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

We went skiing for the every first time today! Grandma got Colin and CJ season passes to Sierra. It’s gonna be a ski filled year as long as we don’t get any pineapple express rainstorms that wipe out the 10′ of snow that has piled up in the last week.

I plucked the boys out of school at 11AM and we were in the lift line by 12:30. Luckily, there really wasn’t any lift line. We zipped right on. My goal was to get down the mountain three times. The first trip down, it kinda looked like I may not achieve my goal since it was two on one, me trying to teach them both to ski. It wasn’t going well.

Then I finally took their poles away and it went WAY better from there. Skis and poles were just too much for them to worry about. Once the poles were out of the equation we only had to worry about skis. I ditched the poles by the lodge and we all three skied without. The first few trips down they both clung to me and I skied while they got the feel of it. It’s kinda hard to ski with a 53 pound weight on your right leg and a 63 pound weight on your left leg! This is what it looked like:

After awhile CJ got a little more confident and stopped clinging to me. He didn’t make it down the hill ever without a few good falls but he made some wonderful progress. I think we got about 9 runs in. I quit counting at 7 and I think we had two more after that. Colin hung on to me all day and that was fine. He says he isn’t going to try to ski by himself until he is six, but I have a feeling I will be skiing with just my own weight to worry about by the time we finish our next day… which is likely to be next Sunday.

Colin was a stowaway at this years Cub Scout Day Camp. I was a problem parent. Who ever heard of a cub scout day camp where younger siblings weren’t allowed to attend when accompanied by a parent? Apparently, you are supposed to find day care for siblings now while you bring your cub scout aged kids to camp. Well, I didn’t follow the rules when I was in scouts and I’m not following them now!!!

This is Colin after a couple days as a stowaway at Cub Scout Day Camp. He had just finished shooting a bow and arrow and was waiting to shoot a BB Gun. Luckily, he’s big for his age, but man he got tired!

I still take a lot of pictures with my film camera and I finally took the film in from some of our escapades earlier this summer. Here is a picture I took of a bunch of gangsters at Cub Scout Day Camp:

Didn’t you hate getting your picture taken by your mom in front of your friends on the first day of school?

Don’t try to see how far you can ride your bike with your eyes closed, ever.

CJ got his Bobcat badge at the cub scout pack meeting last week.

And Colin enjoyed the cake.

We had our first Cub Scout Pack Meeting this past Wednesday evening. CJ was floating on air he was so excited about it. In this photo, the Tiger den is about to receive their first award ever.

Nothing like turning seven! Although I think it was eight years old to join cub scouts 30 years ago, everything is getting pushed down in age it seems. Back in the day, you could become a wolf scout at eight years old. Now it’s seven to become a tiger scout.

Something else has changed. Boy Scouts now allow girls in troops where there is no girl scout troop in the area!

This is Colin’s soccer coach having a serious talk with the team!