Ski Day

Skiing in March, my very favorite :) Seriously, in my "old" age I am content to ski when there's plenty of snow and lots of sunshine and it's warmer than 35 degrees. It's such an expensive sport that I hate to pay the money only to freeze. I honestly hate being cold (ergo, I am a wuss) but the day we skied this month (back on the 1st) it was perfect!

I met up with family over at my mom's house first, got Luke and Livs situated there, and then drove up the canyon with my dad, brother in law Ben, and Beans and Cares. Once at Alta I had to rent skis for all 3 of us, get Bentley and Cares into ski school, buy my lift ticket and meet up with the others including my big sis, her hubby, and 3 oldest kids. I think I was rather exhausted before I even skied! So much work carrying so many skis and getting the kids where they needed to be. It was Caroline's very first time to ski(!) and she was awesome about it--a little nervous but thrilled to have Bentley with her and ready to try a new thing. Cousin Maddie also joined her little 2 hour class so that helpd too. Lots of work to get ourselves up there and ready that day. But I was so excited--such a beautiful, warm day and a fun crew to hang out with.

Sisters!

It turned out to be a glorious 2 hours on the slopes! I hadn't skied in 3 years (blasphemy being a Utah resident right?!) but with pregnancy and/or a baby at home it's just a lot harder to find the time. Plus my dad gave my skis away a few years ago cause they were hanging in his garage and he didn't know who they belonged to--that's what I get for leaving them there! They were awesomely old school neon green Kästles...way too long and straight compared to what anyone uses these days anyway...But, skiing again was heavenly! It all came back to me in about 2 minutes and I was wearing my silly grin the whole time. Such a great day! We all skied together and I loved that my cute nephews tackled black runs without getting scared. It felt so good to glide on that soft Utah snow and carve through the fun moguls.

It was all over too quickly but I was excited to watch my kiddos ski on the little ski school hill for a few minutes at the end of their lesson. And they did so well! Super confident and loving all of it.

  

 Beans cruising down

 

Cares figuring it out 

The cute ski school trio (too warm for Cares to wear her coat!)

So, I decided to take my kiddos over to the big rope tow hill so they could show me what they'd learned and go down with me 1 or 2 times. On lazy ski days as a teenager my friends and I mastered the art of backwards snowplow so I knew I could take at least one kid down if the other wanted to wait. The kids were a little anxious but up for the challenge so I ditched my poles and off we went.

All too soon I realized that 1 adult with 2 newbie skiers was a huge mistake. It took falls, twisted skis, backwards sliding, and a lot of tears and stress for those kiddos to finally just successfully grab the uphill rope tow to go up 1 time! I take getting around on my skis for granted and forgot how hard it is to manage on them when you're little and still learning. Oops! But, we made it up the hill, finally, all 3 of us and Beans just took off heading straight down. I was so surprised and started heading down (backwards) with Cares. She did great, we made it, and we found Beans in tears at the bottom of the hill. I guess he crashed pretty hard and twisted an ankle as he lost a ski. Poor guy! Imagine the scene of all 3 of us getting back up the hill on that blasted rope tow so we could then hike up to the car in the parking lot above it. It wasn't pretty, and there were many more tears (and I was so sweaty I wanted to shed all my layers!) Of course we eventually made it to the car after I carried 3 pairs of skis and helped hold up Bentley so he could make it up the steep snowy hill with his hurt ankle--quite the ordeal! I have definitely learned some great lessons for taking my kids skiing in the future, namely, no rope tows, have 1 parent for each kid, and ski school is a genius way to get kids learning while I have a blast skiing the whole mountain (and it's cheaper than a lift ticket!)

**Joseph was on his way to St George for a race he was running the next day or he would have joined us. We'll make sure we catch him next time!