We went to Seattle to visit Jon and Caroline. They said that they were planning to go skiing/riding up at Steven's Pass, so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to get Josh in his first ski school lesson. So, Jon, Caroline, Josh and I went up to Steven's Pass for an afternoon of skiing/riding and Brian and Aves hung out in Seattle for some father-daughter bonding.
As it turned out, Josh's lesson was from 1pm to 3pm - right at Josh's nap time. But we signed him up anyway and decided to give it a shot. He had a short half an hour nap on the drive up to Steven's Pass and we arrived at around 11:30am. It took the next hour and a half to get him all set up and ready to go! Who said that getting kid's into activities wasn't a big production?!
Some of the highlights of our big ski adventure were:
- Josh REFUSED to go skiing without goggles. I guess living in the Pacific Northwest makes us really sensitive to sunlight in the winter since we rarely see it! Anyway, it was a beautiful, sunny day and with the glare on the snow, Josh could barely open his eyes when he was outside without them watering like crazy! So, I had to go to the ski shop and buy him a pair of kidlet goggles.
- I expected owies and complaints when he put on his ski boots, but the equipment guy explained that they were like robot boots and I think that's what made Josh love them. No complaints about the boots - not even once!
- I was worried about the potty thing. Josh is potty trained, but the ski school requires that kids are "completely" potty trained. That means they can go to the washroom completely by themselves. Josh is mostly there, but I wasn't sure if he could go by himself in a public bathroom - especially if the toilet flushes automatically. Josh is deathly afraid of "toilets that flush by themsel-ves". It's the first question he asks anytime we go to a public bathroom. If it flushes by itself, he refuses to sit on it. I made sure that their toilets didn't flush automatically and it turned out that Josh had to go once during the lesson. His instructor, Lindsay, told me that when he came out he said he got some pee on his pants. Ugh. But I guess he wasn't wet enough to stop from skiing again!
- I stayed for the beginning of the lesson to make sure Josh was OK. There were just 2 kids in Josh's class and Lindsay seemed to have them both listening well. I saw her teach them to put on their skis and hold their poles. Then, they went on a small "walkabout" on relatively flat terrain. I overheard them looking for "crocodiles" and stuff. She was really great with them. Josh was shuffling along with his skis in no time!
- I had to leave right after that because I could tell he was getting whiny each time he looked at me. It's so true that our kids are whiniest when they are with us and are usually fine when we're not around! Lindsay said that Josh was a bit cranky at times (like falling down) but she could tell he was pretty tired and it was par for the course with 3-year-olds.
- I only really had an hour and a half of riding that afternoon while Josh was in his lesson. Really though, it was enough! I haven't gone riding in 2 years. Crazy. I've been riding for almost 15 years and it's kind of like riding a bike - you never forget. But your muscles do! I was able to do the runs no problem (we stayed on blues). It was actually quite easy, breezy. Not alot of work involved to just nicely carve a smooth ride down a blue run...then why were my legs freakin' burning when I got to the bottom of the run?! Aargh. I'm SO out of shape!
When I went to pick Josh up at 3pm, they were playing in a snow bank. Fun! Lindsay took us back to the ski school area and she showed me how Josh could walk up the "magic carpet" and then ski a straight line down the slight incline. It was amazing to watch him ski for the first time! I guess I couldn't have missed it since I was filming it and the straight line that he chose to ski was right towards me! I had to move out of the way to avoid him! Hahaha...Anyway, I couldn't include the video in the post because the file was too big, but I posted some photos of him in his kiddie skis. Needless to say, he's been asking to go back skiing already, so I guessing that he enjoyed it quite a bit. Now, I'm not sure if there is enough snow on the local mountains, but I'm hoping that we can go up one more time this year!
Joshie looking cool with Mom's goggles - he was fine as long as he had goggles on!
Checkin' out his gear
Getting used to holding the poles
Look, Mom! I'm skiing!
I see some crocodiles over there!
Josh's apres-ski fangs
6 comments:
I didn't learn to ski till I was 16, so I'm sure Josh will be better than me in... oh, about one more lesson.
Awesome - this is so cool! Hope he has just as much fun the next time :)
oh my, how cute is your munchkin? skiing already and already a big enough boy to go pee on his own! :)
I'm glad that he liked it. And he's too cute wearing his ski gear! :)
That's so awesome Josh! You look so cool in your goggles, no wonder you wanted to wear them the whole time.
Nana is so very proud of you Joshie! You are the cutest little snow bunny in the world, and I love you sooooo much.. to the moon and back! <............>! (that's a big hug)
Post a Comment