Skiing with Shane

Well I did not get to my declutter checklist today, which is why we will always have clutter, but it was for good reason. We woke up to fresh snow and it was Toyota ski free day, so who can turn down free skiing on fresh powder. Not this girl!!! So Brian left me his Toyota truck and he suffered through a day in the minivan. I had already anticipated skiing, even with Shane's cough, so I asked Tina to come watch Myann and Anders. Don't even get me started on their no advance reservations for kids private lessons. Not sure the reason, but I tried to explain that a 3 yr old would not understand why he couldn't ski once we got to the mountain and were dressed and ready to go. Fortunately, when we arrived at Mt. Spokane, they still had instructors available. It would not have been pretty if I had to teach Shane myself, since skiing backwards is not something I do intentionally. Shane's instructor was Kara, cute as could be and great with Shane. As much as I wanted to stay and watch, I knew that I needed to walk away and Kara even advised that it was best I walk away. So off I went to ski by myself. Mind you, I took pictures from afar and if I passed them on the lift I admired and did more photographing. Now I know how the paparazzi feel. After watching them practice at the base for 10 minutes, I saw Kara take Shane on to the lift. He was super excited since he had been asking to ride the chair since we got there. He fell getting off, don't we all at one point or another, got back up and off he went. I then left the area to do some runs out of sight range so I could see his improvement by the end of the lesson. As I skied off, I heard Kara say, "Shane, you just want to eat all the snow." That is so my child, I literally have to drag Shane off the ground sometimes because he eats the snow, dirt and all. We are working on teaching Shane the difference between fresh snow and dirty snow, but unless it is black snow, Shane thinks it is edible.








While on my own, I did my first jump, not intentional, I was busy chatting with the kid next to me and forgot to get off the lift when we reached the top. By the time I realized I was back off the ground and jumped off, 2 feet from the air, but I landed on my feet and didn't fall. After that I was feeling pretty skilled and went on to have a great time skiing. I caught up with Shane on his last run down Ego Flats (the easy green) and he was doing it, with Kara's help of course, but he could stay up for a bit before falling over. Turns out his snow eating proved helpful. Kara said as long as he ate the snow he relaxed and didn't go too wide and would follow her lead of making "small pizzas". So every time he fell she told him to grab a handful of snow. Apparently Shane had a good day, because when it was over he told me he wanted to practice again tomorrow at our house. Too bad our snow has almost all melted.

Mommy and Shane at the end of his lesson


On Anders news, he has slept 7-8 hours almost every night this week. I am lovin life. I had an awesome workout with my trainer Thursday. I told him that I felt really good because I had 6 hours of straight sleep the night before and had coffee, so I was feeling great. He said he would need coffee too if he had only had 6 hours sleep. I told him he missed the point, I felt good because I had 6 hours sleep, the coffee was just bonus. Oh, the naivety of a man without children.

Myann continues to be my love bug, tonight she insisted she eat dinner while sitting in my lap. Then she had to eat my salad. I realized too late that I was feeding her with my fork - I am sure to get her cough now. But, if a cough is the price I have to pay for extra Myann snuggling, I'll pay it.