Ski Date

After five weeks of ski lessons, we took a few weekends off.  The boys have ski passes (required with lessons) and we have limited ski passes so after that break, Oliver and I took full advantage of a sunny Saturday with fresh snow to head for the hills.

We arrived about 11:00 so we missed all of the morning traffic and ended up on the lift all by ourselves.

I haven't really skied with Oliver this year.  When we would go up after lessons, I always had Kellan on the harness.  I was very anxious to see how Oliver was doing and I was very impressed.

He took off down the slop like we hadn't taken any time off at all.

He even went into tuck position as the slope got a little flat.

So Cute!

His goal for the day was to ski some new runs and to go to the very top of the mountain.

We headed to the top of Winter Park and they had this great sign to welcome us to Vasquez Ridge.  The bottom of the sign says, "Hope you enjoy your brief escape from civilization."

Oliver at the top, ready to rock some more blue runs.

After a few crashes, it was becoming clear that a break was in order with lunch following closely behind.  Since we were a ways out from getting to the lodge, we found a safe place to sit on the side for a snow snack.  Oliver hadn't eaten any snow all day and it was amazing how much it perked him up.

There are a lot of flat spots in Winter Park that you have to skate if you haven't picked up enough speed to get across them.  Oliver was great at skating and I was very impressed with his coordination for it.  It just takes a lot of time and energy.  After giving him a pull a few times with my pole, he asked to have a pole for himself.

From then on out, when we would get to a flat spot, he would push himself. He said that it was like he was rowing a boat.

Back at the top and on the other side of the run with a great view of the snow capped mountains in the background.

The tunnel is always fun to go through.

I was given instruction that you have to yell when you go through the tunnel.  I had no idea!  It's a good thing that I'm up on the process now.

Not only did I discover that ski school was worth every single penny and Oliver loves skiing, I also discovered that he likes to ski very very close to the trees.  Going along the run, he would ski right up next to them and sometimes in them.  The funny thing was that after a while, I realized that I liked to ski right up next to the trees too, I just don't have my Mom there to point it out.  Maybe the apple didn't fall too far from this Mama's tree.

Toward the end of the day, we ran into Oliver's instructor and he asked how Oliver was doing.  Of course, I had nothing but rave reviews as to how well he was doing and how much we appreciated everything he taught Oliver.  I did tell him that he skied awfully close to the trees, which made me nervous.  Jordan (instructor) told me not to worry, that he was fine.  I told him that it was my job as his Mama to worry that he's too close to the trees.  He laughed and said "that's why my Mom can't watch me do jumps," as he headed off toward the terrain park.

At the end of the day, Oliver headed up this hill.  It doesn't look like much, but you can see that it's probably 20' high and straight down.  He didn't have enough speed to get up it so he had to skate a bit.  He fought to get to the top and then sped right down with no problems.  I was so proud of him because this could have gone in a disastrous direction.  He did this while much older kids would swoop up around him and down.  The next time down the run I asked him if he would be doing this hill again (I wanted more pictures) and he said that he would if he could get more speed to get him to the top.  As we approached it, I fumbled to get my camera out and before I had it out of my pocket he had swooped up and down the run like a pro.  As he came off of the hill he yelled out, "I did it!!". 

Way to go, Big Guy!!

Oliver and I had a GREAT day together!!  We skied until the lifts stopped running and our legs were beat. We are all hoping that Kellan is up and running a little faster next year so that we can all ski together (even if Oliver pointed out that he'll just get faster and he doesn't want to wait for Kellan.  Won't he be surprised the first time Kellan flies past him.  The day will come.)