After one day off to rest and recuperate, I took the kids back up the ski resort on Friday to try out their new skills. Nicholas did not want to “waste” his last vacation day skiing, which I was happy to hear as it meant I could use his skis myself. 🙂 I love to ski, but have not really had the opportunity since before my mission, more than 20 years ago. Sad, but it just wasn’t a priority. Spending that money on stuff like groceries and clothes for the kids seemed like a more responsible choice. Anyway, I was super excited and a little nervous to hit the slopes again. What if I forgot how to do it all?
Fortunately, the kids are still learning, so they didn’t want to try out the tow rope, and instead stuck to the hill with the magic carpet. It was perfect for me as well. 🙂 Unfortunately, the fantastic weather we had enjoyed the first of the week was gone. It was overcast, snowy, and COLD! So, so, so cold! But I hoped that as we got skiing we would warm up and still have a good time.
Lexi was a bit nervous to go on the “big” hill, so I promised to stay right with her. After one run down, she didn’t need me anymore. Also, she discovered that going fast is super fun and going fast over bumps is even better. Little adrenalin junkie.
It’s hard to see her, but that is her picking up speed just before the bump!
Sarah ended up going clear to the top for most of the day. It was a bit more difficult to get up there because the paths in between the magic carpets were icy and hard to climb, but she liked having a longer solid run to ski. 
She will definitely be ready for more intensive skiing next winter. I am pushing for a week in Austria, so the kids can ski all day, every day, but we shall see.
Sophie went up to the very top a few times, but then contented herself with 3/4 of the way up the rest of the time. She is also very confident on her skis, and only needs to conquer her fear of the tow rope to do even harder runs.
Poor little Noah was freezing the entire time. He was dressed as warmly as the other kids, but maybe since he has so little body fat he felt the cold more? In any case, I could only manage to talk him into skiing for a couple of hours, and then he went and waited in the car.
I went to check on him a couple times and he was always snuggled up under his jacket, happily reading a book. At least he got in a little more practice, and should also do fine next year. I am seriously impressed with how much they learned in just three short days. What a testament to their fantastic teacher and their willingness to learn. Good job, kids!
The hardest part of the whole day was getting home. It had been lightly snowing all day, and really started to pick up as we were finishing. Driving down slick, snowy, twisty alpine roads is definitely an experience I hope not to repeat. I told the kids to pray silently for me, turned off the radio so I could concentrate and drove in a lower gear with my foot on the brake pretty much the whole way. Fortunately we made it safely, with no crashing being done by us or to us.
There was a crash in the parking lot the second day, that we were sort of involved in, but not really. We were driving down the small little road, with cars parked all along one side, and there were two other cars trying to drive towards us. But they had to back up to let me pass, and one backed up faster than the other and ran into him. Ouch! Usually I am the one ramming into stuff, so I was extra thankful for once to just be a witness, not a perpetrator!