Fraser Hill Tubing

Hello middle-of-January! I had all these great post ideas for December that just never materialized. With the holidays well behind us, let's move forward. 

Over break, the kids decided to use some of their Christmas money to go tubing.

Our neighbors suggested Fraser Tubing Hill. It is near Winter Park resort.  Fifth graders receive a free ski pass and, after driving by, Nick & Ella are looking forward to returning to the area. Several of our neighbors get ski passes to different resorts than we do. It will be fun for Nick to explore new runs with Ella this year.

A few things we didn't realize before we made the trip. First, it is really far from Denver - probably an hour and a half. We had to force ourselves not to think about how close the tubing hill was from Salt Lake City.  Second, the temperature change from Denver to Fraser was dramatic (over 30 degrees). This was significant because Nick packed a light jacket and Greta forgot her jacket completely.

Our other surprise was that it was super crowded on a Monday. We were told the best times to arrive are right when they open or after 6 at night (it would be too cold for me then). We put our name on the waiting list and headed to lunch.

It worked out well because the clouds lifted while we were at lunch and the blue skies were beautiful.

This was a really fun afternoon activity. We only rented the tubes for an hour because there were so many people waiting (the wait was 2 hours when we got our tubes). Thankfully we found an old coat of my sister's in Nick's bag for Greta. It got chilly when you are shooting down the hill at 30 miles per hour.

If I hadn't been so scared flying down the hill, I would have video taped a ride. You really get moving. After the first run, I was wishing that all the kids were wearing helmets.

We never saw anyone crash though. I think next time I would consider wearing snow pants. My lower back kept getting exposed and it was a little brisk!

The best part about tubing is not having to walk up the steep hill. Given the wait time up the hill, we probably got 8 or so runs in during our hour. 

If we ever spend a week in the mountains, this would be a great way to break up a week of skiing.

So, how is your new year looking? I'm making an unexpected work trip this week and hope to find some time on the flight to visualize 2014. Here's to a great year!