First Day of Ski Racing Lessons!

Finally, the big day arrived! Sara and Sky started ski racing lessons! They've been looking forward to this day for a long time. After arriving home last night at 10:30 p.m. (we went to Calgary for one night), we drug the kids out of bed at 7:30 this morning for 3 hours of ski racing. It was a beautiful, sunny morning, with temperatures above freezing. We still have only had one snowfall this winter, so the local ski hills in Edmonton are very late in opening. In case you're wondering how they got all the snow on the hill, they made all that snow! They have huge snow-making machines that blow a fine mist of water all over the hills. They usually run them all night long when the temperatures are below freezing. It took a long time for them to get a good base of snow. It was a good first lesson. The kids had fun, so that's the most important part! There were some disorganization issues that irritated Joshua and I, but nothing we couldn't deal with. Here are a few pictures of the morning.

Sara, following her class to the ski lift.Sky, giving me a happy little wave as he waits in line at the "magic carpet." (It's a ski lift that you stand on and it takes you up the hill, like a giant conveyor belt.) Sara with her class. She's the one with the pink helmet.I really had to include this video of Sky! We're not sure why they had the kids raising their hands like that - probably something to do with balance - but it was so cute! It was amazing what they had these kids doing on the first day.

Thus begins a winter full of lessons and races. I'm hoping it will be mostly fun! Lessons are every Saturday morning, from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. for both kids. On Tuesday evenings, from 6-8 p.m., Sara has an additional lesson. Joshua will probably take Sky on those nights as well, and just ski alone with him, so he doesn't feel left out. I'm sure there will be lots more posts and pictures, as ski racing will kind of be our lives for the winter!