Thursday, March 8, 2012

snow skiing with mommy

my family grew up skiing ~ we started around age six and went every year until college.  it's something i have always wanted to teach our children.  wednesday morning after breakfast john david and i helped little man into his first pair of boots and skis from the rental shop.  after a rough 15 minutes we got on the lift and headed to the top.  the slopes were nearly empty!  little man fell getting off the lift but he had a great attitude.  after a few instructions we started slowly down ~ he fell about five times ~ but we laughed and i kept it upbeat.  the third and fourth time down he was moving along great!  we graduated to the harder beginner slope and even went down the intermediate several times before his half day session was up.  john david and the girls called on their way to the lodge; we stopped and waved half way down so they could see his improvement from the morning. 


after lunch at the lodge it was sweet m1's turn on the slopes.  instead of a quick lesson on the flat ground at the bottom (i learned my lesson from the morning) we headed straight to the lift and talked about what to do while riding up.  m1 fell also her first time off the lift.  she struggled a bit at the top so i let her put her skis between mine and hang on to my waist from the back.  luckily we made it down without falling!  instead of the nice big *s* turns that little man learned quickly, she just wanted her skis pointing down and decided that falling when she got going too fast was her better option.  she got upset because i would not immediately take her to the intermediate slopes.  finally she learned how to make some turns and more importantly stop so i thought she was ready for a harder slope.  just like little man she did great by the end of our time.   john david and the children showed up a few minutes before the slopes closed so they could see how she was doing.  they both want to go again next year! 
it was so fun spending undivided attention with each child!  i was able to do one black diamond run before the day ended which was nice after spending all day on the easier slopes.  but it was a little scary also since i had not been on skis since little man was born. 

4 comments:

  1. What fun for all of you!!!! I am impressed that you actually had real snow gear for all of them! :)

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  2. I haven't been snow skiing in so long...since I was like 10! This made me miss it!

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  3. Looks like you all had a blast! I'm impressed with your kiddos picking it up so quickly.

    (I found your blog following the comment you left on mine, thanks!)

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  4. how fun to be able to teach your kiddos to ski! we live near the mountains and have easy access to the slopes but i'm not so great at skiing. i'll have to leave the lessons to my husband :)

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