SKI WEEK

It might be northern California's ski week right now, but our ski week was back in December at White Pass, thanks to Mike and Jan. We stayed at a condo on the slope for two nights with them, and Kai and Dana and their family.

The kids took lessons and then skied the bunny hills with their cousins; Mick and I got a couple runs in together; and Mick and Kai got a few runs in together. (Jude sledded with Uncle Garth, and Weston stayed at the condo, getting ready to turn ONE.)


Hot POOL at the condo! The kids were ballsy enough to do snow angels over and over and over again before jumping back into the pool.


Aubs hit the slopes with an enthusiastic attitude, "wee-haw"-ing like a crazy girl and crouching like a pro.


Dane exhibited some new traits with an approach Mick and I hadn't seen before and had to adjust to: he wanted to do everything his own way, even when sliding mad and backwards down a hill away from the rope tow (now a "magic carpet") with no idea what to do. What happened to our compliant, easy little boy? (Oh, that sounds pathetic, doesn't it?)

Turns out, he really, really wanted to ski -- his buddy Marcus does black diamond runs, and his cousins had lessons last year, so they were already on the slopes. Dane was just antsy to get started, thought it looked easy, and didn't want to take the time to learn from his parents (even though his dad's been a snowboarding instructor!).

Rather than get caught up in a power struggle -- we wanted this to be fun -- we immediately signed both kids up for 2 hours of ski school and hit the slopes on our own. It worked out well: they were up and running, confident and happy, by the time we got back.

Dane even had a sweet little rash at the corner of his mouth that lasted the next few days, where he'd fed himself snow out of his glove while skiing down the hill.

"Dub-Dub turned ONE!"