SKI BUM

Preface
We've been talking for some time now about putting the boys in Ski lessons. Well a free ski weekend at Winter Park (through my company) seemed like as good an opportunity as any, so I signed the boys up for lessons. Unfortunately Blane came down with a nasty ear infection a few days before, and then had one of his eardrums rupture as a result. So Tobin and I forged on, just the two of us.

Tobin's usually game for anything, so if one of them had to go without the other, this was a good scenario. My hopes were that Tobin would enjoy it and come home, talking it up for Blane to be excited about going once he got better. (The other possibility was Tobin not having a good time, and causing Blane to not want to go at all...)

The Night Before
Bedtime is always a challenge with the boys. In hopes of avoiding it, I let Tobin know that we'd be getting up early - while it's still dark! - and that he'd better get to sleep early. It sort of worked...

Rise and Shine
I got out of bed at 5:30 to get ready and get us on the road by 6. I went up to wake Tobin right before leaving. Upon wakening, his first words were, "You were right, it is early!" I figured he would fall back to sleep on the drive up, but I couldn't have been more wrong! He was up the entire drive, going strong, dancing to my music, and generally excited for the day to come.

The Mountain
It took us some time to get all of our gear on at the car, but Tobin did great. We got on our way to the base village and it was already snowing quite hard. I got a couple of pictures, and a nice woman took one of the two of us together to properly mark the occasion.

I got Tobin all registered and squared away with the Ski School, and he went right in with nary a look back at me. I was actually a little disappointed that he wasn't more clingy, though proud that he was good to go.

The weather stayed snowy and extremely cold with the gusty winds, all day long. I worried that Tobin wouldn't handle the cold temperatures very well. I kept stopping down to the base to look for him in the Ski School, and see how we was doing. I finally caught him out there, doing a fantastic job for his first day! I took some pictures and video (as long as my bare hands could brave the bone-chilling winds) before running off again - Tobin saw me and wanted to leave with me, so I had to make myself scarce after that.

At the end of the day I picked him up at the school's gathering room and spoke with his instructor. She said he did great (not a surprise to me!) and had moved up to a level 2 already. I asked, "No problems? No attitude?" with some surprise in my voice. To which she let me know he was fine, except for when they took their first run at the end of the day - yeah, his first day on skis and he took a full green run! Apparently he took off ahead of her, and the other instructor (on a snow mobile) had to catch Tobin and make him wait for the rest of the class. That sounded just like what I would've expected out of Tobin - and I was nothing but proud about it!

The Rest of The Story
As we walked to the car - and without prompting - Tobin said, "Thank you for bringing me up here to do this Dadster." My heart burst at that moment, and I was only sad that Blane couldn't have been there to share the day with us. But Tobin loved the experience, and was talking about it nonstop - it would be an easy sell to Blane when we got home. Though 15 minutes into our drive home, and Tobin was knocked out cold, mouth open, not to move until we got home 90 minutes later.

That night when I tucked him in, he was still talking about skiing. In fact, he asked me, "When do I get to learn the flips in the air?" Ah, that's my X Games-bound son! I told him he needed to get good at skiing first, but then his gymnastics classes would kick in and he could do the stuff he's seen on TV. And I fully expect that he will, too.

I'm already figuring out how and when I'll get both the boys up for the next ski lessons. We'll need to wait on Blane's ear to properly heal, but He's excited about it now, and I hope to get one more trip with good snow before the end of the season.