I'm jealous - haven't been out snowshoeing yet this year. Sounds like you all are having fun. A few tips: on uphills, keep you foot flat on the snowshoe so that the crampons fully engage (this builds a flexible achilles) and provide good traction. On well-packed trails, the toe crampon may be enough, but on loose snow you really need the whole shoe to get good grip. For steep uphills on loose snow, you can sort of kick in to the snow and create a flat platform for your shoe like making stairsteps. For downhills, keep weight on your heels and shift your weight back and forth from one foot to the other so the tips of your snowshoes don't get buried. It can be a rather fun ski/slide/run downhill.