Skiing Again

We have finished our 3 session ski lessons!
Zach stayed home and watched a marathon of Sponge Bob Square Pants. At least, we left him watching, and he was still watching when we got home.

The morning started out rough. It was very cloudy here and visibility up the mountain was poor. Half way up, we were above the clouds, and it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day! When we checked in they were passing us snowboard boots. Somehow our registration for next month got into the computer early, and it switched our gear for this day. So, we ran later than we planned after getting them to fit us for skis.

We all had a great time. My instructor decided for the last day he would show us the mountain. He took us to the back side, and up a hard to find chair lift. We explored wonderful trails, and had gorgeous views. And, no Black Diamond runs! Whew. I was really nervous last night. Turns out that my class was full of younger kids that were showing promise early on, but they continued to stay with what was comfortable, and were not working hard at learning new techniques, so the instructor decided we weren't ready.

Josh also progressed to where the instructor took his class to the same backside trail! When class was over, Josh and I took Dave on that trail (he didn't get the same tour) and I was really impressed with how well Josh was doing, and he was having a good time too.

After class, Dave felt like he could teach me some of the techniques he had learned. Had he done this on a smaller hill, I would have probably learned something. But, he took me on what he was familiar with, and it was quite the steep slope. Not something I would have done had I known what was lurking over the ridge. I only fell once, but tweaked the knee enough that I was done for the day. Since it was already 4:30, we all felt like we had a full day of skiiing.

I'm looking forward to next month, and we hope to be a foursome again.

More Skiing

Lesson #2 down, one more to go.
This week, we left home early, so as not to be rushed getting up the mountain, or getting our rentals and tickets. We even brought our own lunch and ate before the lesson so we weren't so famished during the lesson and stored our shoes on a shelf so no locker was needed. It feels like it is getting easier. Except the skiing part.

Zach was firm about not skiing. Since he has been sick since last week, we gave in at the last minute. He sat in the lodge fully armored with ski pants, gloves and hat. He slept most of the morning with a head on the table.

Josh also came down with the same cold mid-week, but he decided he would at least do the lesson, but didn't want to ski before or stay and do any more skiing. He said after the lesson that it was nice to learn how to turn and stop. He suggested Zach not come back to the next lesson because he would hold up the class not having this very important info. Since Zach isn't interested in the least, I've filled out his refund form and we'll see what happens.

Dave and I took the chair #3 up and had a couple ski runs down before the lesson started. On the first run Dave and I took the same route. The second time Dave was in front and said, "follow me". I got down the first part of the hill and saw he was WAY out in front and thought to myself..."No Way am I 'following him'." He is a skier. I am a beginner. I can count 3 previous times I've been on skis. I can't just 'do this' and 'follow'. Am I being stubborn? No. I'm being Realistic. I like my knees working most of the time. I like being able to get up our stairs without weird methods to accomodate broken legs or feet. So, I ditched him and went down the more traveled slope, at my own pace.

The lessons began, and we all went to our appointed places. Dave's instructor decided that he should have taken the Advanced level instead of Intermediate. HA. See. I'm not following him.
After 1.5 hrs. of ski lesson, I headed toward the lodge to find Zach. I was tired, and not up for the last run. Last I heard, the instructor was happy with our progress, and was going to get us ready for going down a Diamond run next week for our last bang. What a disappointment. I'd much rather enjoy the trip down the mountain than have to watch every move I make and never see the wonderous view from up so high. Besides, I find that such hard work on such advanced slopes really take a toll on my recovered but weak knee. I'm looking forward to trying Snowboarding next month. The easy boots that don't bruise the ankles and the two feet together on one board should help the knees. And, I might be able to get myself back up after a fall! I see and hear that one learning snowboarding spends much time on their bum, but hey, I got LOTS of padding there.

Skiing

We did it! We had our first skiing lesson on Friday. We went to Bogus Basin. It is just 30 minutes out of town, in the local mountains. The facility is really nice and the snow was great.

The boys were in the same class of beginners, while Dave and I were in another group that got split up by ability, so we ended up in different classes. I hadn't ever seen Dave ski, but he must have skied some because he threw out his skis and poles when we were cleaning out to move. He figured equipment has probably changed in 25 years. It most definatley has.

The boys learned to stand up from a ground position, how to walk on their skis, how to snow plow, and how to ride the chair lift.
Josh seemed to do fine with the newness of it all. Zach decided it was punishment to take the day off of school and go skiing. I guess there was a new snowboarder that ran him over while he was down in the snow. Turns out he was also coming down with a cold, because he woke up Saturday morning sick, which probably means that he wasn't in his best ability in the cold, being tested in his resolve to stand up going down a hill on 2 sliding feet. We're hoping he will enjoy it more this coming Friday when we have our number 2/3 lesson.

Dave's class worked in refining their movements and parallel skiing. My class worked on learning to get down the mountain standing up. First thing we had to do was learn how to get up after a fall. Being that my knees have had some major problems in the last couple of years, this was a challenge. I resolved to NOT fall down after I found out how hard it was to get up. And, I succeeded.
Since Zach wasn't enjoying himself, we went home after our lesson and lunch. Next week we hope to stay a while and practice having fun!

Winter Wonderland

This is what the snow looked like in the morning. It was the biggest snow storm we've seen yet. Snow covered everything, making it all look so wonderously clean and white.

This is our lawn after they have spent the day making this GIGANTIC snowman. Complete with MY hat and scarf. Snow melts fast around here. We're lucky if there is still snow at 11am.

The kids in the neighborhood all helped. It was their FIRST ever snowman.

888 Reading List

I have started my list. It is not finished at this point, so I will add to it as I get all my boxes unpacked (which may be a while). The "rules" state that we can have 8 overlapping books, but that still leaves 56 books for the year. I am going to be realistic and not commit to reading more than a book per week. I've got some other priorities :) I'm sure by the end of the year there will be 56 books read after we finish all our school reading. So, in Jan. you will not find 8 books listed in each category. Blue print is my list to read. Green colored are books in progress. My favorite color purple signifies that it has now been checked off as completed. Note that if you want to keep track of what I'm reading, how I'm progressing, or what I've added as the year progresses you can always get back to this post by clicking on the category '888' on the left side bar.

Children's Classics- These are the books the boys will read this year, so I'll read them too.

• The Big Wave
• Tom Sawyer
• Stone Fox
• Alice in Wonderland

Christian- for Spiritual Growth

• Bible in a Year-front to back- currently in 1 Corinthians.
• How Then Should We Live- Francis Shaffer
• Mere Christianity- CS Lewis-I got part way through and changed my mind. I'm not finishing this one.

For Fun- Books on the shelf I've been wanting to read

• Digital Scrapbooking with Photoshop Elements 3
• America Alone - Mark Steyn- Mom's recommendation
• How to Win Friends and Influence People
• 39 Steps- John Buchan
• Greenmantle- John Buchan

Read a louds- Books I'm reading to the boys. This category will basically consist of historical literature of all kinds. I'll add to it as we find out what we're reading.

• Lost Treasure of the Inca
• Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates

Self Education- On being a better teacher, and just learning new info. for self development.

• Anthony Robbins - Get the Edge series
• Eat to Live - Dr. Furhman

Classics - Mostly books I've always thought I should read, but haven't. This list could be endless. I'm going to keep it simple.

• A Christmas Carol- Dickens
• The Hobbit- Tolkien

Parenting/Family

• A Place of Grace- Susan Hunt
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families - Stephen Covey

888

What is 888? It was something I heard about on the Well Trained Mind message board, a homeschooling website I like to frequent, probably too much .

Anyway, the premise is easy. Read 8 books in 8 categories of your choice in 2008, equals 888. It lends to being more rounded in the choices. I need that. I tend to read all non-fiction with Christian interspersed. This will really help me to pick some other things, and make time for the fun stuff. I've always been a big mystery fan, and yet haven't read any in a LONG time.

It will take me a few days just to pick the categories and the books that will go on my list. Most of my books, maybe all of my books, are in the garage, unpacked from our move. I have no bookcases yet. However, I'm NOT going to let this deter me from getting on the band wagon.
Care to join me? Make up a list of 8 categories and the 8 books you'll read within each category. Then, we'll check them off as we go. I've included the link to the "rules" and there are lots of helpful examples there too. (click on 888 above). I'll post my list in the next week or so. Remind me if you don't see it :)

We've Joined Cloverdale United Reformed Church

We are now members of a local church again. We visited our local PCA church when we arrived here, but just seemed to have a difficult time with the timing and distance. When I checked to see what other Reformed churches were available in the area, I found this one. We visited and the boys immediately liked it for the size and number of children in their Sunday School classes. They have a former PCA pastor, a beautiful building for all kinds of worship, fellowship and classes, and lots of relocated southern CA reformed folk. We asked for our transfer of membership a while ago, after attending the 5 week New Members Class but it took a while for it to find the Elders and their monthly meeting and then our interview after that. This was the first Sunday available for us to be able to accept membership. We're happy to have a new church home that is faithful to God's Word.

Vacation Fun!

What Fun we've had! Wednesday night we decided to take the boys to indoor kart racing. WOW. We thought we enjoyed laser tag, but kart racing beats that. It was buy 2 races and get a third free night, so we got plenty of driving in. These cars are fast, and the track is for racing. I was impressed with how well the boys did for their first time driving. We asked the neighbors if they wanted to come along, since they have another boy staying with them this week. We ended up being the only ones there and had the track to ourselves.



Thursday night we went snow tubing at Bogus Basin. We've been wanting to get up there to see where we will be skiing and snowboarding these next couple of months. Turns out they have a tubing hill and the boys thought the ride up on the rope tow was just as fun as going down the 800 ft. hill. We attempted to get tickets for the afternoon, but when I realized they recocommended advanced reservations, I clicked on the "buy tickets" and found out they only had 6 tickets left for 4-6pm. How nice to be able to do it all online. Then, just an hour before we were leaving, the neighbor boy came over to play and when he found out where we were going, he mentioned he did that the day before and wished he had googles because of the wind and snow in the face. I quickly called Dave and had him bring home 4 pair. We were very happy to have had them because it was a breeze going down the fast hill with face protection! Snow and wind in the face would make for not nearly as much fun. As the picture above shows, we bundled up. Being warm and dry meant more fun despite the late tubing time. They turned on the lights about 5 pm and I'm sure the only difference between daytime and nighttime would have been temperature. Our warmest time of the day is between 4-5pm!

I'm sure we'll be doing both activities again.

Happy New Year 2008!

The New Year is here. We look forward to this new adventure in our new town. To start it off right, we've got reservations to go tubing down the local ski resort's tubing hill tomorrow, and we've signed up for Ski lessons for Jan, and Snowboarding lessons for Feb. This will be the year of getting out and doing new things, Lord willing. We hope your new year is filled with high expectations too.