I got to see them ski!

Since 2007 Lawrence has been taking Lily and Addie up to the mountain to learn to ski individually.  Except for his last two birthday's I've stayed at home with Bryson, and whichever girl isn't getting her lesson that day.  

I went one time to watch with Addie on my back, and it was fun, but Lily was just starting out on the rope tow.  The next time I saw Lily ski was in 2010 right before I returned to work after having Bryson. I was RUS-STY.  So it was hard to watch her ski while I was barely making it down the hill myself.  


But this Saturday, all the stars aligned, I was feeling good enough to go up to the mountain, and Lawrence's mom stayed at home (read: went shopping) with Bryson.  So Lawrence and I went skiing with BOTH girls.  It was a lot of fun slash really stressful.  

I have to admit, I never have to worry about anyone else when I ski.  Lawrence follows behind me or leads the way and I never think about what he is doing really.  Not so, when I'm in charge of 50% of our kids on the ski lift / down the mountain.  

Still it was super fun.  Lily really can ski as well as I can now, and it made it fun to just zip down the mountain together (except when we were supposed to go back to the lodge for lunch and she went so far ahead of me that I couldn't catch her and she "didn't hear me" yelling STOP!!!! She ended up on a black diamond and I made her take her skiis off to hike back up.  She was NOT happy.  And people were heckling me from the ski lift "You are making your kid walk all that way back???".  She wasn't happy, I wasn't happy.  But we pulled it together and got happy again.)  She was careful the rest of our runs to stay with me and although I had to pay more attention than I usually do, it was really awesome seeing her so skilled and independent on her skiis.  She even rode one of the smaller lifts on her own a few times (see above). 

Addie and Lawrence - tips up!

Addie had a harder time.  She would have preferred to stay on the bunny slope the whole day, but Lawr stayed with her, really patient, and she ended up having a great day, with sore tired legs by the end.  At 28 pounds she is still so light that the wind blows and she goes sideways on the mountain despite which foot is digging in.  


I had a lot more fun than Lawrence did and it made me realize that this is what skiing has been like for him....um...since he met me.  


First he got me skiing, bought me ski stuff, helped me to love it.  And now he is doing that with the girls one at a time.  He gives up his love of skiing on his own to share it with us.  What a gift it is to be loved by him.