Skiing With Gram, Grampy, and Aunts, Too

I've been spending too much time on the ski trails and too little time writing of late. I can think of worse problems. I did send off a handy little fit family list to the Oprah magazine before skiing yesterday, so that counted as a work day. My one day with both kids in school is my writing day so I wrote a cover letter and took a detour to the post office before hitting the trails at Trapps.

But what I've really meant to report was a chance to have the girls ski with their Grammy, Grampy and aunts. It was not a long affair, but we did some laps in the field and then my mom got to see the girls whiz downhill on their skinny skis and see them laugh upon crashing at the bottom. That was part of my mom's birthday present. At age 77, she doesn't need any more knick knacks, but time skiing with the grandkids, that's a good gift.

My husband took a Flip video of the extended family ski, but my old computer doesn't have that new software. Here's a shot from the back before Julia dropped the rope.

More updates on our three-year-old's ski progress to come soon!

Partied Out

I'm still recovering from hosting my daughter's birthday party on the weekend, but I'm proud to say that we pulled off a good one. I actually made the cake this year, searching far for pink food coloring for the requested pink frosting. I set up crafts at a separate table from the cake table so I didn't have to madly clean up foam stickers and candy necklace pieces before serving food, and my husband hung the pinata in the basement this year since the bike stand in the living room proved unsuccessful last year and a brave father had to hold the pinata for the last few whacks. (It was a drop-off party this year so Tom knew he'd be the one holding the pinata, if necessary, and some of these five and six year olds have gotten strong!)

So, what is the "Fit Family" element of this posting? The baseball bat swinging doesn't qualify, some of the crazy running through the house might, but thankfully we all got out sledding as the sun came out on an otherwise cold January day. Yes, you get a free ride down the hill, but hoofing it back up time and time again is a decent winter workout and a great way to warm up.

In an effort to cut down on collisions and keep kids from having to wait around for a turn, we brought out an old, foldable toboggan for the party. My husband managed to hold back the sled while getting 8 kids loaded. Impressive.

What a ride!

(For the kids and the parents behind the scene.)

Family Ski (All Four of Us)

We had the best New Year's Day that I can remember thanks to our three-year-old's suggestion of a family ski. So far this ski season, we have been splitting up: Mommy skis with Ava for an hour and Daddy "skis" with Julia for about 15 minutes as she loses interest quickly.

Give a little sister her big sister as a companion and BINGO, there's some motivation. Thankfully, on our New Year's outing, big sister Ava was encouraging and patient and got Julia excited for the ski. Tom used his rope tow contraption to pull Julia along. (For Ava, we only used this device on the steep uphills, but Julia needed a little more motivation.)

We had a family train going along the tracks with Ava in the lead, then Tom with Julia in tow, and I was the caboose. We actually made it around a 2K loop and Julia didn't want the tow near the end. She zoomed down a hill near the end and stayed upright for quite a while, enjoying the thrill of the downhill like her big sister.

Best yet, the girls wanted to go back out after lunch and Julia got some good kicking and gliding going on her own initiative. We're hopeful that many more family skis will follow this breakthrough.