The Bean was enrolled in ski lessons right before the New Year. It was a package of four consecutive days of lessons in the morning along with rentals. We were optimistic that he would do reasonably well, or at least consider skiing since he had a good time skating the previous evening at Bower Ponds. His friend Maebyn was also signed up for lessons so we hope that would help.
Everett was a little reluctant at first, not surprisingly. But he does well following instructions and listening to his teachers. He can see that he follows the rules all the time, with his hands on his knees and crouched down as he ascends on the Magic Carpet.
It is funny however, because Everett seems to try very hard to not show that he is having any fun. When he comes down to the bottom of the hill, he has a serious face on. A smile does sneak through when he is going very quickly down the hill, or when he is playing a game, such as trying to ski into mommy or daddy.
The ski lessons consisted much of accompanying the students up the magic carpet partway, and then having them ski down towards another instructor. A large part of the lessons were to try and get the kids to learn the snowplow, or another words, the “pizza.” Everett was having a little bit of a difficult time getting this concept the first two days and I think he was getting discouraged because every time he made it down to the bottom of the run, the teachers would ask him to do the pizza, but he was not able to arrange his skis in the proper configuration.
It was little bit more fun when he was skiing with daddy and mommy. Daddy would take him up a little bit higher on the magic carpet, and then he would zoom down where mommy would catch him. Sometimes daddy did have to slow Everett when he got out of control.
On the third day, something clicked and he figured out that he had to “scratch the snow” to slowdown, which is essentially like a snowplow. From that time on, he started doing turns and following the instructors, or veering towards me or Shannon at the bottom of the hill.
On the last day, they were doing turns around the cones set up at the end of the run. Everett was able to do them amazingly. Shannon caught him once a little bit too early and he was upset that he wasn’t able to complete the last blue cone. I had to take him up another time so he could do the entire run himself again. Good job Beaner!
