Ski School

We traveled to Colorado to visit family for Christmas.  One of our 1st activities was going skiing. This was Sawyer's 1st ski experience so we signed him up for ski school at Copper Mountain.

Sawyer all suited up and ready to go

He was super excited to go skiing and readily headed off to class after getting fitted for his rental equipment.

The class stayed inside for a while and learned the basics like how to put on your skis and safety  information. When they first came outside (see picture below) they started very slowly. The teacher pushed them down a very small incline to get a feel for balancing on skis. I covertly sitting pretty close and Sawyer was doing well but I could tell he was getting annoyed at the small hill he could see other children going down down the bunny hill and he wanted to try.

After a few attempts at the incline he seemed to have mastered the incline so the instructor allowed him to try the bunny hill. He proceeded to go up and down this hill over and over again.

practicing snow plowing

riding the magic carpet up the hill

Cousin Noah also joined in on the fun. Noah had been skiing before so unfortunately they couldn't be in the same class, but they were practicing on the same hill all day. By the end of the day Noah was a pro.

Trying out the obstacle course

Sawyer was doing really well. Then I made a mistake…I let him see me. At this point it was very close to lunch time and he was excited to see me, but then he didn't want me to leave. He decided he was done skiing and went to build a snowman :) When the class went in for lunch the instructors had to call me because Sawyer refused to eat and just wanted mommy. I went to the ski school, calmed him down and when I left he seemed ready to go. Well, as they were leaving to go back to the hill Sawyer refused to go so they called again. This time Kyle was with me and he went to get Sawyer. This time Kyle talked Sawyer into giving it another go. Sawyer rejoined his class and continued to ski well down the hill over and over again, but each time he got to the bottom he needed reassurance we were still there.

the big kids skiing 

Riding and dancing on the magic carpet with cousin Noah

By the end of the day he was DONE with ski school. He could see the advanced skiers coming down the mountain and he wanted to try :) He wanted to go fast! So Daddy took him on a bigger bunny hill.

The 1st time down Kyle kept Sawyer between his legs and I could see Sawyer fighting the whole way down. He wanted to do it all by himself (surprise, surprise :)
So the next few times Kyle let go of the reigns and Sawyer did great going down the hill all by himself…well that is until the bottom. He hasn't quite mastered stopping, though be the last time he did remember to slow down and he turned himself around instead of just falling down.

His ski school evaluation said he had good balance and naturally kept his feet shoulder width apart, however they wished he had more fun with the experience.

While there were certainly some trying moments during the day in the end Sawyer said he LOVED his 1st ski experience, especially when he got to go fast with Daddy.

And here is a video of Sawyer and Kyle coming down the hill.

Sawyer ski 2013 from Kristen Schenk on Vimeo.