Two can dine for 4.99

That's what we needed for Josh.
He only brought a 10 spot.

It's a good thing he has good friends with the same taste in junk food.
But we ended up pooling our bags of Smartfood, Doritos and Ruffles chips
At least they shared with the lone adult in their group - ME.

The ride up was pretty tame.  Some kids brought iPods, iPads, and iKnitt to keep them busy for the bus ride up.  I didn't sit at the back with Kieran.  I sat in the middle in my own row so I didn't cramp his style, or get bothered by them in case I wanted to nap.  It was an early 7:15am bus ride from the school to Moonstone.

I was going to bring a book, but forgot to bring it.  Also, I had our helmets and food in the bag, and couldn't fit any more.

I'm glad we brought lunch.  That was the plan.  Avoid the cafeteria food, but it seemed to find us anyways.  I ate our lunch and watched Noah eat jello with his fingers, then I said "why don't you try using a Dorito?"  He did, and then he used his fries. And then there were Yahvi's squashed cupcakes.

Our bagged lunch balanced out the fries and pizza leftovers that Kieran bought anyways.  Also it supplemented Josh's with carrots and cucumbers.  He ate most of our cucumbers.  Glad for that. Kieran didn't eat much of the cucumbers which he normally loves. And I didn't want to bring back as much food as we brought.

Weather report.
Chilly.  It was -17 deg C where we were skiing, -25 deg C with the wind chill.  And it was windy at the top.
I don't tolerate the cold as much as I used to.  In any case, I had enough 'Little Hotties' to put in both of our gloves and on top of my toes in my boots.  Plus I bought a new pair of Hot Chillies socks.  And this seemed to work well.  And the new balaclava was pretty good.  Although the mouth and nose area was perforated and let in a bit of frigid arctic air.  But it was better than having it frozen like my cotton one.  Plus my nose didn't go numb.

We took 2 breaks.  Once for lunch.  Glad we went in shortly after 11am, because the rush starts at 11:45am.  And then we took another a 1pm.

The school said we'd be back by 6pm, but we packed it in around 2pm and left the hill by 3pm.
And were back at school by 4:15pm.
The bus ride was about 1hr 15min each way.  I was anticipating traffic on the way home, but it was light.  The boys were starting to get tired by 2pm anyways.  Mathew joined us for the last few runs on the Mt St Louis side.
Josh said he was pooped.  Probably because his eyeballs were frozen since he didn't bring goggles.  So I rented him a pair in the afternoon.  I was feeling it too, I could feel a slight headache from cold.  I was well pretty covered, but there were leaks of cold air getting through and circulating around my forehead.
The cold can be fatiguing entirely on it's own.

I had not been to Moonstone in a few years.  Not since Kieran was much younger.
I had Josh lead since he skis here every weekend for lessons.  I like the variety of the runs.  Better than Horseshoe.  So maybe next year, Kieran can do lessons here.

The boys did find trails through the trees, but there are signs prohibiting it and you can have your lift pass removed if caught. Phew!
We went through them 3 or 4 times before we actually read the signs.  We had no choice but to go back the 3rd time because Noah had stuck his pole in the trail and it was still there sticking up where he planted it.  Then he dropped his other pole.  But I was trailing the boys through the trees sweeping up.

I was kinda glad.  That run with the trees, has flat spots that make me work.  Then we got to some of the other challenging runs. However navigating the trees and avoiding branches can be challenging, too.

HMS - Upper EL - Ski trip Photos