Flashback to younger days.
Jan. 25th, 2003 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penkSo, today Zach and I went skiing with Don (Cat's dad). He (Don) had never been skiing before, and Zach had never done anything more than let me tow him up the hill and then ski down again (me jsut walking).
Couple things worth noting:
First - WHAT A PAIN IN THE ASS! I have these long fond memories of going up to the ski house on friday nights, getting up and going skiing saturdya and sunday, and coming home Sunday night. Somtimes with my sister, but mostly just me and my parents, and other families up there as well. What I -don't- remember was the parental frustration of getting all the CRUD together needed.
Take one 4yr old boy, and say "Lets go somewhere". The normal sequence is shoes on, jacket on, get into the car, and go.
Now say "Lets go skiing!" - start with the basic formula (above), and add in gloves, warm hat, extra layers of clothes, boots, skis, ski poles, socks - add on money for the tickets, and your -own- gloves, hat, warm clothes, layers, etc... and you've upped the complexity of the departure by an order of magnitude.
But, we did get out of the house only 15 minutes late, and got to the mountain by 9:15.
Now, this ain't a big mountain. Nashoba valley is about 1/3 the size of the places I did most of my skiing (Jiminy Peak in western mass) - but it was fine for teaching Don and Zach how to ski.
Zach, the sunshine of my life, is a natural 4yr old skiier. Gets to the top of the hill, turns, points downhill, and _ZOOOM!_. Remember these kids? There would be showers of ski poles piling after them not only from the people they mowed over, but from other adults who were jealous at how this little 45 inch tall creature could just ZIP down the hill without so much as a wobble.
At any rate, my young prodigy has mastered rope tows, and getting his skis back on (most of the time) when he flops. He can go a full route up the rope tow and back down to me without me ushering him along, though if someone falls on the ropetow in front of him, he can get a little spooked.
Another tidbit I dont' remember. Since when are ropetows so hard on the hands? First time I went up i was like "YEGODS this is a pain!" - then i realized I was dangling 240lbs off those wrists rather than the 100 or that I had on me the -last- time I did a rope tow (like, 1975?)
Anyway. Don did great too - I must admit it was amusing to me seeing my over-achiever father in law completely out of his element and in gorilla mode on the slopes. We skied all morning (9:30 til about 1:15) - Don left around noon - he's got the basics down, is comfy on the rope tow (He's a waterskiing nut, so the rope tow was the -easy- part for him), so next time we'll probably be up on the lifts.
I am -wiped out-. Thank goodness Rosa helped and took the boy shopping - I took a nice long 2 1/2 hour nap (is there anything more pleasant than naps?) and feel almost human, but here it is 10:30pm, and I'm already tired again. SORE LEGS too!
Off to lounge in bed and get some more sleep. Zach fell asleep around 8:45 or so (didn't take much nudging - even with the intense ski day, he didn't take a nap. I spect he'll sleep pretty hard tonight :)
Couple things worth noting:
First - WHAT A PAIN IN THE ASS! I have these long fond memories of going up to the ski house on friday nights, getting up and going skiing saturdya and sunday, and coming home Sunday night. Somtimes with my sister, but mostly just me and my parents, and other families up there as well. What I -don't- remember was the parental frustration of getting all the CRUD together needed.
Take one 4yr old boy, and say "Lets go somewhere". The normal sequence is shoes on, jacket on, get into the car, and go.
Now say "Lets go skiing!" - start with the basic formula (above), and add in gloves, warm hat, extra layers of clothes, boots, skis, ski poles, socks - add on money for the tickets, and your -own- gloves, hat, warm clothes, layers, etc... and you've upped the complexity of the departure by an order of magnitude.
But, we did get out of the house only 15 minutes late, and got to the mountain by 9:15.
Now, this ain't a big mountain. Nashoba valley is about 1/3 the size of the places I did most of my skiing (Jiminy Peak in western mass) - but it was fine for teaching Don and Zach how to ski.
Zach, the sunshine of my life, is a natural 4yr old skiier. Gets to the top of the hill, turns, points downhill, and _ZOOOM!_. Remember these kids? There would be showers of ski poles piling after them not only from the people they mowed over, but from other adults who were jealous at how this little 45 inch tall creature could just ZIP down the hill without so much as a wobble.
At any rate, my young prodigy has mastered rope tows, and getting his skis back on (most of the time) when he flops. He can go a full route up the rope tow and back down to me without me ushering him along, though if someone falls on the ropetow in front of him, he can get a little spooked.
Another tidbit I dont' remember. Since when are ropetows so hard on the hands? First time I went up i was like "YEGODS this is a pain!" - then i realized I was dangling 240lbs off those wrists rather than the 100 or that I had on me the -last- time I did a rope tow (like, 1975?)
Anyway. Don did great too - I must admit it was amusing to me seeing my over-achiever father in law completely out of his element and in gorilla mode on the slopes. We skied all morning (9:30 til about 1:15) - Don left around noon - he's got the basics down, is comfy on the rope tow (He's a waterskiing nut, so the rope tow was the -easy- part for him), so next time we'll probably be up on the lifts.
I am -wiped out-. Thank goodness Rosa helped and took the boy shopping - I took a nice long 2 1/2 hour nap (is there anything more pleasant than naps?) and feel almost human, but here it is 10:30pm, and I'm already tired again. SORE LEGS too!
Off to lounge in bed and get some more sleep. Zach fell asleep around 8:45 or so (didn't take much nudging - even with the intense ski day, he didn't take a nap. I spect he'll sleep pretty hard tonight :)
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rope tow
So I never have! I think they suck. Don't bother if you can!
sista sah
no subject
Date: 2003-01-26 01:30 pm (UTC)Kids have low centers of gravity and not very far to fall, which makes them natural skiers. But it sounds like Zach was more natural than most. :-)
ski times
Remember very clearly Milly, Frankie's first wife, sitting in the lodge knitting (she didn't ski at all). Was asked what she was knittting as we all took off for the slopes. She said she hadn't decided yet. Noon- her youngest son came in without his hat - voila, the knitting became a hat for him!!!.
Kids were regularly smacked on the head with empty gloves for leaving skis, poles, ANYTHING, in a tangle. Somehow, we all made it to the mountain, skied all day (taking out time to get pretty soused at lunch), back to whatever house we had that season, someone always made dinner, someone always cleaned up. One way or another it always worked.
Do you remember one year when we had a house next to Eugene and would go over there a lot. He (Gene) wasn't that thrilled to have kids around ever. There was green carpeting in the living room. That was declared adult only space. No kid was allowed to be on the green - you all had to stay in the dining area.
So many memories!
And now you are continuing the tradition! Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mom