Skiing

January 22, 2013

This winter has been AWFUL so far. I just KNEW it would be too! We've had two very mild winters back to back and I knew that meant we would have to pay for it this year.

The inversion has been so bad this year that since Christmas it's been above 30 degrees like 3 or 4 times!!! Most days, it's been in the teens or lower. I've been substituting for a teacher who was on maternity leave since December 10th. So many inside recess days, I thought I was going to lose my mind.

My long-term job ended on Friday and with Martin Luther King Junior day on Monday, I just really wanted to get out of the inversion. I tried to convince Colin to go to Las Vegas with me but we decided that wasn't very realistic, still cold there too.

Then I proposed skiing and we both decided it would be really fun to take the boys! I was really pretty nervous about teaching both of the boys but the day was so amazing I couldn't even believe it. The boys did SO WELL and I was super proud of their progress in one day!

We rented gear for Colin and the kiddos at Ski n' See in Sandy. I have never rented from them but they were FANTASTIC! They gave me a 20% discount for reserving our rentals online and I, of course, found a coupon code for an extra 5%.

We loaded up our gear and were out of the house by 8 o'clock. Justin came along with us and helped haul all of the gear. We got to the ski resort by 8:45 and were like the second people up the lift. Justin helped Evan get started and I worked with Ryan.

Colin and I anticipated that Ryan would be frustrated with learning to ski. He thinks that when he starts something he should be good at it. He doesn't quite get the concept of practice. But, with LOTS of PATIENCE, and some good old perseverance we were able to help him get the hang of things.

I took 2 videos of him. One was probably the fourth of fifth run down the hill, and the other one is toward the end of the day. You can hardly see him in the second one he's going so fast! But he's like me and he likes to be in control, which is a really good thing for skiing. You've gotta know how to stop. He rode the big lift three times and by the third run, he was so much more confident and doing so much better.

The sun shone the whole day. It was glorious. I forgot sunscreen and we all came home with red faces, but it was SO worth it! I think the high for the day was 40. That felt like 70 to us and we were shedding layers throughout the day.

Check out those retro skis. LOL. Don't worry, they still work!

Justin came with us and he brought both his skis and his board so that he could do both. It worked out so well because he was able to work with the kids a little and have some of his own fun too.

Evan did really well skiing too. I didn't realize how quickly he would pick it up. He had a really hard time putting his skis into a "pizza" but once we bought an "edgie wedgie" he figured it out and was able to learn to stop himself; which meant he could ski on his own.
He and Colin played red light green light many, many times and by the end of the day he was skiing by himself. We took him up the big lift one time but I was too nervous to let him ski by himself so I stuck him between my legs and let him hold onto my poles. He loved the ride down. It was really tough controlling us both down the hill but I did okay.