Snow Day!!

WE had a snow day Monday!! (yes, it's still southern California)...

I took Sarah & Em out of school and we went skiing (yes WE).  Sunday was somewhat stormy, and I looked up at the local mountain area...I've been here long enough to predict the weather more nearly accurately than the so-called "meteorologists" or weather people. 

I just knew it would be a beautiful day to ski on Monday, so I decided that we'd go up and have a go.

What a GORGEOUS DAY!!  Blue skies--really blue, not filtered by haze--49° F; white white snow--of course it's western Sierra cement, (granulated ice on top of ice), but by our standards, pretty good snow! No lines, only a very few obnoxious snowboarders -- why weren't they at school, anyway? 8^) --just beautiful.

It was so much fun!!! I provided the girls with plenty of entertainment, and gave myself lots of bruises. I've been skiing for more than half my life, but my brain misfired many times (like forgetting to buckle my boots and falling all the way down the bunny slope--shame on me!), and my falls aren't necessarily graceful.

Now, I'm bruised everywhere--both my knees, both hips, my waist, my arms, my shins. It's one time I'm glad to have a lot of fat on my derriěr, tho--no bruises there!  I had to stop half-way down one hill--Emily persuaded me to go to the top of the mountain with her--my knees gave out--they and my thighs hurt so much I purposely fell in order to get a rest. I did make it down the hill, but my old body strongly showed her anger at my youthful mind!

During all of this Sarah was in a class. She (to me, anyway) is poetry in motion on the slopes.  It gives me great happiness to see her do so well in my favorite sport. She finished and had lunch with us and said she was pretty tired. She got lucky; Sarah was one of only three students in Ski School that day, loved her instructor, and he really worked them--she learned parallel turns, and it looked so beautiful when she turned that way. At lunch time she told me with a big smile, "Mom, I love skiing."

Emily was "with" me while Sarah attended ski school.  She didn't want to take a class. She said "It's boring--I have to wait all the time while everyone else in class learns stuff."  So, she and I went off together. I fell and she skied. That was when she "persuaded" me to go with her to the top of the mountain. Yes, they were all fairly easy runs; but that was the hill where my knees quit working. When I got up, she had already got on the lift again BY HERSELF!! I watched her for as far as I could, then had to trust she'd be ok...

When Emily skis, the term "hot dogger" comes to mind.  She just goes and goes (o.k., Energizer Bunny, too). No poles, just skis.  She is so good already; it makes me wish I had learned when I was four! That's when she started.  Em amazes me with her talent for taking on new things, learning them quickly and then making them her own.  She looks way cool on the slopes, too I have added a picture to our group photos so you can see her...I took it with my phone cam so it's not one of my more focused ones, but you can see what a gorgeous day it was and how the girls had fun there.

After lunch, we went back out there, the three of us, and skied some more. I knew I needed to go up again; I had taken a very bad fall--one that even made me cry just before lunchtime.  I slid face first into a cordoned off area twisting to miss it, but then bouncing off one of the posts at my waist just after hitting my head.  I just now realized, I started off falling on my back (when I hit my head), and ended up on my front, when I hit the posts at my waist.  If I didn't go back up after lunch, I would most likely never ski again. I didn't want that to happen; besides, we're trying to make our way up to Colorado to ski on real snow for Spring Break in March. I want to go to Steamboat Springs--that may turn out to be a little too pricey, but I love their ski school for kids--it's called Billy Kidd Ski School. He's a former Olympic skier, and watching the kids after they've gone through that course, you just know they'll love skiing forever.

So, the afternoon was terrific--they both ski faster than I do, and it was so much fun watching them slide away down the hill. I wasn't far behind them, but we skied about 5 more runs and called it a day. The girls got to see my most entertaining fall ever, too!  I started to fall, my skis went into a backward wedge, I slid backward, bent forward, tried to stop, tried not to fall, slid this way for quite awhile, was glad Sarah's cel phone didn't have camera abilities, and finally let go and fell, laughing hysterically.  It must have looked really hilarious.

We got home in time for dinner, baths and bed. Em was exhausted. She fell asleep on the couch right after dinner.

Boy, oh, boy do I love skiing! Even with all my bruises, it was a great day!