Yes, you read that right: I skied three times in a twenty-four hour period this weekend.
However, before I get to that, I have to address the elephant in the room: I haven’t blogged since last summer. July 3, to be exact. Last year was a bit of a whirlwind for us, with the house project and all, and life started happening REAL FAST once we moved back in in early August. It was the house, and our September beach trip, and Maelle starting school, and planning the race, and then–of course–Christmas right on the heels of Thanksgiving. So, the blog took a back seat. (Heck, it was in the trunk!)
But, yesterday, my dear friend Jess asked me about the blog, and it inspired me to get back to it. I’d actually started thinking about the blog again in the last couple weeks, and I’m excited to carve out some time each week to write. (We’ll see how that goes… I’m desperate to get our family into a better routine, but every couple weeks something throws us off.) I’m going to start where I left off–Maelle’s 5th birthday–and work my way forward, backdating them to when they actually happened.
OK, back to skiing.
Maelle and I have been skiing quite a bit this winter, since we’ve gotten so much snow recently! It’s been great. One of our local parks, Emery, has a few short runs and a magic carpet that is open a few days a week, which is perfect for teaching little kids. It’s free, so you can go for just an hour or so and feel like you’ve gotten them a little practice without the commitment of a lot of time or money. She and I went for an hour late on Friday afternoon:
Later that same night, I joined a friend (coincidentally, also named Jess) at Kissing Bridge‘s ‘Late Night Great Night’ session. It’s only $15 for a lift ticket from 10pm – 1 am. They do it a few times a season and while it looks SO FUN, I’ve never been much of a night skier and that is SO LATE. But, she invited me and I’ve been dying to do some real skiing, so I said yes. She was taking her teenage son–the late night event definitely draws a younger crowd (and a lot of snowboarders)–so it was nice to hang out with her on the slopes.
It was my first time out since last year, and first time at KB ever, so it was great to have my friend as a tour guide. I was pleasantly surprised at the lighting and really enjoyed skiing. I didn’t make it until 1 am; I think I called it a night at 11:45 pm. It’s only about 20 minutes from my house, so thankfully I was home and in bed soon after that!
Ten hours later, I was back at Kissing Bridge! This time I had Maelle and we made it a ski day! We both took morning lessons (she’s been taking them for the last few weeks), had a quick lunch, followed by an afternoon lesson for her. While she skied with her instructor, I skied on my own and practiced what I’d learned.
I’m so glad I chose to take a lesson! While I’ve skied many times, I’ve never received any real instruction, and it shows, for sure. I have no need for speed, so I generally ski in some form of a wedge down the hill, going side to side but certainly not with any great form or control. In one hour, I learned how to keep my skis parallel through a turn, and then was able to get a lot of good practice time on my own after lunch.
We called it a day after a run together (our first time on a chairlift together!) after her lesson wrapped up, and while I would have liked to stay longer, my quads were ON FIRE. She was done (how long are five-year-olds really going to last, anyway?) and we had an evening event to get to. We headed home with more than a bit of drama–almost ran our of gas! Thankfully, we didn’t, and hopefully I’ve learned my lesson to fill up before my tank is on empty.
We’re excited to ski again soon!
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