We had planned on skiing 3 out of the 5 days we were at sunshine village but ended up skiing all 5!

On day 3 in the morning we skied as a family braving the blue runs without an instructor. All the boys grew in confidence and our lift disembarking became more successful. But we did have one spectacular wipe out involving us all losing all skis, poles and landing in a heap underneath a chair!

And by the afternoon Middle man was ready for a green green run. For his last run of the day we went all the way to the top of the mountain.. it took us 30mins to get back down, moguls, ice and a few falls but he made it! I think I may have gained a few awesome points (which he doesn’t give easily). It was so good to have some one on one time and see him have so much fun. And the views were spectacular!

Just before the lifts shut I managed to squeeze in a solo run down a more complicated green… bouncing between trees and over rough snow I couldn’t help but giggle to myself. Good job no one was around and I’m sure it wasn’t pretty but it was certainly fun.

Each evening sunshine put on an activity… today was tobogganing (or sledging for the British). They had cleared a track and provided wooden sledges big enough for 3 people.

Surprisingly fast and hard to control the boys had a blast encouraging it to spin around as much as possible. I even got pushed off the back by Lego boy for controlling the direction to much. As I rolled down the mountain side I could hear the boys giggling “we dumped mummy”.

Boy blue struggled with the long day so we decided for day 4 to put him in daycare for the afternoon. The morning was spent encouraging the boys 1 by 1 on to green slopes. I even accidentally took the boys on a short black section, for which they slid on the bums for the whole 10m!

Boy blue was reluctant to join in and being a defiant 4 year old… wanting to go to the room and watch tv. I understood it was a lot for him so daycare seemed the right thing… that was until we got there. He instantly started crying, and tbh it didn’t look much fun.. a very busy space with a lot of children and not that much to interest a child over 3. I decided not to leave him there but the bonus side effect of the experience was that he seemed to value the skiing much more and barely complained at all for the next few days (despite a little wipe out).

End of day 4 (after a persuasive message from my sister) I decide to attempt a black route. Boarding the lift warning that there was no green or blue routes down I became more nervous. By the time the lift went through the clouds I was presented me with a eiree drop off point.

Despite the edge of the world starting point it was actually exhilarating, I made it down in one piece and mostly under control 😀

The evening activity was yoga, and I would be lying if I said I tried hard to convince the boys to join me. It was so nice to stretch out the previous 4 days of skiing in peace 🤫

As Day 5 was our last day at sunshine it was time to pack up… but Lego Boys baby lion soft toy was missing. Even after we had packed everything up it was no where to be seen. Being small and white the only explanation for the disappearance was that it got mixed up in a sheet change. After asking the front desk and them checking with the house keeping team it appeared baby lion was gone 😵. Lego boy was upset, it was the first thing I bought when I was pregnant with him, he had it since birth and it has traveled the world with him.

As it was our last day, we decided to all head high up the mountain to get a last view.

Unfortunately not far down the run, the husband got cut up and ended up falling badly twisting his knee. After gingerly making his way to the ski village he decided to have a rest. I took all 3 boys off by myself for a run. It felt like a soon as I got one back on skis another fell. It was an eventful run at one point I dived into a face plant just managing to stop both Boy Blue and Lego boy sliding backwards down a black run, Middle Man helpfully stood by giggling. Later boy blue skied onto a snow drift and sunk to his waist. Resulting in more laughter as I tried to dig out him and his skis.

As the village came into sight and I started to relax middle man turned unexpectedly into boy blue and Lego boy, removing everyone’s skis. As I attempted to stop near them I fell in a rather special manner resulting in me sliding quite a way down the hill on my arse. Luckily a couple snowboarders with more skill than me helped the boys back into their skis while I trudged back up the hill to the boys. Needless to say it was lunch time by the time we got back to the village. Daddy met us and although clearly painful and struggling with left turns he was determined to keep going.

After lunch we started down the ski out back to the car park. On route we managed another mountain top out (goats eye) and a couple of runs on the kids play park. Boy blue kind of bounced down the jumps in remarkable style not falling once! Middle man and Lego boy took a chair lift by themselves making disembarking with baby blue much easier!

After many kilometres and a lot fun, falls, and near misses we all made it to the car park. I’m not gonna lie, we were all physically done but all felt an immense sense of achievement, just a few days ago none of them had even stood on skis.

The queues for taxis and buses was immense and in the end we decided to wait it out in the restaurant. Our taxi was due in 1 hour and 30 mins and would take us to the next chapter in our Canadian adventure.

5 days in sunshine had been fantastic, I really recommend it for families. The staff were top notch and the ski in and ski out made life much easier than busing and gondola-ing from town each day! But 5 days was enough for us… we returned our skis… until next time.