Maiden Skiing trip as a family of five!

We went skiing over New Year's Eve!!! It was a spontaneous decision because our guests have not gone skiing before and Jen asked if I was keen to go!

To be honest, we have never gone skiing with the kids before. It's probably because I can't ski very well and its well.... very expensive! But somehow, this time, I felt sooo keen to try it out! Like how cool would it be to go on a skiing vacation with your best friend and her husband right? And we would be celebrating New Year's Eve on vacation!

We had barely 2 weeks from the time we decided to go skiing to the time we actually went skiing! I had exactly one night to figure something out! Even though 99% of hotels were already fully booked-out for New Year's eve, we managed to find a 4-star hotel that was in Allgäu, had breakfast and dinner included in its price and was only a 2-hour drive from our place!

We had no skiwear for the kids, so we embarked on our next treasure hunt! Do you know how complicated and expensive skiwear can be?! That's when my friend, Fara mentioned Decalthon! This is like Ikea for sportswear and equipment!!! I can't believe that I've been living in Germany for 12 years and I've never been to Decalthon! She also very kindly lent us soo much skiwear!!! So thankful!

The kids LOOOOVED to ski!!! They went skiing for 5 days! The weather unfortunately got really crappy the last 2 days. It was stormy and we were all completely drenched right up to our ski gloves! The kids were such champs though! They never once complained about the sport nor the weather. They just embraced skiing with all the unpredictable elements of Mother Nature. Sam managed to make his way down a blue slope! Gabriel is not that advanced yet, but he got the hang of skiing down a baby slope.

It was sooo amazing for me to rediscover skiing again! The last time I went skiing was possibly 7 years ago, just before I got pregnant with Sam! Skiing has also taken on a whole new dimension because when you see your own kids on skis and see how quickly they master this skill, you feel sooo proud! And they look sooo cute!

I learnt how to ski when I was 25. Skiing is not a forgiving sport to pick up in your adulthood. I guess it depends on your threshold of fear. I'm pretty fearless when it comes to falling down, but I certainly don't have the same fearlessness of a 4 or 6-year old! Kids don't have fear! While adults are scared about falling down, kids only care about speed! I sooo wish I learnt how to ski when I was a kid! That's why I'm soo thankful that we are able to provide our children with this opportunity!

After a 7 year hiatus, my maiden ski down the slope was MAD. I was alone. I was rusty. And the snow was sooo icy!!! That was the worst! I could barely maneuver my turns and I was sooo scared being up there all by myself. (I've never gone skiing alone before. Rem. the last time I went skiing, we had no kids yet!) I took one full hour to get down! I fell down once or twice and had such a hard time getting back on my skis. When I reached the valley, I went straight to buy a bottle of water and that was it! Fear had dried up all my saliva! I was mad at listening to the hub who kept telling me, "You can do it! You already paid 40€ for the ski pass, so go straight up the slope!"

I spent the afternoon practising on my own at one of the lower slopes. It was SO. much better. I signed myself up for a ski course to refresh my skiing skills. It was the BEST decision ever!! I regained my confidence and I learnt the basics of parallel turning. I'm still not great at parallel skiing yet, but I know that once I get there, I'll be soo much better going down steep slopes!

Truth be done, we had to go down a red slope once. It wasn't intentional but they had somehow labelled a slope "blue" when it was anything BUT blue! So I had no other option but to attempt a red slope! It was so very windy and the snow was sooo deep! I kid you not when I tell you that I fell FIVE times! I spent SOO much time trying to get back on my skis! When I fell the 5th time, I refused to listen to all manner of reason from the hub. I took out both my skis, held my sticks and seriously slid down the slope on my BUTT!

It was seriously the most embarrassing and fun thing ever! Only the hub and I were on that slope. When we arrived at the bottom, I looked at the slope and saw Stephan's carefully carved skiing tracks and this person's (aka. Me) vertical butt print down the slope!!! My phone batt died on me, if not I would most certainly have snapped a shot of that!

And suddenly it dawned on me that it was all about FEAR! I had NO problems sliding down the slope on my butt! BUT I was sooo scared to ski down the same slope! The exact same slope! That somehow looked so much more menacing when I was on my skis! The Germans have a word "Kopfkino". It literally means "the cinema that plays in your head".

My ski instructor told our group that when our Kopfkino is playing the wrong film, we're not going to overcome our fear. So we need to program our mind to play the right film! I felt this was such a profound learning experience for me. Not just for skiing but for every aspect of my life!

Skiing is an expensive sport. And the reason why we decided to indulge this year and not for the past 7 years is because we are finally double-income again thanks to my job with ItWorks!!! We now have the breathing capacity to go for "luxurious" stuff and not have to worry about using our credit cards. How cool is that?! I get to supplement my family's income with my SAHM's social media income! Love living in the generation of social media!!!! #powertothestayhomeMom

Skiing photos overload ahead!!! You've been warned!

Absolutely love this photo!!!Look at Liam's disgruntled face!

Cannot tahan!

My 2 munchkins! They look soooo alike here!

All ready to conquer the mountain!

Just before their first ski course!

Kids settled, its the adults turn to have fun! Our first time skiing together after 7 years!

That was before I fell -cum-rolled down a red slope! Looong story!

LOOOVE this girl!

Look at how ecstatic I was?

The kids are taken care over lunch too!

My little monkey Gabriel

He seriously CRASHED in the ski hut straight after skiing!!

Joining another ski school! It was AWESOME!

 We absolutely loved our family room! The kids had a separate room with bunk beds, we had our master bedroom and there was an adjoining living room. Liam slept in his cot next to our bed.

 The food was really exquisite and everything was cooked to perfection. We had exotic food like rabbit meat over the special public holidays. The staff was very attentive and made every bit of our mealtime as close to a date night as possible! It was like a sit-down candlelight dinner - Ah-hem, with kids of course.

We had a hearty breakfast, usually skipped lunch or had a light lunch followed by an AMAZING dinner

German bread is fantastic! But is it just me, or does that bread (in the foreground) look a bit like boobs??! LOL.

Breakfast!

Cheese platter!

Hotel we stayed at: VERY highly-recommended for family with kids!
https://www.allgaeustern.de/en/hotel-allgaeu-bavaria/

Where we did our ski-course: VERY recommended! Competent ski instructors and they have the biggest skiing area for beginners
 http://www.neue-skischule-oberstdorf.de/

http://www.alpin-skischule-oberstdorf.de/: Was great too! But I think I will register the kids in the other ski school the next time.