Henry and Eleanor took a spring break trip out to Aspen for some skiing. They are really at different levels now, so we decided to put them in separate classes at ski school. Eleanor was pretty bummed at first that she wouldn’t be with Henry, but after the first day she was really excited about the new skills she was learning and the new runs she was exploring. By the third day, she wanted to take Mom and Dad up the chairlift after class and lead us back down the mountain. Henry was progressing really well also, so the whole family headed up the chairlift. Eleanor took us down the mountain like a champ, but it was still a bit much for Henry, and it took both Mom and Dad working together to help get him down the trail. By the end of the next day, Henry had been up the lift with his class, so we decided to try it again. The difference in Henry’s confidence just from that additional day was incredible, he was now working his way down the slope unassisted. Eleanor was leading us a “new way” down, which was working great until Henry missed a turn, went over a crest and started careening down a blue run. By the time Dad caught up and started down, Henry was half way to the bottom in a “super pizza” wedge formation. He scared Mom and Dad half to death, but managed to make it down the run without falling and came to a stop at the bottom. When Dad caught up to him, he seemed unconcerned with what had happened, and was ready to continue down the run. Dad wasn’t quite as sure, and kept a close rein on him the rest of the way down. All in all, it was a very successful trip, and both kids really improved their skiing ability. One funny story – this year we rented a place on the mountain, so that we could ski right from our unit down to the bottom of the ski lift. We decided to give this a try the third day since we were skiing with the kids at the end anyway, and it worked out great. However, in the morning, Eleanor said she was “Really embarrassed” to ski down to the lift – I think she thought that we were breaking the rules! We didn’t hit the town as much as we have in past years, mostly because the kids were pretty wiped out after a full day of skiing, so we didn’t make it to many of our favorite eateries – Little Annie, Jimmy’s or Woody Creek Tavern, but we did manage to stop in at Asie for some yummy Chinese. Oh yeah, and Eleanor lost another tooth! Luck for Mom and Dad, she was content to wait until we got home to put it out for the Tooth Fairy.
