First days of skiing!

Monday was Mama-V's first day of skiing for the season. After two hours of remembering that the first day every year takes a toll on my poor feet, I managed to hook up with a couple of friends and do a mini-tour of the mountain. There wasn't a lot open, but I got in 10 or so runs and skied for a good 4 hours. Definitely much nicer to be able to get on the hill after dropping the girls at school and not have to race to make it back to school by 12:00!

I have a goal for this year for how many days I want to ski, but it's a secret... I'll tell you all at the end if I made it!

Today, we finally took the girls up for their first day. All went very well. Miss D is skiing like a pro and she was very patient with the fact that we spent most of the day on Sweet Pea because the littles aren't quite ready for High Meadow yet.

M-Moo picked up right where she left off last year, only we didn't put the edgie-wedgie back on her skis, so really, she has progressed a bit.

K-Wiggles tried it without the edgie-wedgie, but was struggling a bit, so we put it on and she was skiing like a champ too.

Looks like we may be able to ski together as a family by midway through next year!

And the best part of the whole day was that it was fun... no major hassles, no major meltdowns, and nobody peed in their snow pants!

Get your CPR certifications.

Please, everyone who reads this, take the time today to find a CPR/First Aid course, sign up, and take it, get certified.

We had a situation at school pickup yesterday where a little girl's life was saved because those around her knew CPR/First Aid and were able to deal with her choking and keep her alive until the paramedics could arrive. It was a terrifying 10 minutes, but it could have been so so so much worse.

I haven't done my certification in a few years (ok, maybe a lot of years), but I am now signed up to take the next available course to get recertified. For those in Summit County, PCFD offers a course the first Tuesday of every month at 6:00 p.m. for $30.

Find a course near you and take it. Be part of the solution!

Snow Fun!

Our plan to take the girls skiing yesterday hit the rails when the weather gods dumped two feet of snow on our previously rather bare-looking hills. It would have been good skiing for me and Daddy-J, but the littles find large amounts of snow a bit, um, challenging.

So we decided to go sledding instead. Of course, at Casa Llamedos, sledding involves driving down the driveway in the plow truck, parking at the bottom of the driveway (which is the top of the sledding hill/road, sledding down the road to the bottom of the hill, and then hiking back up to repeat the whole thing. When we're done, we pile back into the back of the plow truck and drive back up the driveway.

After a couple of easy runs down the hill, Miss D decided to go it alone, managing to flip herself off the sled into a snow bank, coming up absolutely giddy! So then K-Wiggles tried the same maneuver, but managed to bank herself and the sled high on the side of the snow bank, landing safely back on the (snowy) road.

In the end, everyone had a good time (even M-Moo came out of the truck long enough to take a couple of runs).

And here is a shot of the three of them in the back of the pickup truck (taken from inside the truck cab, through the open rear window!):