skiing

We have traded our warm winters at the beach and pool for two feet of snow in our yard and we are still adjusting. Apparently in Switzerland it's normal for kids to start skiing as soon as they are walking. We decided to play along with the local culture and rented skis for our older three kids for the season. Thinking taking the older three skiing would be as easy as taking myself skiing was a teenager, I pushed Rocky out the door for their first ski day and let the peace and quiet sink in. It was blissful. 

Despite Eliot's disgust, they were all put together in the Kinder class. The resort by our house has a small hill with a slope of about 15 degrees and a treadmill (also called a magic carpet) that takes kids back up after they have skied down what is essentially a flat plain. Here Winston was in his element. Not strong enough to do anything with his tiny skis other than position them straight down, but also not heavy enough to go very fast. (Also, stubborn enough not to let any teacher help him but not quite capable to do it on his own.) I think he reached his full three year old potential in his first class. Apparently he felt the same way because when Rocky took him again a few days later, he retired from skiing (which puts mildly what happened). 

                                           

 Apparently this was one of his happier moments. I was also sent several short videos throughout the day of him crying while face planting into the snow (possibly purposefully as this is what he does as soon as he walks out to play in the snow).

Violet has Wednesday off school, so the next Wednesday, I snuck away with these two while Oscar napped. My goal was to get Winston excited about skiing again. We went up to the top and just played around on the kinder hill for an hour and then went home again.

 I think it worked for him, but it made me realize how much work it is to get the kids outfitted in pants, helmet, coats, gloves, boots and then take them all back off once the realize they need to pee 30 seconds after you have finished dressing them. I've happily conceded ski parent to Rocky.

The next week when Rocky asked the kids who wanted to go skiing and Winston said he wanted to stay home, I let him. He happily played all day in his tractor pajamas and fell asleep watching German cartoons.

 Meanwhile, Violet and Eliot did fantastic and skied through a blizzard (ten centimeters of fresh snow fell while they were skiing) and Violet was given the nickname of "the rocket" which really suits her quite well. Here's to hoping for more snow and more skiing and maybe Winston joining in again.