As anyone who knows us understands, we love winter and we love skiing. In other words, we have an agenda for our children. That is, we want them to love winter and love skiing, too. So far, things seem to be going along that trajectory...... the first morning that Cally saw snow this winter, she said, "Look Mom &; Dad, it's snowing! Now we can go skiing!". Like proud parents, we gave each other the wink of pride.
Cally put in some time at the Magic Carpet at Smuggler's Notch last year (both before and after the fated femur incident) and was quickly ready to take it to the next level of riding lifts. At two years old, she was proudly loading the lift and skiing with the assistance of our vital "H Bar". This X-mas, when we went to Smuggs, she watched other kids skiing on their own and she said she was ready to try it. However, we've got a girl who isn't afraid of speed. And so, she's perfectly willing to just bomb down a hill. As educators of high school and college aged people, neither John nor I are "qualified" to teach a three year old how to ski.
Admitting our weakness, we sought out the experts. We looked into our options, acknowledging that Cally is on the young end of the ski lesson spectrum, and decided to do Parent/Tot lessons at a little tiny hill in Richmond (all of 10 minutes from our house) with a total vertical drop of 500 ft. Cochran's is a quintessential "Mom and Pop" ski area. It has a tow rope (the kids call it the "carrot lift" b/c of the orange handles you grab), they serve hard boiled eggs and have a pot of hot dogs boiling on the stove in the lodge, and they breed some of the areas best skiers. Not that we want to be parents of a ski racer, but the convenience and low key comfortable atmosphere made it work.
Cal took to her first lesson like a champ. I'm not going to lie, I had a small bag of skittles to "reward" her, but she stuck it out for the entire two hours (and because we were late signing up, her lesson is from 11:30-1:30 which means she's skiing during lunch and the usual map time)! Because I have to ride the tow rope with her between my legs, I think I might have been more exhausted than she was after a dozen laps on the bunny slope. And she was pretty exhausted, too!
But the next day, she was ready to go for it again. John and I skied all morning at Stowe and were ready to take off (because the conditions weren't all that great) and she exclaimed that she, too, wanted to ski before we left. So she and John took four laps on the bunny slope
Last week, it was all of 8 degrees F. John was out of town for the week teaching a Winter Skills class, so I asked Uncle Scotty to watch Hazen while we went to the lesson. I packed a small thermos of hot cocoa and resupplied the skittles coffer, telling Cally to let me know if she got cold at all. She amazed me, she was pumped for her lesson and only needed to go inside for a quick hot cocoa break and was anxious to get back at it again.
And even though she still just wants to go straight down the hill, she is learning to turn, fall, and do the snow plow. She already can't wait until Saturday for her next lesson. Yesterday (Wednesday), she asked me if it was time for her ski lesson yet. Mind you, it's been really cold, then rainy, and now freezing again (conditions are looking grim). But as long as she's having fun, we'll keep at it.
It's been the perfect year to put in our time at the bunny slope because our winter has been so pathetic and the parents aren't missing out on our own fresh powder.
