Choosing

my skis

This weekend we took the girls back to Alyeska in nearby Girdwood for another round on the slopes.  Last month we had ended with a promise from dad that the girls could take the chairlift up this time so there was *much excitement* for this trip and the chairlift.  Much excitement from 3/4 of our household anyway...I was a bit more apprehensive than the rest of my family.  Let's back up a bit...

Until January of 1999 I had never been downhill skiing.  Ever.  Scott, on the other hand, went on an annual skiing vacation with his buds!  He was set to graduate at the end of winter quarter that year, so at Christmas we took a road trip to Kelowna, BC.  While we were there we went to the Big White ski resort.  Scott took me to the beginners area and I must have done alright there (honestly I don't really remember...I've blocked most of the day from my memory!) because he came back from skiing the big slopes and took me up the chairlift onto the bunny hill.  I think I went down it once or twice without breaking my neck before the weather changed.  We got on the chairlift and when we got off it was a full-on blizzard.  I was terrified.  Scott somehow got me down the hill (though I skiied backwards at one point!) and I vowed never to ski again.  I had tried it and I didn't really like it, thankyouverymuch!

Back to 2013.  I'm a mom now...and I don't want to model fear and apprehension.  Honestly I was not excited about going, but about mid-morning as I was grumbling to myself about the whole thing I realized I had two choices.  I could either go into it with a crappy attitude and drag everyone down with me or go into it with a positive attitude and choose to enjoy myself .  I truly believe we're in the golden years of childhood.  The girls are old enough to go do all sorts of things with us now and they're young enough that their idea of a super-fun weekend is to spend it with their parents.  It won't last forever, I know that...so why waste the gift of this fun "family date"?

So...we got all geared up at the daylodge and hit the magic carpet again.  The girls took a few runs down the baby hill with me to get warmed up before Scott took them up the chair.  They each went with dad a couple of times by themselves before the three of them went several times.  I stayed right there on the magic carpet...and didn't fall down or mow down anyone.  Yay for me!  Then they cajoled me into going up on the lift, and you know what?  I had fun!  I really, truly had a great afternoon!  So I guess this is my really long way of saying that in that moment I chose to have fun and I am glad I did...intentional living at its finest!

K headed up on the chairlift

S headed up on the chairlift

Hope you had a great weekend, too!