It’s been a while since I’ve posted, and I have a lot of updates, but I figured I’d jump right back in first with a recap of Andrea’s first ski trip!

We just returned home from a fun ski vacation in Park City, Utah, where my parents live. We thought this would be a good year to get Andrea on skis for the first time. We signed her up for a private ski lesson at Deer Valley the first day. We went first thing and got her rental gear, then I took her down the child care area, where the kids play while they’re not in their lesson. Her equipment was just about the smallest they make – it was so adorable! (For my records, her boots were 16.5 and skis were 70’s.)

We had been talking about skiing a lot in the week leading up to our trip, and watching YouTube videos of kids skiing, and she was really excited, but I was still a little nervous that she would get scared at the moment it was finally time for the lesson. But she did FABULOUS!!! She was eager to get her skis on and head up the “magic carpet” (a conveyor belt type of lift for small training hills). The first time down the little training hill, the instructor just pointed Andrea’s skis down the hill and Andrea skied right to her! I was so impressed.

We got some video of her first run down the hill, and a couple of other runs from her lesson.

Even though she was having a blast, she was done after 45 minutes of skiing. I think she was just getting hungry and tired, since it was noon and we flew in late the night before. She had already learned how to ride the magic carpet, do a good “pizza”, and even stop on her own, so we considered it a success for her first day. Once we knew she was really going to ski, we went ahead and bought her her own helmet. She’ll be able to wear that for years, so it’s cheaper than renting, plus she LOVES her pink helmet. 🙂

The next day, we took her up to the trainer hill at Park City Mountain Resort with Granddad and Aunt Alicia. It was warm, so she didn’t even need her coat. She got better at starting and stopping on her own, and every time she would stop, she’s bend over and draw a line in the snow between her skis to make her pizza shape into an “A”. She also loved falling down on her bottom after she stopped. Silly girl! Before she was done for the day, I told her to try just slowing down and speeding back up by making bigger and smaller “pizzas” instead of stopping all the way. She started doing that and then it was like it just clicked and she was really at ease on her skis.

For her third day of skiing, I took her back up to Park City Mountain Resort, and she rode the “magic carpet” all by herself. She saw another little girl go up without a parent, so she didn’t want me to go up with her either. Little miss independent!  After a little while, we were joined by her Daddy, Uncle Thor, Aunt Alicia, and my cousin. After Andrea showed Daddy how to do the magic carpet, we thought we’d try Andrea’s first chair lift, aptly named, “First Time”. Uncle Thor and Daddy went with Andrea, with Aunt Alicia and my cousin right behind them. They lifted her up onto the chair and went up the lift, with her smiling all the way. She skied down the ramp at the top of the lift, and then without hesitation went right down her first real ski run. I wasn’t skiing, so I waited toward the bottom with the camera. When I saw her, she was cruising down the hill without hesitation. My cousin was skiing in between her and the edge of the run, blocking so she wouldn’t accidentally go over the edge, and Uncle Thor and Daddy were skiing backwards in front of her and she looked just as happy as could be.

She was tired after three days of skiing, even though it was only an hour or so each day, so we took the last day off to just play at Grandma’s house. But Andrea is already excited about skiing again next year!