fair-weather skiers

It just so happens that each time our family gets to go skiing it is SO sunny and nice. And I thank my lucky stars about that.

Because I distinctly remember my last day skiing as a teenager. It was not pretty. It was snowing and I was freezing and it felt like my toes just may fall off my feet because they were frozen solid. I was supposed to like skiing…I lived in Utah for crying out loud! But for whatever reason it was always ice-cold when I happened to hit the slopes. And I had an epiphany right then and there…I would give up paying money to freeze my tail off. I said goodbye to that cold sport and never looked back.

…Until a few years ago when Dave’s whole family gathered for Spring Break at some super amazing place they had arranged to stay at for a steal, and everyone went skiing. That was when I decided skiing wasn’t so bad after all. It was sunny and beautiful each day. Dave’s Dad is an expert skiier (as are his children) and everyone helped our kids learn to ski. And Dave, as good as he is at skiing, hung out with me and showed me the ropes again.

So now skiing is what we seem to do over Spring Break each year. And let me tell you, Spring Break is one heck of a time to ski in Utah if you’re a “fair-weather skier” like I am.

Here are the kids all ready to go:(Lucy got to hang with different people in my family each day. Thanks guys!!)

We put Grace & Claire in ski school the first day. They had an awesome teacher. Grace was voted “a pleasure to be around,” and Claire was voted “most improved skier” (since she just cried at first and could hardly stand up despite doing great last year).
But she ended up speeding down the hills with her arms stretched out to catch the breeze by the end of the next day.

Max tried snowboarding for the first time this year. He took a class the first day with some of his friends. He LOVED it (and sadly I scarcely saw him so I have only a couple pictures to show for it):
Elle was set to just head out on her own with these cute girls:
We were on this trip along with a bunch of friends. It was so fun hanging with them, but boy howdy was it ever an ordeal to get us all to the top of the mountain together! Once we were finally there (around lunch time) it was pretty smooth-sailing.

Elle was especially excited to run into one of her best friends on the slopes at the end of the second day:
(This family was the one who saved my family’s hides on the way up through the snowstorm with their 4-wheel-drive and chains…thanks SO much guys!!)

Poor Max hurt his wrist pretty bad at the end of the second day and had to call it quits but Dave and I got to hang out with just our girls for the whole afternoon. My heart swelled up as I held back a little and watched them ski along like little ducks after Dave who was trying to teach them the beauty of keeping their skis more parallel and how to get down steep slopes without freaking out and bawling. They kinda got it.

I love watching Dave ski. He’s a beauty-skier.
I finally graduated from the green hills I skied on all last year with Claire between my legs in a huge snow plow. I love skiing with Dave.(It was fun…don’t let Dave’s serious face fool you.) Hmmm…I still don’t have much of a skier’s stance…

But as nice as Dave was to hang with us a bunch, his heart still belonged to the black diamond runs and so I mostly got Grace for my partner (is it bad that in my heart I was kind of happy there were no other kids in our group her age? I like being with that spunky girl). We had such a fun time exploring the mountain together.
Yeah, when the weather’s like this skiing is pretty darn fun.
We can’t wait ’til next year.