Thursday, April 23, 2009

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Ski For All

Last week was Spring Break in Oregon - which I think is really a misnomer given that there is usually nothing spring about it. It probably should be named "late winter break" as it is almost always still pretty cold and usually windy. But it does make for some good conditions on the mountain. And last week we hit it right. It snowed Tuesday and Wednesday and turned nice on Thursday and Friday. So I took a couple days off and hit the slopes with our four oldest. What a great two days.


My Three Ski Bunnies.

Quinn was especially excited. It was her first time on skis and like with most things she caught on fast. The first day I worked with her on the bunny hill and by day two she was ready for the black diamonds...well not really, but she did venture down some of the longer slopes.


Our cousins from Portland came with us. Their own little ski club.


The guys on a bluebird day.

I skied most of the two days with the girls and rarely saw Sam. He and his cousins were off searching for the steep and deep and usually only popped in to meet us when they were hungry. At the end of the second day, I finally had a chance to make a couple of runs with him. He is proving hard to keep up with. On our first run we stopped atop a pretty steep slope that hadn't been groomed. I said to Sam, "OK son, show me what you got." With that he was off, be-bopping through the bumps and cuts at a swish swish clip. There was another skier standing at the top watching him with me... he turned to me and said "looks like he's got somethin." It was a proud moment for me.


Julie and Jonas came up Friday afternoon to see how the girls were doing and to join in the fun. Jonas was anxious to go. He is still a little young for skis, but not for sliding down a slope on his backside. Hopefully next year we can strap him in some skis and it'll become a true family affair.