Ski season update.

Ok, so it was a busy ski season this year. Miss D ran two ski races, we had a lot of house guests, we skied a LOT of powder, M-moo and K-wiggles ripped it up in ski school for eight weeks, and Daddy-J blew his ACL skiing in March and had reconstructive surgery on March 24.

So maybe that is why I haven't updated the blog in a while? Life gets in the way of blogging about life. Somewhere there are pictures of lots of things we have done this winter, so tomorrow I will try to find them and put hem up here.

Summit Ski Team

Miss D joined the Summit Ski Team this year.  She had a little tryout with the coaches at the end of last ski season and they invited her to start in their new "January" program for 6-year-olds (previously, you had to be 7 to start with Summit).  We have been so thrilled with her experience there.  It is a very family-friendly organization, with lots of parents involved in the program and having a great time.  Most important, though, is that the emphasis truly is on creating life-long all-mountain skiers, with racing as a part of the program, but only as a part.

Miss D skis with Summit every Saturday, in a group with four kids and one coach for the whole season.  Her experience in ski school last year was pretty uneven and Summit has been so much better for her!

Today was her first ever ski race.  It was a YSL (Youth Ski League) race for J4, J5, and J6 kids, which means kids from age 6 up through 12 years old.  Miss D's J6 division includes kids up to 9 years old (USSA does their "J" years based on the kids' age on January 1, so kids who were 8 on January 1 but have since turned 9 are still considered J6).  Confusing?  Kinda.  But the point is that the J6 girls that Miss D was racing against were anywhere from her age up to 9 years old, pretty big spread!

She got a little nervous earlier in the week.  I should mention that we weren't even going to have her race at all this year (totally optional with Summit, thank you!).  But when her coach asked Daddy if she was coming to this race, he answered "no" and Miss D piped up and said she wanted to race!  Ok!  But as time went along, she started talking about not wanting to do it.  After drilling down, I finally figured out that she knew she wasn't going to win, so she didn't want to race if she wasn't going to win!  So we got to have a long talk about what ski racing was all about and that there would be 300+ kids at the race and almost none of them would win, but that it could still be fun to compete and try and get better, etc. etc.  That seemed to help.

So off she went this morning, got her bib, got her ticket, went up the lift, inspected the course, and lo-and-behold she raced!  And even better than that, she had fun!  It really was a blast.  The team set up a tent at the bottom of the race hill and the parents brought all kinds of food and drinks, even a bbq with hamburgers and hotdogs.  It was really a great fun time!

As for the actual race, well, Miss D would have been last in her division, but she missed a gate and got dq'd!  When the kids go up to inspect the course in the morning, it is drilled into their heads not to go through the timing gates at the finish (because it messes up the timing tests that the officials are doing, etc).  Of course, when the first little kids start heading down for the race, they go where they went the last time, right off course, not through the timing gates at the finish!  Miss D did exactly that (creature of habit much?!), then had to hike back up to get through the timing gates and get her time.  She has also trained gates maybe 2 or 3 times total so far, so when she got out on the course, it got confusing with all the red and blue gates everywhere and she missed one about half way down.  We haven't told her any of this, of course, just want her to feel a sense of accomplishment for getting out there and doing it.  She had a good time and that's all that matters at 6 years old!  (Though you'd never know it from how some of the kids and parents at the races were acting.. sheesh!).

No idea if she'll ever go on to continue racing or be any good at it.  Our goal all along has been to make sure our kids become competent all-mountain skiers who love the sport for a lifetime, and if racing is part of that, then great!  And if not, no big deal.  There are so many options for kids out on the mountain these days that they will all find something to do!

Anyway, enough preaching... I have some pictures to share, but they're stuck on my phone due to technical difficulties, so I will have to come back and upload them later.

Happy New Year!

It was a relaxed New Year's Day at Casa Llamedos.  Miss D went off to her first day of Ski Team, with Daddy-J so proud he could burst!  It was so cold (and an optional day) that Miss D had a coach all to herself for the whole day (usually they are in packs of 4-5 kids with 1-2 coaches).  She was pretty nervous about getting started, worried that she wasn't going to be able to keep up and that she didn't know any body.  We had quite a few talks about it being ok to be scared or nervous but that we had to try things even when we were nervous, to see how they turned out.  She had a fun day, though she hasn't wanted to talk about it much.  Funny girl!

M-Moo and K-Wiggles and I stayed home all day.  They flitted from their DSi's to some art projects to their workbooks to dressups to puzzles to books.  All in all, they didn't make too much of a mess, so that's good.

As for me, I had it pretty relaxing.  I loaded the dishwasher, made some coffee, but didn't finish the dishes!  I sorted all the dirty clothes in the bedroom and actually started one load of wash (hasn't made it to the dryer yet, but the night is young!).  I took off my nail polish and gave myself a nice gel manicure.  And I watched a bunch of college football on tv.  So far I have had both my picks win (Florida - go Urban Meyer; and TCU - go horned frogs and Mountain West Conference!).

Daddy-J shared the last of his precious pirogies with me and the girls, and now they're heading to the hot tub!