their first time learning. Of course they fell, but they were able to do J-turns at the end.

Today, Xuân began the Whitetrailers program for snowboarding. He was placed in level 2. I made the request to bump him up to 4. They ended up placing him in level 5. He is snowboarding really well.

After my class and his program, we made two runs together. It was still crowded and starting to get cold. We decided to go home. The kids requested Sushi Bomb. We ate until 9 pm and got home around 10:45 pm.

I made $60 today before tax and spent $700 on equipment and food. My wife was right when she said, “You spent more than you worked.”

Starting tomorrow, I will be working seven days a week at two different jobs for the rest of the winter. One pays the bills; the other pays the lifts.

When I took on the instructor position, I didn’t know one of the perks was that my whole family got to access all of the ski resorts almost for free. I was glad that I ran into another employee who not only told me about the perks, but also gave me the refunds for all of our seasonal passes.

Another part of the job I enjoy is the employee connection. It didn’t matter which resort I went to, the employees took care of me if I needed something. I was part of the larger network of employees. We all worked under a big cooperation, but we looked out for one another.

I was going to give teaching a try for one season, but the perks and the employee connection will keep me coming back next season if they still want me to return.

Of course, I miss my colleagues at my other job as well. Can’t wait to see them on Monday.

I finally subscribed to Netflix so I could watch season 2 of Squid Game. I was a fan of season 1 and season 2 lives stood strong. I hope I am not giving anything away, but season 2 is not finished. We will see season 3 in the future. I hope it won’t be too long. I was glad that there were only 7 episodes in season 2. I don’t want a TV series to drag on for too long. I kind of wanting to rewatch Mad Men, but I don’t want to spend that much of my time for it. I still enjoy reading, skiing, snowboarding, blogging, and so on.

The conditions at Liberty was too good yesterday, I had to come back this morning. The kids still had the day off, but they didn’t want to go again. I went solo.

I arrived at Liberty around 9:30 am. I was surprised that the parking lot was filling out. It turned out that government workers were taking the day off to honor Jimmy Carter. Rest in peace, President Carter.

I started out skiing. I went straight to the backside and warmed up on the blue trail. Then I hit the double black and blue trails. I could carve on the blue terrains, but not the double-black terrains.

At noon time, I had lunch and switched over to snowboarding. I did the double-black terrains as well, but couldn’t carve much on the blue terrains. Around 2 pm, I called it the day.

I will take a break tomorrow to get my car check out. I’ll be back to work at Whitetail on Saturday and Sunday. Next Monday, I’ll be back to my regular job. Five weeks had gone by so quick.

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.