Alissa Learned To Ski

Today was a very exciting day for me because I was able to teach my four year old daughter to ski. Alissa was amazing. When we first got to Snowbird, she was cold and scared and she started to cry. I was wearing a neck gator so I took it off and put it on Alissa and covered her face with it. I could tell she was smiling because her eyes started to squint and her cheeks bulked up. She said, "Thank you mommy, this is warm." Then I told her that it was o.k. to be scared because I was scared my first time too. I explained that once I started to ski, I had so much fun I didn't want to stop. Therefore, Alissa agreed to give it a try. Guess who was right? Mommy was! Alissa had so much fun that she kept saying, "I want to do it again." Alissa liked the chairlift too. She thought it was so much fun. After about 2 1/2 hours of skiing, Grandpa and mommy were tired so we decided to leave. Grandpa said, "Helping Alissa is more tiring than a full day of skiing?" Mommy agreed. But, it was definitely worth it. Here are some pictures:

 

Grandpa helped Alissa down the hill for her first time while Mommy took some pictures. Grandpa held her tight so she wasn't afraid. She did very well. 

 

 Grandpa even helped Alissa get on the chairlift for her first time.

 Look at my big girl on that chairlift. Isn't she amazing?

 Next, mommy took a turn at helping Alissa down the hill. She got better each time she skied.

 After Alissa gained more confidence, we allowed her to ski by herself while we held on to some short ropes. The short ropes were very challenging for Grandpa and I since Alissa's ski's got in the way of our ski's.

 Here is a picture of Alissa getting off the chairlift. Grandpa spoils her and lifts her off. But, she does pretty good on her own too.

 

 

 We finally moved to the long ropes so that Alissa had more freedom to ski the way she wanted to ski. We kept reminding her to lean forward, make a pizza with her ski's, open the back door to her ski's while keeping the points together, etc. With a little counsel from us, Alissa was amazing on her own.

 

 By the end of the day, Alissa was turning by herself, but she still needs some work learning to stop. What a fun day. I think we will go again next weekend.