Hitting the Slopes

It's amazing to me where the time goes. I have done a pretty good job of keeping this blog up to date for the past 9 years or so. I don't post everything, but I tried to stay caught up with posting the important stuff. The stuff I wanted to remember. The stuff that we might look back on 20 or 30 years from now and be glad we wrote it down. Then I stopped. Did I just get too busy? Did I lose interest? Maybe I got so behind that the thought of trying to catch up was too overwhelming. I just know I have missed a lot of important events since my last post. Thanksgiving, Anniversary, Christmas, several birthdays. Then there are other events, such as my precious grandmother passing away, that I still plan on writing about. The truth is, life moves fast and if I really plan on documenting the little and big happenings, and everything in between, I must try harder to stay caught up.

So, I guess it would take a pretty big event to awaken my inner blogger. Today was one of those events, the kind that will bounce around in my memory for years and years. Gina and I took the boys skiing today for the first time. I have skied since I was their age, and it has been one of my favorite activities for many years. I would ski with my dad in elementary school, then in middle and high school I would go with friends and use it as a chance to show off. In college, I quickly found a group of friends to ski with in college, and we would explore a different resort in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming nearly every weekend. I had to get a job just to fund my skiing habit! I moved to Texas after college, but I would still find time to ski over my school breaks. When I lived in Colorado I bought a season pass and went skiing almost every weekend. It was a great diversion from graduate school, but once again, I had to get a part-time job just to pay for the skiing.

Then I stopped going.

After Gina and I were married, we made a couple of ski trips, but once we moved to Virginia we never went. I really had no desire to go, and I didn't really miss it. Then we had twins. Then we moved. Again. And again. And again. Life seemed to be moving at too rapid a pace to stop everything and go skiing. The boys always seemed too young, or it seemed to expensive. There were just so many other things to focus on at the time.

That all changed this year when Gina suggested we come to Casper for Spring Break. I resisted the idea at first because I had become accustomed to using this week to catch up on work and rest. But after some thought, I knew this was the perfect time to take a ski trip with the boys. They have learned everything else quickly, and I assumed they would pick up on skiing just as fast.

After a few days of sledding, snow shoeing and playing in the snow, I knew the boys would love skiing. Just to make sure they got off to a good start, we signed them up for a ski lesson. It was also a great time for Gina and I go exploring a little bit. We checked on them a couple of times, and they seemed to be doing fine. When we reunited with them at lunch, it was hard to read their reaction. They were a little tired and hungry, and I think they envisioned themselves flying down the mountain and jumping off cliffs ... just like on TV.

After lunch we took them back out, and they seemed to do a lot better. They did so well, in fact, that we took them down a REAL slope and they got to ride the chair lift. There was a little drama, but they both made it down and did great on the lift. They even wanted to go back again for another run.

This was such a fun day with Gina and the boys. Everyone had fun, we got to spend a lot of time together, and the boys got to learn something they potentially could enjoy the rest of their lives. We are thankful for such a great day, and we look forward to many more.

https://youtu.be/QtMpDFxpR2M