It was only because we used snow­board­ing as the hook. 

 

 

But it was the promise of a fam­i­ly trip to a ski resort in the Col­orado Rocky Moun­tains that enticed the col­lege boy to trav­el with us to Vail, Col­orado over Thanks­giv­ing break. After that, all we had to do was fig­ure out how to make our fam­i­ly snow trip fun for all the boys. We had to find activ­i­ties to keep his younger broth­ers, sev­en and nine, as well as my 20-year-old step­son, all hap­py and sat­is­fied. Or, at least not con­stant­ly try­ing to kill each other. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Hotel: Sonnenalp Hotel

The five of us stayed at the Euro­pean style ski resort, Son­nenalp Hotel which recent­ly cel­e­brat­ed 40 years of mak­ing fam­i­lies hap­py in Vail and 100 in Ger­many. Walk­ing into the Son­nenalp Hotel was like step­ping into a Bavar­i­an lodge, only with Amer­i­can sized rooms. The Son­nenalp Hotel fea­tures 112 lux­u­ry suites and 12 hotel rooms. Every one of them faces either the Gore Creek or Vail Village.

 

 

The entry to our suite had its own lit­tle mud room, ded­i­cat­ed to keep­ing our leaky snow gear from mess­ing up the rest of the space. 

 

 

Inside, a bur­gundy couch and an azure loveseat faced a flat screen TV. A glass-cov­ered fire­place blazed to the right. Behind, two green head­boards framed two green quilts cov­er­ing a pair of queen sized beds. The bath­room claimed more space than most New York City apart­ments.  Envi­ron­men­tal­ly con­scious, indus­tri­al sized, con­tain­ers dis­pensed refill­able lux­u­ry lotions and toi­letries. A steam show­er and a whirlpool jet tub whis­pered the promise of relief after a full day on the slopes or chas­ing after the kids. Across the bath­room, a wood framed walk-in clos­et gave us plen­ty of space to unload all five of our belongings. 

 

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Just out­side our French door bal­cony, snow-topped moun­tains and hills of white held green Dou­glas-firs and Engel­mann spruce. Uncer­tain tem­per­a­tures exposed patch­es of brown dirt. Above, in a blue sky, pil­lows of clouds con­tort­ed into famil­iar shapes. Even dur­ing ear­ly win­ter, the chill turned our breath into puffs of air. 

It was late when we arrived, so we decid­ed to eat din­ner at the hotel restau­rant, Bul­ly Ranch which had all the expect­ed tough guy moun­tain fare like burg­ers and beer but also mind­ful options like veg­gie burg­ers and a super­food sal­ad. Once sat­is­fied, the lit­tle boys raced out to the paved street, serv­ing as a walk­way for most pedes­tri­ans, lined by earth-hued, recent­ly built con­dos and bou­tiques, that led to the heart of Vail Vil­lage. We enjoyed the crisp walk but could have hopped on one of the free Vail bus­es or trol­leys, the largest net­work of com­ple­men­tary pub­lic trans­porta­tion in the Unit­ed States.

 

 

Vail Village with Kids

We arrived at the cen­ter of the Vil­lage to dis­cov­er a giant out­door ice rink, buzzing with skaters, under twin­kling elec­tric lights. Bun­dled-up, laugh­ing fam­i­lies raced around the Solaris Ice Rink, sur­round­ed by two sto­ries of shops, con­dos and restau­rants. The free rink, open dur­ing the win­ter months from 1–9:30pm, offers fam­i­lies an oppor­tu­ni­ty to enjoy win­ter and each oth­er off the slopes. Skate rentals are locat­ed on the ground floor next door to bol, a con­tem­po­rary bowl­ing alley also per­fect for fam­i­ly fun.

 

 

Even though nei­ther of the lit­tle boys had ever skat­ed before, they both enjoyed rac­ing around, the rail with­in arm’s length, until they got com­fort­able enough to stum­ble onto the mid­dle of the ice, ankles fold­ing in their skates like drunk­en sailors. 

 

 

Col­lege boy Kyle laughed as his broth­ers, Kaleb and Knox, tried to make snow angels in the hard ice.

 

 

Before we called it a night, we walked over to the Bridge House Ski Haus and rent­ed our gear for the dura­tion of our stay. They offer a com­pli­men­ta­ry ski valet ser­vice in part­ner­ship with some local hotels, includ­ing the Son­nenalp. They drop-off and pick-up your skis at your hotel, so you don’t have to schlep any­thing any­where. Plus, you get a dis­count for being a hotel guest.

 

 

 

 

We woke up and head­ed down­stairs to Lud­wig’s for the Inter­na­tion­al break­fast buf­fet feast where some brave souls — or those vis­it­ing from cold­er cli­mates — relaxed with meals on the out­door patio. We, from Los Ange­les, hud­dled inside and enjoyed a huge vari­ety of foods rep­re­sent­ing all parts of Europe.

 

 

Adventure Ridge at Lionshead Village

Lat­er, my hus­band, Howard, and Kyle planned a big boy day to them­selves and took their fresh­ly deliv­ered skis and snow­board up to Vail Moun­tain while I hopped on a free bus for the five minute ride with the lit­tle guys to explore Adven­ture Ridge, in near­by Lion­shead Vil­lage. We found the Eagle Bahn Gon­do­la that took us to the top of the moun­tain. Our glass cube ascend­ed into the sky. We passed huge swatch­es of white tipped green­ery that kept us qui­et with wonder. 

 

 

The sky let loose a flur­ry of snow. By the time we stepped out of our gon­do­la, a fluffy veil of white cov­ered the ground. We excit­ed­ly gath­ered as much of the pow­der as pos­si­ble, packed it into balls, and pro­ceed­ed to remind each oth­er just how fun and mis­chie­vous win­ter could be while pelt­ing and scream­ing as cold, wet snow found its way into the sliv­er of space between our jack­et and our neck. 

 

 

Next, we hopped into the For­est Fly­er Moun­tain Coast­er, a tobog­gan that flew around a met­al track much faster than I expect­ed. I tried to ignore the lit­tle voice inside my head that told me I was going to fly us off the met­al rail, hurl­ing my youngest son down the moun­tain, if I did­n’t slow down. 

 

 

Kid’s Club at Sonnenalp Hotel

The kid’s club pro­gram at the Son­nenalp offers pro­grams that intro­duce local wildlife to chil­dren. Dur­ing the dry months, lessons are taught dur­ing hikes but dur­ing our stay, we got to learn about nature while snowshoeing. 

 

 

None of us had tried it before and we were so excit­ed to strap on our snow­shoes and clank up the hill. As we made our way up the ter­rain, our guide, Son­nenalp’s Guest Activ­i­ties Coor­di­na­tor, Kara Has­brouck-Schmidt, stopped in front of a tree and asked if we knew what kind of ever­green it was. We city-folk shook our heads and she pulled off some of its pine nee­dles and held it out for us to inspect. We looked and she said you could tell if you tried rolling them between your fin­gers. She pro­ceed­ed to roll the nee­dles across her palm with the fin­ger of her oth­er hand. “See?” Has­brouck-Schmidt showed us, “The nee­dles roll because they’re square. That’s how we know it’s a spruce.” 

 

 

We plod­ded along a lit­tle far­ther and she stopped in front of anoth­er tree. When she tried to roll the nee­dles this time, they would­n’t move. “The fir tree nee­dles are flat, so you can’t roll them,” Has­brouck-Schmidt said, “That’s how you can tell the dif­fer­ence.” A lit­tle fur­ther up, she stopped again and point­ed to some ani­mal tracks, ask­ing if we knew how to tell the dif­fer­ence between dog and moun­tain lion prints. With a crease between our eyes, we again shook our heads. “Moun­tain lions retract their claws like cats when they walk, while dogs do not,” she said as we looked more care­ful­ly at the tracks, hop­ing to see claws.

 

 

King’s Club Lounge at Sonnenalp

That night, after din­ner, we hung out on the couch­es at the King’s Club, a glow­ing fire­place on one side and the croon­ing sounds of a singer strum­ming a gui­tar on the oth­er. King’s Club is cozy like a giant liv­ing room divid­ed by arch­es and par­ti­tion walls, each sec­tion host­ing fam­i­lies and cou­ples loung­ing on sofas and chairs. We talked, ordered snacks and drinks and enjoyed play­ing backgam­mon by the warmth of the fire.

 

 

 

Beaver Creek

 

 

The big boys had report­ed that many of the Vail lifts were still closed for the sea­son, the day before, so we hopped in the car and drove 20 min­utes west on I‑70 to Beaver Creek, where we signed the lit­tle boys up for snow­board­ing lessons and we big kids got to enjoy some Col­orado pow­der. We stayed and watched the lessons for a while and not­ed the staff seemed atten­tive and expe­ri­enced. Then, we threw cau­tion to the wind and skied down the moun­tain like we were all in our 20s, instead of just one of us.

 

 

 

 

More Vail Village

In the evening, we signed the boys up for movie and piz­za night at the Son­nenalp kid’s club and the three of us walked into Vail Vil­lage for din­ner at Yama Sushi. The wait­ress­es were prob­a­bly ski instruc­tors dur­ing the day and the con­trast between the black walls and red floor gave it a hip vibe. The fish was fresh and some dish­es arrived in wood­en box­es with origa­mi-inspired pre­sen­ta­tions. It was nice get­ting the chance to talk with our col­lege kid with­out the dis­trac­tion of his lit­tle broth­ers fighting. 

 

 

Copper Mountain / Woodward Copper

Our last day in Vail, we ven­tured a half hour east on I‑70  to Cop­per Moun­tain where we planned to ski dur­ing the first part of the day and con­quer Wood­ward Cop­per, an indoor/outdoor extreme sports park, in the after­noon. The lit­tle boys want­ed to go to ski school again, with its small hills and slow lifts. The big boys chose to ride the lift with them and spend their morn­ing cheer­ing them on. 

 

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Since they were paired off, I took the free bus from Cen­ter Vil­lage to West Vil­lage and rode the Union Creek lift up for three of the best ski runs I’ve ever skied. The trails opened wide to uncrowd­ed con­di­tions and com­bined the speed from a high start­ing alti­tude with begin­ner and inter­me­di­ate lev­el declines. 

 

 

Wood­ward Cop­per final­ly gave all three boys the oppor­tu­ni­ty to shred together. 

 

 

Wood­ward has twelve loca­tions between the U.S. and Mex­i­co and is divid­ed into areas where kids and adults can fly around and grind on skate­boards, BMX bikes and snow­boards using high-qual­i­ty ramps, bowls and rails. The train­ing is the key. Besides dai­ly class­es, Wood­ward cam­pus­es host sum­mer camps to facil­i­tate ath­let­ic train­ing and pro­gres­sion. For­mer Wood­ward campers have won 14 Olympic medals and claimed 125 pro lev­el medals. 

 

 

First time ses­sions start with instruc­tion from coach­es on fling­ing your­self safe­ly onto tram­po­lines and foam pits. Then, par­tic­i­pants get to choose which high adren­a­line sport they’d like to prac­tice. The lit­tle boys decid­ed to scoot­er around the ramps and do lit­tle hops into foam pits. Kyle rolled down a 20 foot ramp, on a snow­board with wheels, and land­ed into a pit full of foam. (See video below)

 

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Sonnenalp Spa

When we returned, I treat­ed myself to a mas­sage in the Son­nenalp Spa. After all the moun­tain activ­i­ty and full throt­tle par­ent­ing, this was a much-need­ed release. My ther­a­pist, Stephanie, deliv­ered one of the most effec­tive treat­ments I’d ever expe­ri­enced. I’m not sure if I was moan­ing but, at the end, I turned to rub­ber. I could­n’t thank her enough. I wished I had enough time to soak in the indoor spa or pool but alas, I knew dad­dy could only han­dle so much solo time. 

 

 

That night, our last in Vail, Kyle galant­ley offered to watch the boys while we shared a roman­tic night out at the White Bison Restau­rant and Bar. The food was spec­tac­u­lar­ly pre­pared with a rus­tic, high-end pre­sen­ta­tion that includ­ed tin cups for water and metal­lic serv­ing plat­ters. We returned to find the lit­tle guys passed out after try­ing to kill each oth­er for hours, Kyle report­ed. He promised it would be the last time he’d under­take such a fool­hardy task.

 

 

In the morn­ing, the Son­nenalp Spa offered a free yoga class in a bright yel­low and cream room. Paint­ed gold­en suns embla­zoned the wall behind the teacher, Mar­ta. Mar­ta led a strong class and while we sat qui­et­ly, enjoy­ing our calm, I real­ized the hotel name, Son­nenalp, trans­lat­ed to sun on the moun­tain. Giv­en the warm expe­ri­ences we’d all shared, there could­n’t have been a more appro­pri­ate descrip­tion for our lodg­ings. And even though the lit­tle boys had some­times dri­ven us crazy, I hoped Kyle would trav­el with us again.

 

A big thank you to the Son­nenalp Hotel, Cop­per Moun­tain and Wood­ward Cop­per for host­ing us dur­ing our stay up in Vail. Every adven­tur­ous fam­i­ly would love expe­ri­enc­ing the activ­i­ties we feel lucky to have tried. Let us know if you go!

 

LIMITED TIME SPECIAL 

Although none of us are trav­el­ing now, we could still give the gift of hope and trav­el to our loved ones. Son­nenalp wants you to treat Mom and Dad to a Col­orado Rocky Moun­tain Get­away for their spe­cial days. More infor­ma­tion on the per­fect Moth­er’s Day and Father’s Day gift can be found here.

 

Getting There

 

 

We flew into Den­ver Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (with its bizarre art­work) — about a two and a half hour flight from Los Ange­les Inter­na­tion­al Air­port. We spent two days in Den­ver, to accli­mate to the alti­tude (and explore more of Col­orado) before head­ing west on the I‑70 for the two hour dri­ve to Vail.

 

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