The Great Ski Adventure

I have had SUCH a hard time blogging lately. Why?? Well, we have picked up a new hobby..."homeschooling." Kidding...it is not a hobby, but a new practice in our house that is so consuming of time and energy. There are many many reasons...another blog in itself, but bottom line, it is amazing and for now, exactly what we need to be doing.

In addition, I have been doing last minute training for my 2nd half-marathon. It was last weekend in Austin, TX and it was amazing. This too is its own post....to be posted soon.

But for all who wanted to know...St. Louis (as the boys call it... "ST. LOOLISS")

Here is a great picture of us on our first ski trip! THIS is the picture I will scrapbook. But alas...Do not be fooled. It was staged. It's a farce, a lie, NOT as it appears. Here is the REAL story.
Skiing was an adventure...a disaster...the funniest and maybe most taxxing thing we have ever done! We left at 6:30 when Chuck got off work and didn't check into the hotel until well after midnight. But the next morning, we were SO excited! We went and had a good breakfast, ran back to the room and spent the next HOUR putting on ONE MILLION articles of clothing...socks, long johns, sweats, bibs, shirts, coats, neck gaitors, etc. We then left for the slopes. We arrived at 10:30 and all we had to do was put on helmets, buy lift ticket and get skis/boots. Not too hard, right?

WRONG. an HOUR and a HALF later we reach the top of the bunny slope with our skis on. Chuck and I gaze out to assess the slopes, meanwhile Zach and Charlie fall to the ground and assume "snow angel position" Maybe we should've stopped there- they would have been perfectly content. Hindsight is 20/20...unfortunately, we were suffering from snow-blindness.

Charlie immediately starts sliding uncontrollably toward an injured skiier on a gurney. We get him and bring him back and meanwhile Zach has lost both skis. We get Zachs skis back on and someone had to pee. We go pee and then are REALLY ready and we hold them by the shoulders and slowly slide down the mountain.

THAT WAS OUR BEST RUN OF THE DAY.

Charlie decides he MUST go on the ski lift ---our reply: NO WAY!!!, Zach decides he's tired and "falls"...that's about it.

Charlie is crying, Zach is laying down. So we decide we ARE skiing some more. We look up the hill and realize we must get up there by tow rope. The ONLY way to get up the hill is to hold on the the rope with BOTH hands (it does NOT slow down for you!) This leaves you to hold kids BETWEEN THE KNEES AND THIGHS. WE are hunkered over them, their skiis are flopping behind us. Charlie learned to ski--with a little leash like harness around his shoulders...it was the ONLY way to keep him with us. It was GREAT! Here's a great pic of Charlie and Chuck with the harness....

This is Chuck and Charlie coming down the mountain...

We had to HOLD Zach up by the jacket as we skiied him down.
This is me and Zach. I am simply standing trying to get him to stand up. Just lock his knees for a moment. Look at the leg on the right. Notice it's backwards. Do you know how long it takes to get a TODDLER ski turned around? You must first lift your own ski up high far to the side...now while standing one one leg...correction, ski...you must then bend over and grab his ski and turn it around withOUT losing your balance OR sliding down the mountain. This is ASSUMING that the child will put ANY weight on his legs at ALL
I am actually skiing slowly with Zach--notice the skis are BEHIND him.


The whole ski adventure lasted around 45 minutes.