Last Saturday, the entire family went downhill skiing at the Montana/Idaho border. This has been the mildest winter in Spokane and our weekend have been fairly booked. Unfortunately, we haven't made skiing the priority that it should be. Ansel and Emmy have loved skiing from the very beginning (or I should say that Ansel LOVES skiing, but HATES riding the chairlift....still traumatized from last year). To say that Savanna has hated skiing the previous 4 times that we have forced her to go would be an understatement. She would shed instant tears just at the mention of the word "ski". She has mentioned that she would rather be in school, eat worms, clean the house and then go to church for 3 hours. But even after all of the protests, we weren't ready to give up on her. We have so many family trips planned that revolve around skiing and we really want her to enjoy them with us rather than reading a book in the lodge with the foul-mouthed teen-agers. (O.k. I was ready acquiesce to the possibility that she would not be a skier and we needed to accept and embrace her differences. But Corey has so much faith in the sport that he wouldn't give up.)
I was dreading the day as we were driving the 90 miles to Lookout Pass. I imagined a day of crying, taking boots on and off, and possibly a little yelling intermingled with stomping of feet.
But didn't take into account that when you ski in a place where you can choose whether you eat your lunch in Idaho at noon or walk a few feet and eat in Montana at 1pm. And when the lift operator, wearing her overalls and galoshes, is personally cheering you on each time you come down the hill....miracles are bound to happen.
Miracles happened
Emmy was happy from the start. She felt a little unsure at first, as one always does on their first run of the season. But she was back doing blue runs in no time and repeatedly expressing how much fun skiing was.
This is Savanna'a face before we started. I actually didn't put the one containing tears...I can't risk being on her bad list right now.
Ansel needed a little time to get readjusted to his skis. He moved to a bigger size and we removed the tip connecters. His first few runs looked a little like this.
And there is still the trouble of trying to keep Ansel's tongue out of the snow
I had never seen a tow rope before and I didn't expect it to be so strong. I was a little worried that my kids arms would make it to the top, while their bodies were bleeding out at the bottom. Ansel needed a little assistance at first and Savanna fell almost every time she got on. But she got back up. And back up. And back up.
I took Emmy for a few runs and came back to see Ansel and Emmy skiing down side by side, happy as could be.
Savanna even got bored of the bunny hell and was ready for some real runs....it was HER idea. She and Corey are the people on the last lift. Emmy was ready to ride the lift by herself. Miracles all over the place.
Ansel is ready to race
By the end of the day, Ansel and Savanna had the hill to themselves and were going up and down without any assistance. Yeah, they fell a few times. But they got up and kept on skiing down.
Smiling.
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