Finally Skiing!

We finally took our first ski trip! We've been talking about going all winter but never made it until now. Tim got home from California early Friday morning (he took the red eye from CA). David had the day off from school, and Jamie and Rachel both had half days for Good Friday. We decided to go up to Sunapee in New Hampshire on the recommendation of some sloan friends with kids. We ate dinner at a Cracker Barrel. Yum!! We haven't had Cracker Barrel since last fall. We stayed at a hotel with a pool, so we checked in and suited up. The kids had a great time in the water!! Tim got a kick out of stepping out and getting a snowball to throw at the kids in the pool. :-)

The next morning, we got up, ate breakfast, and boarded the shuttle to Mt. Sunapee. David stayed in the daycare center because the youngest lesson age for skiing is 4. He went right in without even a backward glance at mommy.

Tim, Jamie, Rachel, and I headed over to the rental area to get registered for lessons and fitted with equipment. The whole process took over an hour!! We had fabulous help from several of the staff members who took pity on the first timers from Alabama. Then we were ready to head to the beginner area for our lesson. We signed up for the "Families First" program, so the four of us had an instructor to ourselves for a 2 hour lesson. It went really well. Tim had been skiing before, so he had a head start on the rest of us. Rachel picked it up like a pro. Jamie and I had the toughest time. We both did fine in the beginning. (Actually, keeping the skis under me wasn't as tricky as I had feared it would be.) Our trouble came when we went uphill a bit and were working on snowplowing to stop and then turning. That's when the majority of our falling began. I did ok snowplowing on a small incline (when I wasn't going too fast), but I had a tough time when my speed picked up! My ballet trained legs really had a tough time turning in rather than out!! Jamie couldn't get his skis turned out enough either. I did ok with turns to the right, but for some reason, I never mastered turning left. I fell almost every time I tried! By the end of the lesson, we were exhausted and HOT. We were way overdressed for the day, but we didn't know any better. The last part of our lesson was learning to use one of the lifts for the smallest of the hills (Lemon and Lime). This lift was like a moving sidewalk, rather than a chair lift. We went down a couple of times, and then called it quits. We went to grab some lunch, and after that felt energized enough to go try again for another hour. By the end of the day, everyone was happy with the whole experience. I look forward to giving it another try sometime. Maybe we'll get one more chance this winter. It has been an exceptionally good year for snow here in New England.

We came on home on Saturday night because the kids wanted to spend Easter at home.