While in Utah for Spring Break, the twins took skiing lessons for the first time. We watched a few YouTube videos beforehand so they could see the general idea and got out the door bright and early for our first ski day. We drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon to the Alta Ski Resort to rent their gear and start their ski school. The girls were SO excited and I was impressed that they were willing to jump in and try something a little bit scary and new! They are not used to snow and it was frigid outside, but they adapted a lot better than I did!
They were a little bit overwhelmed with all the new gear, but quickly got used to the heavy boots and helmets. It was freezing out and I had no winter clothes that fit my baby bump, so I stuck around for a few pictures and headed inside the lodge to watch from the comfort of the cafe.
The kids spent the first hour or so of the first day of ski school inside getting used to the equipment and playing games and then ventured out for their first run down the bunny hill. I hung out in the lodge while Jake skied and picked the girls up from ski school at the end of the morning.
Ready to ski!
I wish they had this “magic carpet” conveyer when I was learning to ski as a kid! SO much easier and less terrifying than the toe rope!
We went during the week, and even though it was Spring Break in Utah as well, it was very peaceful and uncrowded! Alta was a fabulous place for the girls to learn and their ski school was very organized. They liked their teachers and didn’t bat an eye at being in class without us for the morning.
Samantha was a daredevil and didn’t seem fazed, even the first few times she fell.
Go, Amelia! She got the hang of it so quickly! Fearless!
Samantha was so proud of herself for skiing backwards! She told everyone about it for days and at preschool when we got home.
After a morning of ski school and Jake going up the lift on his own runs, he picked them up and we ate lunch together. Nothing like warming up with hot chocolate and big lunch after an exhausting morning of skiing. I thought the girls would be really tired and would just want to go home for the afternoon, but they begged to stay and ski with Daddy, so he took them both out to the bunny hill. We could have put them in the full-day ski school, but then they would have had to eat lunch without us and I thought a full-day of lessons would be a little much, so we opted to split our time.
Back on the slopes with Daddy! One parent to two kids was a little much skiing by themselves. He couldn’t have them use the magic carpet conveyer because the ski school was using it, so he had to take them back up via the toe rope, which was a disaster! They kept pulling on each other and dragging each other down, and then someone would be coming up behind them on the toe rope and almost crash into them! A few nice skiers helped Jake up with both of the twins the first time because they were really struggling! The next few times, Jake would ski down the hill with just one, take that one back up and then ski down with the other one. I watched, cringing and laughing, from the comfort of the lodge! It definitely would have been easier with two people there to help, but they managed.
Snow angels.
At the end of the first afternoon, Jake trudged in, completely exhausted from dragging the twins around and basically carrying them up the hill each time. The girls, on the other hand, didn’t want to leave and were only upset because they wanted to go down one more time.
During the day, Meredith stayed with Grammy and had a blast at library story time, the park, and the mall play scape.
The next day, we were out the door early for Ski School Day Two. It had snowed the night before, so there was some fresh powder and the slopes weren’t so icy. Again, we dropped the twins off at ski school, I headed to the lodge and Jake went up the lifts for his own ski runs.
Can’t wait to ski some more!
We ate lunch together, and against Jake’s will, the girls convinced him to take them out again for the afternoon! The toe rope was still pretty difficult for them to handle on their own, so this time, one of the twins stayed back at the lodge with me, while Jake took the other out one-on-one. They loved their special alone time with each parent!
Samantha was so proud of herself for learning to ski!
Amelia loved her first ski school and although we easily could have gone all week, our Utah trip was short, so we couldn’t devote the entire time to skiing. Next trip, they will definitely be able to handle the all-day ski school and maybe even go up the lift with Jake. We easily could have gone skiing with them every day that week if we had had the time– that’s how much they loved it! I definitely underestimated their enthusiasm and stamina for skiing and couldn’t believe they could be out there for 6 hours skiing!
Amelia trudges back to the lodge after a long day of skiing. Until next time!
Lots of love,
