An exhausting, but fun, day of skiing.

This morning I had to take Miss D to her ski school. She's been doing Saturdays from 9:00 to 3:00 all winter, twelve lessons in all, through our locals' program at The Canyons. It's been great for her skiing, and great for us to have someone else take her up on the hill all day!

Today, Daddy J decided he wanted to stay home with the littles and told me to go ski. (I think he had an ulterior motive, as his friend (our friend) Marc is coming in tomorrow and he's probably racking up points so he can go ski with Marc -- but I'll take it!).

Anyway, I took Miss D up to ski school, but when I got her all settled, I just didn't quite feel like hitting the slopes. So I went down to the coffee shop, got a latte and a chocolate croissant, bought the latest issue of O Magazine from the general store, and sat in the cafe for about 45 minutes totally enjoying myself and the relative peace and quiet (well, at least no one was saying 'mama' every five seconds!).

After that, I did put my boots and skis on and headed up on the mountain. I skied one run with Miss D and her little class, just to see how she was doing. Then I headed out. I find that skiing is becoming more and more a social experience for me, so going up by myself feels kinda weird. This morning I decided to do a "grand tour," heading out all over the resort, skiing the groomers and just having an easy day of it.

I got all the way out to the farthest reaches of the resort when Daddy J called to say that he was on his way to the hill with the littles and could I meet them at the locker room and help him take the littles skiing!?

So I high-tailed it all the way back in (about a 30 minute trip altogether) and Daddy J and I took M-Moo and K-Wiggles skiing. Amazingly, they did great! We must have covered 5 or 6 runs on the bunny hill/poma lift. My back and thighs are killing me from bending over the littles while they skied or rode the poma. But they did great! Neither one of them can turn worth a damn, but at least they're not afraid to go down the hill, and they can both pretty much ride the poma on their own.

It looks as though our dream of being able to somewhat ski as a family next year may actually come true. Miss D was totally independent today, putting on and taking off her own skis, and riding the lift without assistance from her coach. By next year she should be fairly reliable, leaving Daddy J and me to help the littles. For a wanna-be skiing family, this is a huge milestone! And to have all the kids enjoying themselves skiing is a huge relief, after K-Wiggles didn't even want to try skiing for the first half of this season.

Oh, and the littles made a big impression on some of our skiing buddies that we happened to run into at the beach (you know, the large outdoor patio area that is super warm on a 40+ degree winter ski day!). We sat and had a pitcher of beer and the girls polished off two large orders of french fries and three bottles of chocolate milk.

We topped off the day with a trip to Ruby Tuesday's (mama wanted ribs, and that was the most kid-friendly rib place we could think of in P.C.). Now all the girls are in bed (and Daddy J must have fallen asleep down there), and I'll be heading down to SLC to pick up Uncle Marc.

Hope all of you had a great day too!