We played hookey today and went skiing.
J has been having a bit of a rough time lately, feeling a little like he isn’t getting enough attention. Add to that the fact that his teacher retired at Christmas and J didn’t get to say good-bye because he was sick and he now has a new teacher who doesn’t know him. I wanted to do something just for him.
His best buddy at school’s Mom and I had been talking about taking the kids out of school one day so J could try out skiing when a Saturday full of people weren’t around to intimidate him. Knowing that a huge Winter storm was heading out way and that today was going to be relatively warm and enjoyable we kept them home from school, packed up some lunches and away we went.
J did awesome. We tried to go up the baby hill using a tow rope, but J couldn’t grab hold of is so we headed straight for the chair lift. A little difficulty getting off (they had to stop the lift so I could get off after throwing J off) we started down the hill. My neck is feeling the fact that J wasn’t standing up and counting on me to hold him, but by the time we got to the bottom we were getting the hang of it. Sorry, I should say that since it was his first time, I had to go down the hill without poles in the snowplow position (which they now call the pizza) standing directly behind J and holding him under his arms and guide him down the hill. It was tough. After that run, his helmet was bothering him, so he and his Buddy took a break and played on a little hill, without skiis, while I and his Mom took turns going down the hill a couple of times.
We went back up for another run and he did marvelous. The lift guy saw my wave and slowed down the lift so we could get off easier. And J was doing so well standing that I was able to let go of him for a minute so he could feel what it was like to glide on his own. Then at the bottom, I straightened our skis and crouched down so we could bomb the end. He loved it! He even asked Hubby if we could go again tomorrow with him. Which of course would be nice, but we can’t skip another day of school and it is going to be -30C (-22F) tonight so there will be no skiing for a few days. That and Hubby has to work. At least we know he loved it though. And since I haven’t been on my skis in nine years, I loved it too!
