[Brian Krashpad]

I'm back!

I know, I know-- "You were gone?"

Anyhow, last week I went up to West Virginia with la familia Krashpad. It was a ski trip with the kids' (Hannah, 15, and Jack, 11) church group and assorted friends and parents. Monday night we took a bus up from Florida. Tuesday morning we arrived, checked into our hotel, and went out to the resort (Winterplace) to rent our skis and snowboards and check them overnight. After dinner we went to some Christian youth meeting where there was live music (one acoustic guitarist, two vox, full drum kit), and a speaker.

Wednesday, New Year's Eve, was our first full day there. The kids and I did snowboarding and Mrs. Krashpad tried skiing. It was the first time for all of us. It was snowing and windy. By the afternoon, the missus and I were pretty tired so we just hung out in the lodge/restaurant while the kids snowboarded. I got a call on my cell phone from my daughter that my son had got an injury and that the Ski Patrol was bringing him down the mountain.

I went down to the Ski Patrol and told my wife to just stay with the rest of the group and I would call her to give a status report. My daughter Hannah had told me Jack had a cut and if he was bloody and not cleaned up yet I didn't want Mrs. K to get all freaky on us.

Which was a good thing, because he was all bloody. Whole left side of his face was covered in blood from hairline to jawline. He had a nasty cut, up under his hair a couple inches above his temple, where his snowboard had whacked him. He'd been boarding with his back foot out of the binding, went down, and the board popped up and hit him. Apparently this happens enough that they have a name for it-- "the Scorpion." Since the cut was well up under his hair, they didn't stitch it up, which they otherwise would've. They just took strands of hair from either side of the gash and knotted it together temporarily, to keep the wound from opening up. Once he was cleaned up I gave Mrs. K a call and had her come down to the Ski Patrol.

The injury got us out of going to another of the Christian youth group meetings/sermons, which was OK by me because I was beat. We hung out at the hotel until the rest of the group returned, and then our kids joined the rest of them in a little celebration at midnight.

Thursday, New Year's Day, we went back out to the resort. But not on schedule. While we were down in the hotel lobby getting organized, one of the girls in the group freaked out and said one of her roomates had fainted or something and wouldn't open the door to their room. So we had to get a key from the desk and run down the hall and open the room.

Sure enough, the girl in the room had passed out. I held the door open (it was really hot in the room) and tried to calm down the first girl, who was nearing hysteria, while the other adults went in and worked on the girl who was passed out. She was initially unresponsive and since no one had seen her fall, there was the possibility she'd hit something on the way down, and they called 911.

By the time the ambulance got there the girl had revived and could at least respond a bit. Turns out she was anemic to begin with, and being in the hot room with all her ski gear on, had passed out. She (and one of the leaders and some friends who went to the hospital after her) later rejoined us at the resort around noon time.

I did a little bit of snowboarding in what was left of the morning with Jack (we rented a helmet for him), and then we all had lunch. After lunch we went up the mountain to the tubing run. That was the most fun we had during the trip. No learning curve, yay! That night after dinner the whole group skipped the speaker/music meeting so we could pack up and get planety of rest.

Friday was spent on the long bus ride back to Florida. One of the best things about the trip was the price. Since the kids and I had helped with all the youth group's football parking days (our church is near Florida Field, a/k/a The Swamp, where UF plays football, and we sell spots in the church parking lot on game days), for each of us the cost was only $50-- the cost of the bus ride! My wife paid that plus $250, so for the whole family was $400, which included round trip transportation, 3 hotel nights, and most breakfasts and lunches.

Here's a couple pics, a batch more to come:

Jack, first day:


Jack and I on the slopes:

[Brian Krashpad]

Here's some more pics:



Jack, 2nd day, post-crash (note helmet):

[Brian Krashpad]

Moar pix:

BK & kids:



All of us:



Tubing hill:



BK & kids in tubing line:

[Brian Krashpad]

Last batch o' pix:

Hannah Beth in tubing line:



Snowball fight (Jack and HB):



Sunset at Winterplace:

[MrSandMan]

That looks like fun Krashpad, I'd do stuff like that if it wasn't so damn cold out. lol (which kinda defeats the purpose).

Looks like you could catch some speed on that slope. Great photos btw,

[Brian Krashpad]

Originally Posted by MrSandMan

That looks like fun Krashpad, I'd do stuff like that if it wasn't so damn cold out. lol (which kinda defeats the purpose).

Looks like you could catch some speed on that slope. Great photos btw,

Thanks, Mrs. K took all the photos (except the one of all of us, of course), I think. It was a ton of fun, but skiing/snowboarding is a lot of work, especially if you're not very good at it. We were lucky that we got to go for so cheap due to the youth group sponsorship. None of us had ever been to a ski resort before, much less tried skiing or boarding.