It's Official, Skiing is our Sport

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that we took the boys for their first downhill skiing experience.

It was all in preparation for a school trip Jack was making.  He was anxious about it and in usual fashion for a kid who is not keen to try new things, he didn't even want to go.

In an attempt to forgo the lifelong commitment to this adage (because are you kidding me? Life is too short not to try new things!), we were making him go.  To ease his fears, we took both boys a couple weeks before the school trip so he would have some experience under his belt. We had a semi-private lesson for an hour and within that hour, both boys were turning nicely.  We skied the rest of the afternoon in the bitter cold and called it a success.

A few weeks later, Jack wanted to go again so we loaded up and headed out. This time we brought one of Jack's friends too.  He had tried snowboarding on the first school trip and wanted to try skiing.  We had about a half hour before the lesson so I took him through the basics and by the time the instructor arrived, all three boys were ready to head up the chair for more of a challenge.

 

Jack and his friend were good to go, no issues.  Kamden gets very nervous when we add a bit of a steeper incline.  He was not impressed with the whole situation.  I believe the words, "I HATE this" were uttered on more than one occasion.  A sport he doesn't like, who knew?

 

 

So we sent Jack and his friend for one more run with the instructor and Kamden went in for a break.  Then we tried again and it was no better.  And finally he had had enough and Jay took him back to the bunny hill while I skied with the older boys off the chair.  We even did a blue run and they both rocked it.

 

 

I am not worried.  He'll get there.  I was the same when I started.  Ornery and mouthy and angry.  I was also five and missing my two front teeth.  My parents laugh about it now (and probably then too - picture a toothless five year old yelling!) but I guess I'll add that to the tab of a million things I owe them for.

 

You know that Joe Pesci Snickers commercial?  That pretty much sums it up, just replace hungry with skiing.

 

 

On Wednesday he went skiing again with the school and came home asking when he could go again.

 

On Saturday we checked out our local ski shop and scored helmets at a steal of a deal.  Jack (and maybe me too) were so excited about the new helmets, we had to head out to the hill Sunday to try them out.  Kamden had soccer and was more than relieved he didn't have to go.  Jack and I headed out for the day.

 

 

We had a great day together.  He tried to pull his stuck in a rut routine (he is by nature, extremly habitual) by doing the one and only green run (it's a small resort) over and over but I wasn't having any of that.  And after one mild protest, he agreed that we would mix it up with a blue run every now and then.  It helped that it was easier to get to the lodge from the blue run than the green run.  

 

He had a smile on the whole day.  My heart was nearly bursting.

 

A sport he likes? That he is already talking about doing again this weekend?

 

We hit the jack pot (pun not originally intended but ha....).

 

I am equally excited.  I am not sure if it's because I have always loved skiing (true story) or because he is so excited about it. I think it's a combination of the two.

 

I was teasing him by asking if I looked like some of the pros we would see from the lift and he was polite but firm, "Mom, you are good, but not that good."

 

Naturally I made him video me so I could see for myself.  He's right.  I am not bad but I am no professional. And my stop made me laugh out loud.  Videos of both myself and Jack are here if you are so inclined.

 

We are scoping out equipment and have booked a hotel near Panorama, BC over New Year's next year. Grams and Pop may even come, it's been years since they skied and it's about time.

 

We are going to be a skiing family! Kamden is overjoyed.

Taking Winter by Storm

We've been busy. Kamden developed a new dance, patent is pending.

And don't worry, neither the floor nor Kamden were injured in the making of this video. Also, this kid, I just can't imagine our family without him.

 

My parents (and their dog, Mika) joined us a couple weekends ago to watch Kamden play in a soccer tournament.  They met the same team in the final as the last tournament but this time, Kamden's team won.  It was, to say the least, very exciting. The parents were, ahem, a little bit excited during all of the games.  The boys played so well and it was a proud moment when they won.

 

And life around here is pretty entertaining on a daily basis (related: I love that I get to work from home and be here for these moments).  This is a snap of the boys antics as they head off to school after lunch one day.



 

 

Pretty much a normal day around here.  Again, I assure you, no one was injured (this time) in the making of the above photos.

 

This past weekend was very exciting for me.  I have hoped for a long time that I could get the boys to strap on the boards and careen down a hill.  Wait, that didn't come out right.  Let me start again.  My parents made me strap them on when I was the ripe old age of 5.

 

Ahem.  That was no better was it?

 

Anyway.  I skied all through my childhood, starting when I was 5.  Living on the Prairies, we had to travel to the Rockies to ski but we did, annually.  I loved it.

 

I have put it off because Jack, well, let's just say trying new things is not an exciting experience.  But he has to go with school in a couple of weeks so... this past weekend, we braved the minus 35 degree Celsius (that is not a typo) temperatures and headed to a hill about 45 min away. It's no mountain but about perfect for beginners.

 



 

I had arranged for the boys to take a lesson as soon as we arrived. I might know how to ski but I was five when I started, I don't remember much about how I learned to ski.  I do remember skiing between my dad's legs and him drawing S's in the snow in the futile effort to get me to turn rather than going straight down (now you see why my dad caged me in!).

 

 

They both caught on very quickly in and in about 5 runs down the bunny hill had mastered the snow plow and were sort of turning.

 

 

And can I just say, T-bars, thank be to heavens they are obsolete.  This magic carpet system is the cats ass.  I cannot tell you how many times I fell off the T-bar making my brother have to also get off because he couldn't leave me behind.  I still owe him for that and about 10,000 other things.

 

 





And Jack, the one who was a bit frighted to try skiing took to it like a fish to water.  He loved it! Being the good mom that I am, I reminded him that I was right about that.  I am mature like that.

 

 Kamden liked it too but the poor kid takes after me and was frozen within a half hour.  We took lots and lots of warm up breaks and after I put those Hot Shot thingys in his ski boots to keep his toes from becoming ice cubes, he was having a blast too.

 

We even went up the chair once but um, that didn't go too well so we stuck to the bunny hill for the rest of the afternoon.

 

I was soooo proud of both of them for trying so hard and braving the ridiculous cold.

 



 

I can't wait to go again and maybe old man winter's fury will be a bit less next time.

Winter Fun

Spontaneous Photography Field Trip

Monday, I took a quick break from work. I fired up the van (it was -25 Celsius, brrr) and took a 30 min trip around the neighborhood.

I took 23 pictures and got these four. Not bad for a half hour and some very cold fingers.

And these are all in colour. Honest. I think that is why we all get so down and out during winter and people put their Christmas lights on right after Halloween (for the record, I think there should be a law - no Christmas lights until Dec 1 - too much of a good thing is too much), we need some colour.

We don't live to far from the city's penitentiary. Don't worry, it's low security. Wait. Maybe that is exactly why you should worry? Gulp.

Anyway this is the road into the lovely place. I think. I turned around right after I took two snaps. It said restricted area, I didn't want to get arrested.

This one emits pure lonliness to me. Haunting. Or maybe I am just reaching....

I often wonder what people think of the winter driving conditions we face daily. I think nothing of driving on a road like this. In fact, I get some kind of weird satisfaction from being able to maintain control of a vehicle on ice, ruts and some combination thereof.

Call in the therapy folks, she has really lost it now.

Embracing (sort of) Winter

It is no secret that I get angry at Old Man winter. Really angry. I mean, look at winter, it's cold, it's stark, it's monochrome when the sun doesn't shine.

It's also really frosty a good portion of the time but I won't complain about that because that is actually really pretty when viewed from the warmth of the house anyway.

But the sun does shine here and when it does, the sky is the bluest of blues. This year we have had much less of that ridiculous kind of cold and more of the foggy, grey sky kind of weather. I won't complain because when it isn't -853 with the windchill you have to just shut it.

We have been doing a lot of skating lately. The boys really love it. I brought my camera along and took advantage of the sun.

We also played tag. Newsflash: it's really hard to play tag in boots when the other three members are on skates. I am smart like that.

I love ice tracings. I love the ramdomness that somehow creates a beautiful pattern in the snow. It also makes me think back to my figure skating days when we still did figures (figure 8's - set circular patterns traced on the ice free hand or foot as the case may be). I loved the precision with with you could do three sets of the same pattern and lay down the 3 tracings within centimeters of each other. It's a lost art and it makes me sad. I spend many an hour practicing in my teen years.

I also love how picking up my camera somehow makes me see things that I wouldn't normally pay attention to.

I won't toast winter (I haven't lost my mind...yet) but I do concede that it has its own special beauty. Mostly when it's over.

Good Old Winter

It's the dead of winter up here in Saskatch-E-WONe (typically how non-Saskatchewanians pronouce it, the proper pronounciation is Sask-ACH-e-wan), which is no surprise to any of you. And the fact that we got dumped on with a good old blizzard this past weekend should also not surprise anyone ('cept those of you from the Southern U.S., y'all ain't never seen the likes of this).

What is surprising is that the school buses have not run for the last two days and apparently won't be running tomorrow again. You see, us Prairie folk are hardy. A little snow never stopped us. Frankly, if life stopped everytime it snowed, we would be house bound for half the year. We actually mock other cities to the west and east of us when they get what we consider a normal amount of snow because they practically declare a state of emergency. For us, that's just another winter day. But to be fair, given that we experience such levels of snowfall so often, we have the resources to clear the streets much more so than these cities which we will not name.

Here is our front yard (notice how high the bank is - a good 4 feet) after Jay shovelled, and shovelled and shovelled the driveway, sidewalk and street in front of our house (the snow that you shovel has to go somewhere so it is normally piled up on the lawns).

Yes, I said the street. There was so much snow that it was causing cars to get stuck and given that we live on a quiet (relatively) residential street, we knew the plow would not be by for several days. Turns out the plow came by on Monday. I was praising the snow removal of our fair city until Jack and I went out later that night only to discover some main roads had yet to be plowed. Huh? Our quiet street has but not main road?

They must have seen poor Jay out there shovelling the street and took pity on him.

Monday morning dawned bright and clear. I walked with Jack and Kamden to school on account of the risk that there were hip deep drifts to plow through. They were not hip deep but definitely knee deep. Poor Kamden kept falling over. That's why I went along, getting up in knee deep powder is quite a challenge. I was just happy I never bit it. Now there would have been a sight to behold: 35 year old woman breaks hip while trying to dig herself out of snowbank. On second thought, let's not wish that on our worst enemies.

We actually had quite a good time plowing through the drifts. It is really kind of fun to thrash about in it and marvel at the power of Mother Nature.

By today, the plows had cleared the streets and everyone and his dog had dusted off their snow blowers. The dudes had this path to walk through today.

Easy peasy. However Old Man Winter is now back to his old tricks with cheek biting windchills which are all the more fun when he throws some snow into the gale. There is nothing quite like the sting of blowing snow on cold cheeks. Remind me again, why do I live here?

Just to give you an idea of how much snow there actually is, I took a picture of these benches. The snow is the same level as the bench.

And this is not piled up by the plow, this is what fell and/or was blown in by crotchety Old Man Winter. He was in hibernation there for a bit and he's awoken much like a Grizzly bear does in the spring: hungry, grouchy and ready to spread the misery.

But what else is new? Just another Saskatchewan winter day.

Weekend Update

Can you tell we watched SNL last night? We don't usually and now I remember why, it's not my kind of humour for the most part. We only watched to see Kelly Clarkson. I love her and her new song.

Moving on...to the weather of course. After I griped about it, Old Man Winter seems to have cashed it in. There has been sun, accompanied by warmth, a warmth we haven't felt for months which has resulted in the creation of copious amounts of puddles. It was warm, and melting and there has been much rejoicing. We know it's not completely over because that's just not how it works, but the worst is most likely over. Murphy, please don't rear your head over that statement. Pretty please?

And in other news? My run this morning?

A-W-E-S-O-M-E.

Apparently, this training thing mimics life. Peaks and valleys, highs and lows, good and bad. Last week easily fits into the valley category. Actually the last two weeks which didn't end until yesterday when Friday's hoopla of a headache finally ceased. It was a real pain the neck (pun intended). Tylenol is my new hero. Advil was not working so I tag teamed them and that finally did the trick.

Today I tackled 9.5 miles and this week, I can tell, is going to be a peak. Again a personal record for distance, topping the 8 miles of two weeks ago.

Ten minutes into the run I knew it was going to be a good one. I paced myself, I was in that place where I cease to think about the physicality of running and settle in to enjoy the music.

The other bonus was that up until now, I have been running on 200 meter indoor track, you know on account of living in the Arctic. I no like running in -30 degree weather. I am a wuss. I am good with that. But today? It was a balmy -3 (pick up your chins up you Texans and Californian girls that is balmy to us Eskimos) so I ran outside.

Other than the few treacherous patches of ice, it was gorgeous and the scenery was so much more interesting that the walls of the building that house the indoor track. Funny that.

At the half way point, I was feeling spectacular, you know, for having already run 4.75 miles anyway, so I picked up the pace ever so slightly. I was heading home. I am like a horse, the trip home is much faster than the trip away from home.

Then my left knee started squawking. WTH? I stop to stretch my quads and this typically helps when a knee twinges. This was more than a twinge though. This was a pain. It felt better but as I got closer and closer to home...not so much.

I think I might have done something to the bugger but I am not panicking yet. I will rest it and see where it's at later in the week. I may seek professional help before I really do something serious. After all this is not about wrecking my body. If it can't do it, it can't do it. I have already surpassed my expectations, I'll be okay with that.

Anyway, that's my long winded, rather trite weekend update. If you are still with me I would like to thank all of you gave me such nice, helpful and encouraging comments on my last two posts. You all are the best!

Oh and I have now become a die hard fan of sports drinks. Electrolytes are some seriously good stuff!

And that's a wrap folks.

Vanity? No, more like insanity.

Just in case my last post had you thinking, wow, that girl is V-A-I-N. Here I am to show you that to live in the quasi Arctic, you have to check your vanity at the door or risk loosing appendages.

Daily, in fact multiple times a day, I can be seen trudging through the Arctic drifts, fashionably attired in what I like to call, Arctic Haute Couture.

I know you might be laughing about the shades but don't. Snow as far as the eye can see plus bright sunshine equals snow glare. It won't warm you up a sniff due the Arctic gale force winds but it will burn your retinas right though. Shades are not optional.

And to complete the look, you must have these very stylish, trendy and so 2009 boots. I know, I know, you all want some. Who wouldn't?

All this is necessary for walking the Arctic Runway.

(picture taken at my parent's acreage, the winter scenery in the city consists of 4 foot tall snow banks and road covered in salt and sand. Trust me, this is much more pleasant to look at)

Hopefully that clears up any misconception about my vanity ;-)