Skiing

So Isabella officially skis now, all on her own down the bunny slope. We had two more trips in April. The first trip we went out together for a couple afternoons. We started with the magic carpet at the base of the Nevada side. I spent most of the time running after her holding onto the back of her jacket - one of those jackets with a handle would have been Real Nice. One of the instructors very kindly gave *me* instructions on what to do, like play red-light green-light. It was a bit icy, but not too bad. We had a long stop for hot chocolate (well, luke-warm chocolate) and would have been all fine except for her last run. I wasn't able to keep up and she headed straight for a little boy and his parents. In their efforts to keep her from crashing into him, they essentially clothes-lined Isabella, knocking her back on her head.

Despite this, the next day we went up on the Gondola. We did the Big magic carpet (the same one we used for inner tubing). She started going fast enough that I had to put my snow board on. I would either hold her hand and go backwards, or go down a ways and have her ski towards me. The exit was a bit dicey - a big left turn into a narrow shoot - but she nailed it every time.

After hot chocolate (and some Hershy's Kisses from someone who works there) we went over to the green chair. They slowed the chair down and helped me lift her on. We did several runs with me essentially going backwards while trying to hold her hand. I only ran over her once. She did, towards the end, start demanding going on her own.

Our snowboarding was medium successful. I did a half day which was fun (the boys let me follow them down Firebreak, with many somersaults on my part). But Bill Went The Wrong Way and ended up spending most of his half day walking out. And tweaked his back in the process.

(We don't have any actual pictures of her skiing of course - these are all from her lesson.)

We returned again the last week they were open. This time Bill and I had a grand time snowboarding together while Isabella was in ski school and Ian in day care. Isabella did Awesome, following the instructor down the bunny hill off the chair. Poor thing, though, smacked her head on a bench running around *after* skiing.

I took Isabella out the following day to the California side. Where she proceeded to ski from 10:00am until they threw us out, with one short break for lunch. The conditions were great - slushy, with some fresh snow, so she had lots of traction. Towards the end of the day she was actually aiming for the piles of snow so she could bounce over them.

We did the bunny lift (one of those chairs that doesn't slow down, so a bit challenging to get her on and off) so many times the lift operators got to know us. And we started recognizing the chairs (someone had drawn pictures on some of them). We were over the snow park, which, for once, was packed. I saw 5 back flips on our lift rides.

We made the mistake of trying to go through the snow park - just a bit too crowded to make me feel safe taking Isabella through. The end was a long, steep run under a chair. I was a little worried about Isabella - she ended up going pretty fast - but she did so well she got a cheer from one of the guys on the chair lift overhead.

The only tears we had were the wet snow/ice blowing in her face and one splat face-first in the snow. When asked what she wanted to do, the most common answer was "Go Fast!".