In the olden days, before kids, I absolutely LOVED to ski.  I spent my Saturdays on the ski bus and went skiing with my dad, brother, sister, friends, or anyone who I could get a ride to the mountains with.  The kids came along, and suddenly there was no such thing as free time. Fourteen years later, here we are.  My skis have been in the rafters of my garage and I have lost all confidence that I can even handle the bunny hills.  My son has really been wanting to learn, so yesterday we decided to take him up to the mountains.

 

We signed the kids up for the cheapest package they had.  It included 2 hours of a group lesson, ski equipment rental, and a lift ticket.  My son was really excited and my daughter was a bit apprehensive, which kind of surprised me because she’s such a dare devil.

 

I brought my skis along because I figured I’d have the rental place look at them and see if they were even in working condition. (I’m talking about those skis my son is holding in the picture above.) I carried them into the rental place and immediately someone spotted them and said, “Man, those are antiques!” My hubby and I couldn’t stop laughing. Pieces of my boots had actually disintegrated over the years and there was no way I was going to ski down any hill with them.

 

I knew it was going to take some work to convince my husband to try anything but when I suggested we take a snowboard lesson together, while the kids were in their lesson, he agreed! He has never been on skis or a snowboard before, so this was big.  I can’t say I was too keen on the idea of taking the fall on your butt class snowboard class, but I was so excited that he agreed to give it a try.

 

Let me just say, snowboarding is absolutely not a sport we are going to be continuing with.  First of all, the whole unbuckling your boot thing is a pain in the neck!  Second of all, every time I fell I felt like the little boy in A Christmas Story who was so bundled up that when he fell in the snow he couldn’t get back up.  Yes, I just created a perfect visual for you… me, rolling around in the snow, with that stupid snowboard attached to my boots, yelling, “I can’t get up.  I can’t get up.”

 

My hubby did much better, even though the instructor kept yelling, “Dude, you need to keep your toes up Bro.  You’re an accident waiting to happen.”  He mastered the bunny hill like nobody’s business!

 

It was kind of fun because we were on the same little hill that my kids were taking lessons on, so I could take lots of pictures.

 

My kids loved their lesson and the instructor was great with kids.  I can’t tell you how relieved I was that they were enjoying it.  Learning to ski is not cheap, and I was worried that they would be freezing and just hate it. 

 

Here’s a picture of my hubby and my daughter coming down at the same time. 

 

I didn’t get too many pictures of my son.  I think he needs brighter clothes so I can find him easier.  He blends in with everyone else. 

 

Both kids picked it up very quickly and by the end of the 2 hours the instructor told us they were ready for the chair lift.  As fast as I could say, “I can’t get up!” I traded in my snowboard for skis. 

 

See the blue coat I’m wearing below?  Well, apparently that is in the same antique class as my skis.  They told me to put my pass in my upper left pocket, but I didn’t have an upper left pocket.  The guy who was helping me looked all over my coat and said, “Man, that’s old school!”  I reminded him that I was the same 40 year old mom who brought in the antique skis and we both busted up laughing.  When he started joking with me to just hang onto everything because they’d eventually come back in style, I told him to watch out because I was going to find myself some stirrup ski pants and Vuarnet sunglasses.  Oh yeah. 

 

 

To finish up the skiing story, once I popped my skis on, it was like 14 years had never passed.  The only difference was that now I was worried about taking care than more than just myself.  I was watching my kids ski for the first time, worried that they’d be scared on the lift, cheering them on, and reminding them to slow down!  Wow, what a difference 14 years can make.  We took a few runs on Daisy and both kids loved it.  I could have kept going, but by the time they turned the lights on, the kids were ready to call it a day.  My daughter said, “This is the longest I’ve ever gone without eating.”  She’s kind of a snacker, so her comment was pretty funny. 

 

We got in the car and the kids immediately started telling us about their lessons, fears, joys, and accomplishments.  They were so excited.  They weren’t tired at all.  They ate everything in sight and were talking a mile a minute.  I guess that’s a sign that it was a good day.

 

Valentine’s Dinner was KFC on the way home and the kids immediately started asking when we could go skiing again.

 

Good times.

 

Happy memory making, Friends!