A Fabulous Saturday!

My grandparents skiied.  Both of my parents skiied.  The loved it so much they became ski instructors and taught me to ski for the first time when I was 2.5 years old.  I then went on to teach skiing for a few years after high school, before I decided it was time to grow up and go to college.  Later I met Spencer and forced him into skiing!

As soon as we moved back to Utah a few years ago we taught each of our kids how to ski, hoping they would come to love it as much as we do.  I am really lucky in that Spencer loves it more than I do and is always trying to get me up the mountain.  And when he gets me up there, I fall in love with the mountains, the sport and my family all over again.

Such was our last Saturday.  It was a gorgeous, sunny day with fabulous snow conditions and we were all able to go (though Sydney did not ski due to hurt arm).   It was so exciting to see Hayden go from skiing with a hoop to graduating from that thing!

 

It is a great invention, but now we don't have to lug it around any more.  It's found a new home with a new family and we get to ski with a very steady, independant skiier.  Wahooo!

It was sweet to watch Elle and Spencer ski off in utter happiness while I skiied with Hayden.  We missed having Sydney on the slopes with us, but she read her book on the deck of the lodge and waited patiently.

It was a lovely day for us.  I hope that by taking photos and recording these experiences my kids will remember the sweet times in our lives.  I hope that they will in turn teach their children to love skiing and the mountains and their family.

I hope they'll find that skiing is one of their "Happy Places" too, as this is a tradition I hope will be passed down for many generations.

 

  Oh, but then there's one more photo to post.  Should I post it or not?  Hmmmm....do I really want to remember this event?  We sure got a laugh out of it.

Yep, I'll post the naughtiness and sweetness of our son.

After two runs Hayden decided he was done and wanted to go sit with Sydney on the deck.  So after everyone was situated I left to take one more quick run, hoping to meet up with Spencer and Elle.  I never did see them.  But when I returned to Hayden and Sydney I hollered up to them.  Then a man stood up and asked me, "Are these your children?"

Whoops.  A flood of thoughts went through my mind.  Complaint or compliment?

Complaint.  

Apparently our son has a very good aim.  So good that he was able to aim and throw a chunck of ice into someone's beer pitcher.

"I'll be right up," I said.

On my way up the stairs I remembering thinking "I wonder how much a pitcher of beer costs?"  I soon found out that it costs $18.00. 

Now here's the part that is the sweetest and I want to remember.  Hayden was embarassed and hesitant to apologize to this man.  He was an older man, probably mid-50's, but it was apparent that he had never had children nor did he spend much time around them.  A very no nonsense attitude.  But this man was very patient in waiting for Hayden to get up the nerve to apologize.

When Hayden did apologize, he looked up at the man, met his eyes and quietly mumbled "I'm sorry."  Then Hayden unexpectedly lunged at the man and threw his arms around his waist and gave him as big of a hug as his four year old arms could.  The man's expression was priceless!  Shocked would be an understatement.  His two compainions burst out in laughter and then the man smiled, reached down and gave Hayden an awkward hug.  The man really didn't know what to do or say.

My heart was proud of my son.

Just before we left another observer came by, knocked knuckles with Hayden and told him, "I expect to see you in the Leagues or the NFL someday.  You've got a good aim."

That memory cost $18.00, but lessons were learned and our family has a funny memory of the one and only pitcher of beer Mom ever bought.