Family time is Fun Time on the Mountain or Intro to Adventure 101

This weekend's adventure involved getting the whole clan up to the mountain for our first skiing adventure of the year.  The lack of snow has really hurt motivation to drag three, only semi-willing participants and their gear to the crowded with out of towners ski place, but as the season has dragged on there has been more realization that if not now then when.  At these times it's best not to wait for the perfect snow, just get them out there and the fun will happen.  And happen it did.  I was smart and took just the boy on Saturday this was more of a challenge.

First he is a youngin', just 4.5 years old, and when he's nervous or apprehensive his attitude tends to plummet. So with a mantra of, "keep it fun", we earned every one of our three runs. By the end of the day he was cold and tired but admitted he had fun.  At the beginning of Sunday he was ready to go and as you can see from the picture above in good spirits.  Heck by the end of the day he had enough control, confidence, and awareness that I could relax and just have fun making turns with my kids.

For A___ the day started good and stayed level.  She hadn't been on skis since last March, but after a bit of apprehension about getting off of the lift she pointed her skis downhill and went.  She could only stomach one run of me giving her pointers before she, "just want(ed) to do it."  I did a pretty good job of keeping my mouth shut in the spirit of "keeping it fun."  She gained in confidence as the day went on.  At one point she got pretty far ahead of us while I was helping R--- up from a fall.  I heard her yelling and thought, "oh no she's freakin' out cause we weren't with her."  When we caught up to her I heard what she was yelling: "Come on guys...Let's GO!"  'Nuff said.  Towards the end of the day she started dragging and I tried to interject a little fatherly wisdom which was quickly shot down.  Sorry,  "keepin' it fun here boss."

T___ also was putting in her first turns of the season and seemed 10X more confidant than the beginning of last season.  I am looking forward to February school break when the kids will be taking a vacation to Nana and PopPop's and we will have a little alone time on the hill.  Also, T------ beware the next time we are skiing there will be photos of you taken.