Last Skiing Adventure of 2013

For those who know me even a little, they know that skiing is my favorite activity.  I love being an engineer, but I have been known to say that "skiing would be my occupation of choice if I could somehow provide for my family and maintain my income."  Fortunately I have an amazing wife who support and encourages me to take a ski trip to Utah each year with my brothers, Kyle and Trent.

Since Saku and Eerika have been very little I have been "brainwashing" them into thinking that skiing is the thing.  We have watch Warren Miller movies together, gone Skiking and biking together, and we even watched an amazing ski video from Norway after one Family Home Evening (FHE).

Eerika at 23 months trying on my skis.

Last year while in Utah for Christmas, I tried to take Saku skiing at Brighton.  This was the worst idea ever!  The temperature was 18ºF, Saku and I argued over having ski poles, and the crowds were outrageous (Eevi stood in the Explorer chairlift line for 45 minutes).  Saku went up the 40ft magic carpet, "skied" about 20ft, cried yelled about being cold, and then called it a day.

Saku getting bundled up for a very cold day.

 In April we were in Utah again with Eevi's dad visiting Kyle and Jen, and Mio and Bailey.  I decided to try and take Saku skiing again.  We went to my favorite place, Alta, and the conditions were perfect for him (not so much for Kyle and I later that day).  The snow was very slushy and no matter how hard Saku tried to go fast, the sticky wet snow just wouldn't let him.  He did great and we had a blast!

Saku enjoying the spring skiing weather.

On December 30, 2013, my brother, Trent, and I decided to take a trip to Arizona Snowbowl and take our kids skiing.  He took Savannah, Brooklyn, and McKenna, while I took Saku.  The weather was sunny and a very enjoyable 35ºF.  Before leaving Phoenix, we took Saku to Sports Chalet to rent a pair of skis.  Saku is thoroughly convinced that he has to have ski poles (probably from watching me go Skiking), but they just don't make them his size.  It is also harder to learn to ski with poles, so thankfully the rental guy convinced Saku that he just couldn't rent any to him.  We got to Snowbowl and were on the slopes at 10:45 am.  We had a bit of a challenge when we first got there.  Saku's boots were too small with his wool socks (my guess is he was too excited when renting to tell me then), so after a bit of a melt down, he ended up skiing with no socks at all.

Finally we started with a quick trip down the the 450ft magic carpet.  The lines were a little long, but not bad.  Saku did great and only fell a couple of times.  After two magic carpet runs, we headed to the Aspen chairlift for Saku's first ride ever on a lift.  The line there was atrocious and we waited about 30 minutes.  Saku did great and wasn't scared at all.

He has reached this age where it really is a lot of fun to spend time with him.  He has about a million things to say and asks questions about everything.  And when he isn't talking, he will serenade you with Christmas, primary, and Taylor Swift songs.

After going on the Aspen lift, he was ready to go to the "top."  So we headed over to the Hart Prairie chairlift and got on.  We went to left off the lift and headed down the Tinhorn run.  It is a bit steeper than I remembered (it had been over 15 years since I had been there).  I had to carry Saku down the first 100ft, but then he did a great job skiing down the rest of Hart Prairie.  There were a couple of falls, but he kept getting back up and trying again.  We went up again, and this time he went down Tinhorn all by himself.  It was awesome.  As we headed down Hart Prairie to get some lunch, Saku started doing little jumps.  It totally caught me by surprise and was amazing.  On his 5th jump, he took a pretty bad fall where his skis popped off and knocked his knees.  There was quite a bit of crying.  So, I picked him up and we headed to the car for lunch.  At this point he said he was done.

I convinced him to head up and have lunch at the lodge.  While eating lunch we FaceTimed with my mom and Eevi, and while telling them about his adventures, he decided that he was ready to go out again.  We skied until they closed and Saku and I had a great time.  It was one of the best experiences that I have every had with him.  He listened really well, only cried a little, and we had fun!

For Christmas, Eevi got me a GoPro Hero3+ camera.  I took some footage and made a little montage accompanied by Saku's favorite song.