Monday, November 24, 2008

The First Attempt

We drove up to a town close to Vail, CO, on Saturday to stay with our friends who are renting the condo for the winter. The mountains were absolutely gorgeous!



We went to a fun brewery and then spent the night playing the Wii. James made chili so that we could eat it for lunch on Sunday after skiing. The chili was a hit. The whole pot of chili disappeared on Saturday night (after we had eaten out). Oops!
Sunday morning Eric attempted to take the dogs for a walk but they wanted to play. They ran around the condo and had a great time until they got covered with hitchhiker seeds. That delayed us for quite a while. Molly enjoyed the attention as we all tried to pick them off of her. She got a nice haircut. It still looks a little lopsided and we are still finding them.


We then got dressed in our ski gear and headed for Breckenridge. The worst thing about the ski gear is the boots. They are heavy and hard to walk in. It felt like I was wearing bricks and yes, I was the slowpoke of the group. The gondola ride was a little scary but beautiful! It was windy and we did stop a few times which scared me to death but it was worth it. When we got to the top we all put on our skis and little did I know the next lift would be the trickiest. As soon as I got my skis on Eric helped me get in line as I proceeded to fall. He had to help me up and then we got to the easy lift (looked like a treadmill). I was terrified! I couldn't even stand in my skis. I told the guy that I hadn't done it before and he basically pushed me on. I took off with my skis on and somehow managed to make it on the lift. As we got up to the top of the green slopes (bunny) the hard part was getting off the lift. Somehow I managed to get off without falling and stopped. We spent most of the afternoon learning how to make a wedge. I got really good at this and anytime I felt like I was going too fast I just wedged down. I learned how to get myself up after falling which was not a small feat. James did like zooming down a little more than I did.


We survived and will try it again. Our friends really helped us but we could definitely use a few more lessons. It is frustrating when little kids zoom past you on the hill. On the last run James was switching back and forth down the hill and the next thing he knew his ski got caught and he went tumbling down. A little kid asked, "Are you okay?" That was a little hard to get used to. The little kid skis are so small!
Needless to say we are both sore but we will definitely going to do it again. Maybe some day we will be on the blue. We'll see. We love the mountains in the summer and the winter. If only we could just have a condo or house, then we would be up there every weekend. One can wish, right?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't let the kids make you feel bad. They are braver because they don't have as far to fall!

Laura said...

Poor Molly!!!!! Years ago, our dog got into nasty thorn/sticker things when we were out in the woods. It was terrible. It took hours to get them all out. She's a furry Lhasa poo and I swear out doxie was laughing at her. Short hair is so much easier. :) Your Saturday sounds perfect to me. I think I would have had a repeat on my own when everyone else was skiing on Sunday! The photos are gorgeous.

The Hines Family said...

How fun! I've never been skiing, but I would love to try it!