Here are the girls with Jon and Aunt Sharon all suited up to head from the cabin over to the ski resort.
I am open for suggestions on the best way to teach kids to ski. The ski school experience was alright for Sabrina but Ann Marie cried so much that they sent her back to the lodge for pretty much the whole day. Neither one wanted to go back to ski school this time around.
I heard that Annie did fine going down her first time but then she fell and I think she got whacked with a ski pole in the face at some point (at least that is where she told me the bruise on her cheek came from). From then on I think she cried quite a bit.
Sabrina did fine but told me she kept falling. Aunt Sharon said she was just having a hard time learning to turn and fell every time she tried. When I learned, my dad took me up the hill a bit and taught me how to turn and stop on my way down. We practiced this a few times and then he took me to the big hill to go.
I was hoping it would be fairly easy for the girls as well but the last almost 30 years have apparently taken their toll. My dad has always been a very strong person and works so hard and so much that it has delayed his aging. He always seems decades younger than he is.
I vividly remember one time when I was a kid and we went to a condo we had at Brian Head. We had forgotten the key. The office was closed. So we kids watched while my dad, who must have been around 40, climbed up the balconies of the condo complex to the third floor to reach our condo balcony and unlock the door. I thought it was crazy that such an "old" person was doing suck a teenage stunt.
In any case, my dad decided to show the kids how to get up when they fell. So he fell down on purpose and said, "watch me girls, this is how you get up when you fall." Then he tried to get up. This is when the reality of his 72 years came and smacked him in the face. He could not get up. This was the greatest shock of the day for him. Finally he had to take of the skis and stand up that way. I think this was his last time skiing.
I hope my girls can enjoy skiing more and more as they learn to do it better. It was such a fun thing to do with guys when I was a teenager. One of the few activities we could do at an equal level. Plus it made for great family vacations. I guess it is just mostly a matter of practice, practice, practice. Aren't most things in life that way?
