Skiing at Mount Snow

This is a week behind schedule but here it goes.

Skiing at Mount Snow was great for the kids. We had decided (thanks to K's decision) to not enroll g in ski school. I had a lot of trepidation about this but thought that in the interest of saving money, I will just go along with it. At worst, the kids and I can go to a sleigh ride or shopping.

Things worked out, it seems. Fortuitously after we had rented the equipment and G did a run just to get his ski legs, the kids and I hung out by the ski school. While there, I saw the steps that there teaching the kids. So I started having g mimic everything that the kids on the other side of the fence were doing.

First, show the kids how to put on their skis. One ski first. Then walk around and get comfortable. Second, put on the other ski. Shuffle around and get comfortable. Next it was the pizza wedge. We did quite a few of those. I didn't notice what came next because by then G had returned and g was ready to move on from all that shuffling. She wanted to pick up some speed.

My first suggestion was for G to carry g up a few paces on the side of bunny slope and have her come down. They did that a few times before G was about the pass out from the effort of trying to walk her up with all her gear and his gear.

Next we moved onto the tow line. As G was lining up with g, I noticed another parent coming down the slope with his kid using the ski poles as a sort of harness. I told G to do the same. So with poles under each arm, G and g skied down. g giggled all the way down. She loved it.

We found out later on that all the "magic carpets" (a flat escalator to the top of a small slope) in the facility are open for anyone to use. We thought that it was exclusively for ski school students. Thanks again to K for the info.

The next day we got a little bold. We decided to strap some ski equipment on little s to see who she would fare. We followed the same basic steps of instruction. This time we went directly to the magic carpet. shuffling on skis took a lot out of little s since the equipment was probably almost half her body weight. After much prodding, she finally went down the slope. Once she did it, that was it. The little snow bunny was telling me, "no hold, no hold!!" She wanted to do it herself. By the end of the day, she was getting on and off the magic carpet by herself.

g and s had the time of their lives. I think the family C will be skiing again very soon.

Ski!

 

 

 

Just pics for now. I'll follow up with the stories later.

she Crazy!

The more I hear about the Octo-mom, the more I am coming to the conclusion that "she crazy". I know that my judgment is based on new media stories that can be purposely inflamed to keep me watching. I won't comment on the possible plastic surgery rumor.

The burning questions in my mind are:
How did she afford in-vitro? These treatments are not cheap.
Why would anyone seek fertility treatments when one can barely support a brood of six?
(if I were a taxpayer in California) How can I "not" support this woman's lifestyle?

Octo-mom (or her overt hyper-birthing behavior) drives me insane. I love children as evidenced by the two that I have. However I find it unconscionable to have kids that you cannot support in every way. It is a sad start to their lives. I watch those little babies (and they are truly little) and pray. For what else can I do?

What I won't do is DONATE to their crazy mother.

Here we go.

This is how it started. I thought it would be really great for g to learn how to ski, so I recruited her best bud, a (and his parents, of course) to go skiing. The hope was that with her friend in tow, she would more likely get on the slope without whining. a's mom decided that it was best that she breaks a into skiing herself rather than signing him up for ski school. Upon hearing this, G decided that he will do the same (note....my eyes were rolling when he im'ed me.) Let's just say that G is not the most patient of teachers. He almost expects the kids to learn anything from their colors to square roots with a minimum of explanation. He never seems to understand why they don't "get" concepts within minutes. I predicted that the whole "learning-to-ski" experience would last about 35 minutes. The first 20 minutes would be getting the gear on. The next 10 minutes will be getting on the slope. G's explanation of the concept of skiing about 1 minutes. g falling on her first attempt would be take about 30 seconds. The rest of the time will be whining and crying until G and g would just give up and call it a day.

So I thought it best to give G a trial run at being a teacher. We took the kids ice skating. The first few minutes was slightly foreboding as the skates were hurting G's foot. I rented g a larger size so she seemed fine. The first round looked painful as G supported g's full weight under her arms. She looked like wheelbarrow. The second round was better as G and g started holding hands instead. Despite falls, g took it and kept on going.

The two of them passed the test. Now on to the slopes. Hopefully it will last longer than 35 minutes.

What defines a cheap vacation?

cheap vacation for single people requires space enough for a sleeping bag or a smallish blanket, the dollar menu or dominos hot wings and a warm shower.

cheap vacation for families with kids - oxymoron. Seriously.

Now that everything has to be multiplied by 4, everything we do and everywhere we go is exponentially more expensive. We have planned a nice simple little ski trip. We got a good deal on a house and are sharing expenses with other people. However even with that, I am staring at almost $1000. Yikes!

Makes me wonder how the Duggars do it?