Duck-Farm

Note: I wrote this as an email and sent it to a couple friends during the time my computer was down. Chronologically, it was written in about the first week of February…

I took Colin and CJ skiing yesterday. Since I am way too tight to pay for lessons when they cost about $100 each, I resolved to teach them myself. So we went skiing a week ago and then we went again yesterday, with me acting as instructor. The first time was a little rough, trying to teach two at one time, but we managed and it was good enough that they were dying to go again.

Yesterday, I set low goals. I told myself if CJ made it all the way down the mountain one time without falling, and Colin even dared to ski a little ways without me holding onto his harness, it would be a successful day. 

CJ made it down without falling on the second run of the day and Colin was skiing completely alone all the way down by himself before lunch. He even made it all the way down a few times without falling.

I don’t think I would have been nearly as successful at teaching them if I wasn’t in such good shape from running. By being in shape, I was able stay on top of the game, keep it positive, and this made it go great.The only problem is now I have to figure out how to factor about one day per week of skiing into my American River 50 Mile Endurance Run training plan!

I figured out a few small “tricks” along the way that seemed to help a lot. If your teaching little kids to ski, let me know and I’ll send you my thoughts.

Back in the day, when I was a young twenty-something with no one but myself to spend money on, I took my vacations in the winter and went skiing somewhere in the world every year. With no idea of what parenthood would be like, I looked forward to skiing with my kids someday. Yesterday, as I stood at the top of the hill and watched them ski all the way down by themselves, I thought that I had arrived.

The plan had come together. It was my best fatherhood day ever.

Computer died… taking the LAST CLASS that I need to finish my degree… training for another 50 miler April 5th… skiing about oncer per week every week since the last post… it all adds up to very little time availabe for posting. But one good thing happened. I got a new camera from my mom for my bithday. It’s so small, smaller than my wallet and it takes pictures at 7+ megapixels!

Here is one:

That’s lake Tahoe in the background. We are on the porch at the lodge at the top of Sierra Ski Resort.

Here is another:

Getting these guys ready for skiing usually takes me about 30 minutes in the parking lot. But what is the trade-off? Them being old enough to get all that stuff on themselves? When that happens, they probably won’t want to ski with me anymore!

Here are a couple more photos from the new camera. I liked these a little larger so I couldn’t bring them into the blog without screwing up the whole page. You have to click to see them separately:

Pict 1

Pict 2  (This was the coldest day these two guys have ever seen….)

Pict 3