The long-awaited trip has finally arrived! Erik was able to get on an airplane and fly to 'Ontana (Montana, if you want to say it like everyone else)! He has been so excited about this trip, he has packed his little back-pack several times with all the important stuff like random toys, string, Cheerios, etc! I actually had to pack our suitcases while he was sleeping so that I could get everything in & the bags closed before he could critique my choices!! Kent's work conference started on Tuesday, March 10, but we flew out early to spend a long weekend with Kent's family and so we could celebrate Mary's birthday in person on the 8th! We arrived on Thursday, March 5 and stayed in a condo in the town of Big Sky, which is still about 15 minutes from the ski resort. The kids once again proved themselves to be great little travelers, though they continue to be highly resistant to napping on the plane!
We had a wonderful long weekend before the conference with Kent's family. We did some sledding, playing, celebrating, visiting and skiing! This was my first year back on skis since 2010 - I was a little nervous, but after a very bad first run where I felt completely unsteady, I got my skiing confidence back and had a blast speeding down the hills! Since I'm trying to get all my blog entries caught up, I'm going to skip most of the narrative here and concentrate on pictures!
 |
| Gampa & the kids |
 |
| Reading stories with Grampa |
 |
| Gramma being brave & showing Erik how to play her mandolin |
 |
| Elin getting ready to sled |
 |
| Erik & his sled |
 |
| Erik scoping out his next sled run |
 |
| Erik getting a sweet cuddle from Elin! |
 |
| Elin getting ready for her very first tube ride! (most likely her last for a few years - they wouldn't let me go down with her & she flipped over at the bottom. Thankfully, no tears, scrapes or bruises) |
 |
| Little Miss in the snow with her #1 adoring fan - Daddy! |
 |
| The kids learning about fondue chocolate! |
 |
| Proof that Amy Z & I skied a tree run - this picture makes the run look really wide, but it didn't feel or look that wide when we were skiing it!! |
The really big news from our trip is that Erik learned how to ski!! Kent & I tossed the idea around of putting Erik in ski school this year since we weren't sure if he was too young yet. He was really excited about the prospect, so we went ahead and rented a pair of skis & boots for him. If he had a horrible time the first time out, then we would return the skis and try again next year. However, Erik loved it!! After renting the skis (and before his first lesson), we took him to a nearby cross-country track and pulled him around to help him get used to the feeling of being on skis. He had his first downhill lesson the next day - and did great! We went ahead and put him in ski school for the rest of our stay in Big Sky; Kent would ski with him on the bunny hill after his lessons (and got pretty good at skiing backwards himself!!). Then, on Thursday, after his last lesson, Kent & I must have gotten altitude sickness because we decided it was a good idea to take Erik up on the big chair lift to the top of the mountain and let him ski down the single green run off that lift. What could go wrong?! By the time we got from the chair lift to the top of the green run, Mr. K, I was getting a little nervous (you had to ski on a cat-track, through a busy trail merge section, past another chair lift and go past a blue run to get to the easy run!) After the first few minutes on Mr. K, Kent & I decided that taking your 3-year-old on an "easy" green run was like watching a movie with your parents - it's always worse than you remembered!! However, all that being said, Erik did GREAT! He fell a number of times, but he never got upset; in fact, a few times he laughed that his skis came off when he fell. Wish I had that kind of attitude when I was learning to ski!!
 |
| Erik & his super great teacher, Hannah |
Video of Erik & Kent
No comments:
Post a Comment