Our commitment to being a ski family is still going strong. Although this year has pushed and challenged us a bit.
This year the boys did group ski lessons with other kids for the first time! It was a little rough going at the beginning because they were so used to skiing just with us and a private instructor. I think Cameron cried the entire first lesson because he was scared (and very low blood sugar I realized later..needless to say he's been fueled with lots of fruit and snacks every week since!). Nathan has actually been really brave the whole time, but it took 1-2 weeks for him to feel comfortable and have fun. Luckily both boys stuck with it and ended up having a great time. We had amazing instructors and it's been so fun to watch the boys improve and develop so much.
It's also been an interesting ski season because James had his gallbladder removed in early January which meant he had to be in the lodge for a couple weekends while recovering. He was a trooper though and still made it up with us every weekend despite being uncomfortable and in pain. The first week I stayed with him and we played a rousing game of Uno. ;)
This year also pushed us because I think almost every weekend there was a big snowstorm, bad drivers/traffic on the pass, and rain or snow the whole time we were skiing which made us wet and cold. I don't think we've had one sunny ski day this whole season. Hence the fact I don't have many photos.
In addition to taking ski lessons, we've also learned many lessons ourselves through skiing:
- We are resilient and can do hard things. The boys especially have learned this--they can be brave and try new things and usually things turn out ok and even great in the end.
- Nathan especially learned this last weekend. He was riding the chairlift with some classmates. He fell down and missed the chair so he had to ride the chair up by himself. He wasn't sure how to put the chair bar up by himself so he laid his poles down on the seat to lift the bar off and of course one pole fell off the chair. He felt terrible that he lost a pole and it was a rough, scary experience. But we all went back up as a family after his lesson to get comfortable on the chairlift again and Papa found the lost pole!
- Low blood sugar in kids is a real thing. If they are low blood sugar, there's no use in trying to have a logical, reasonable conversation until they've had a bar or banana.
- Group ski lessons are amazing for parents! James and I got in more ski runs this year together and by ourselves than we have in a long time. I feel like I even improved quite a bit this season just because I had more practice. Plus we got a mini date day out of it which was nice.
- It's best to do morning lessons and get up to the mountain early--traffic and parking are better and there's nothing quite like skiing fresh snow!
- Ski lessons are awesome because they force us to get up and outside in God's beautiful creation, to do something active, and to spend quality time together as a family.
