The sport of skiing. It's fun. It's fast. It's exhilarating.
And, yes it can (at times) be dangerous.
Often a day of skiing leaves you sore, bruised and broke. Yep, that's right - let's not forget what an pricey sport this is as well. (I mean seriously people - have you checked into the cost of lift tickets recently? It's outrageous!) Yet, many people love this sport and insist upon at least one ski vacation a year.
My husband is one of them.
He grew up in the North (y'all will have to forgive this poor southern girl for marrying a "damn yankee") and his parents first placed him on skis when he was only 3 years old. Considering I am an average skier at best - I grew up in Tennessee learning to ski at Ober Gatlinburg (to say this little resort needs snow machines to even exist is an understatement) - I can tell you that my husband is an extraordinary skier. He flies down the mountain with all of the skill and ease that you might see watching a cheetah cross the savannah. He heads off double black diamond slopes with no fear. And he masters any course of his choosing as if he were simply taking a leisurely stroll. It's impressive to watch!
Not me. I am a more conservative skier. Having only learned when I was 12 and being blessed with a considerably more cautious personality - I have never embraced the sport with the same passion he has. Oh, I like it a lot. It's great fun! And I am constantly challenging myself to improve. I love seeing the mountains draped in a veil of snow one moment and then relaxing by a toasty fire the next. So, it wasn't hard for Curtis to convince me to take a ski vacation every year - and seeing as I always wished I was as comfortable on skis as he is, I am absolutely in favor of our kids growing up on skis.
Which brings me to the point of this blog post. Paisley was first on skis when she was 1.5 years old. She didn't do much but go down the bunny slope between her daddy's legs, but hey we got some great photos and video and she can tell everyone she was on skis when she was still a toddler. We put her on skis a year later and she was more confident but still not ready for ski school. But this year... at 3.5 years old she went to ski school every day for a week. It is amazing how quickly they pick this sport up when they are little and unafraid. I can see that she will grow up loving to ski just like her daddy - and she is absolutely the cutest skier that I have ever seen.
I am posting a video of her skiing down the mountain below. Curtis had a harness on her with a leash so he could catch her if she went astray and guide her around sharp turns, etc. The slope we are traversing in the video was a green (which for those of you who don't ski is the easiest slope they have besides the bunny slope), but it did require taking the gondola up to reach it (which means it was pretty high up) and going down it lasted about 45 minutes. Paisley did it with us several times over the course of the week. She sang songs as she went down the mountain and even carried her stuffed puppy dog with her. She skied with more confidence and less fear than many adults we passed on the way down.
Before we had kids, it was always a dream of mine when I saw the little kids skiing down the mountain (usually better than me) that one day I would watch with pride as my kids ski down the slopes too - looking adorable and having great fun. So, this video is literally a dream come true for me (as corny as that sounds). It gave me and Curtis the biggest smile to see her doing so well and having so much fun. Curtis has skied all over the US and Canada, on all level of hills and with tons of friends and family over the course of 34 years... and he said skiing that green level slope with Paisley was the best ski run he's ever had in his whole life.
Note: just so Colby doesn't get left out of this story - he got on skis for the first time at 1.5 years old this year and did great. There is video of him here too. I guess it's inevitable, before too long my kids will be skiing better than I do!
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