Snow skiing is HARD work!

Snow skiing, it sure sounds alluring.  To be swishing and swashing your way down a slope, to put on cool pants and wear whatever the heck you want to underneath, to ride on a chair lift with your honey right next to you, to victoriously make it to the bottom of the slope-yeah, to borrow a word from snowboarding, 'that's a PIPE dream'!  At least for those of us that haven't skied in a while.

To illustrate how those little scenarios up above don't always happen, here's how OUR ski day went-

First, wake everyone up at o' dark 30 and load over dressed kids into the van and head to the rendezvous point to meet up with the other scouts going to the slopes.  Pop Twister breakfast burritos into microwave oven bought specifically to work with the power inverter in our van, only to find out it takes too much ampage to actually start.  Eat cold burritos.  Gross.

So, we pull up to the ski resort, park, and then the rest of the dressing takes place.  Kids are half in the van, half out, Eric's got his helmet on and is messing around and the helmet keeps falling off. 

Bill wrestles our rental equipment out of the car and I silently curse my way into my ski boots.  Those babies are HEAVY and a pain in the rear to walk in.  I end up last in our long line as we all trail paraphernalia along the way......extra socks, gloves, hats, scarves, lunches, snacks and water bottles. Oh yeah, and the camera.  Oy vey.

We find our way to the rental line so the boys can get their rental equipment that came with the never ever skier package. 

I silently curse my way through helping Eric into his boots while juggling paperwork and silently cursing how much my own ski boots hurt.  Come to think of it, I think one boot is on too tight as I can no longer feel my right foot.  At all. 

Whew, finally get everyone decked out in their gear and go to sun screen some faces.  Oh great, Eric left the sunscreen in the car.  I volunteer to go get it, only because I brought a spare pair of shoes in one of the bags and I can quickly get to the car without walking in the torture devices they call snow ski boots.  I get back to everyone, plead with Bill to help me snap my boots back on and now he is silently cursing my ski boots.  Smile everyone; say cheese!

We then point the boys in the right direction for their ski lessons and I begin my hapless efforts of keeping up with Bill.  I begin to feel mildly panicked as I realize that very soon I will come face to face with one of my big fears.  Exiting the chair lift without falling.  Aw heck, exiting and falling.  But I did it and didn't fall once while getting off the lift.  Nope, I saved my falls for the slopes!  The boys did great with lessons (Eric far left)

 Here's Gregory trying to shred on his board.....he shredded mostly his rear end I think.  At the end of the day I convinced him to at least TRY skis next time.  Snowboarding was a lot harder than he expected it to be I think!

Bill and I went to the top of the mountain

and then found the easiest way down for me!  After 2 times down, my legs, knees and hips were jelly, so I told Bill to go enjoy himself and ski faster than 10 feet every 2 minutes.  After I rested for a bit I found Eric and Jacob and they were chomping at the bit to do more than the learners slope.  By that time, a snow storm had also moved in so we had totally authentic ski weather to ski in (the ski area got an additional 4 inches that afternoon)!  Jacob had fun getting off the lift-

Our  group shot, thanks to Aaron!

And after working his way over and precariously balancing himself on his board, we got one with him in it-

About 30 minutes later Gregory decided he was done and really, I was glad to have a legitimate reason to go in and get those dang boots off!!  Bill and the other 2 skied the easy slope for another hour.  Gregory took a catnap with his head on his arms in the lodge cafeteria, along with 3 other scouts.  It was pretty funny to see.

After the whole experience, and the knowledge that we have committed to going skiing one more time this season, I can honestly say that I favor water skiing 10 to 1.  It's not cold, it doesn't make my legs feel like they are going to fall off, it doesn't require layers of clothing, there aren't tons of people zipping by you causing you to freak out and fall at the thought of having to stop, and realistically, you can't break your face or some other body part if you land wrong in a fall.  Yep, I'm stickin' top water skiing!