Progress. It's troublesome.

This whole skiing thing is pretty crazy.

I am not a skier at all, unlike the rest of

my family, which are more like ski racers.

That level of expertise is a bit intimidating

to a non-skier like me who basically just wants

to become proficient enough to ski with my

4 year old daughter, not start racing anytime soon,

or ever, truthfully.

When we started this I was perfectly happy

staying on the bunny slope where there are

no scary chairlifts.  Thankfully I have gotten

past that stage, my daughter was ready to move

on way before me.  She had mastered going

down that hill with no harness, on her own,

the very first day.

I'm perfectly happy with her staying on that

harness forever but can tell that my mom is

WAY over it.  Turns out it's a lot of work

snowplowing behind a child for hours on end.

Mom was ready to let her off the leash, I was

worried.  Mom kept saying this while we were

on Mount Hood Express, which has all sorts

of steep parts that are well past Ava's level

and I was completely terrified. 

Thankfully she wanted to take her back to

Buttercup, which is a lot more like the hill

I think she is ready to handle but I still worried,

what mother wouldn't?  

Also, as I have mentioned, I come from a 

long line of worriers.

Ava was worried too.  She said she wanted to

wear the harness again when we headed over to

the lift but once we got to the top she decided

she was cool not wearing it.  Me?  Still worried.

Grandpa John skied down the hill nice and slowly,

weaving back and forth, and Ava followed him,

all on her own, PERFECTLY.

It was amazing, so impressive.  She turned perfectly

and could even stop pretty quickly.  We did this 3

times with great success, the only time she fell was

at the very bottom and that seemed more like an

intentional choice then a mistake. 

I was feeling pretty comfortable with how this was

going.  Super proud of my girl.

Then something happened that totally freaked me out.

Somehow, as a group, Mom, John and Ava made the

decision to go get on Vista Express, a lift I have never

even been on myself.  I hate the unknown.  I hate being

thrown curve balls and I hate that I had no idea if we

were pushing her too far, too fast.

I bit my tongue because I don't want to hold Ava back

and I totally trust my Mom to do what is best for Ava

but at this point I was well beyond the state of worry.

I was so mad.  As that chairlift took us up and up and up

all I could think was WTF are we doing??  This doesn't

seem like a good idea at all. 

When we got off the lift it felt like we were at

the top of the mountain.  The. Top. 

WTF?

Ava did her best to follow John down and sadly it wasn't

long before she fell and was crying and didn't seem

thrilled to go on.  But what else can you do?  

There was a long way to go.

Many parts were way too steep for her and Mom & John

took turns skiing her down between their legs.  I was

really glad that they did that.  It was the fact that we didn't

even have her harness with us up there that was part of the

reason I was freaking out.  I was thinking she would have

to just figure out a way down the steep parts and I was

really SUPER worried about that.

I think I prayed more for Ava that day then I have her whole

life (and I pray for her each night).

That fall shook her up and she wasn't feeling it like she had

been at the lower hill, but she still enjoyed the way Mom &

John helped her down.

Overall she did great!  She was amazing.  I think we have a

lot of work ahead to get her to be able to do the steeper 

hills on her own but it was a good start.  

It is so scary letting your little baby that can't even ride

a bike without training wheels speed down a hill filled

with trees and obstacles when you yourself are totally

scared doing it.

I do my very best not to let my feelings about the whole

thing affect Ava's attitude.  I don't want her to sense

my worry or fear.  I want her to take her wonderful 

confidence and run with it, or in this case ski.  

I can't think of one thing that has made her as 

proud of herself as this has and that is pretty 

fantastic to see.  

It is so cool that Mom & John are determined to 

turn Ava into a skier, she clearly has a knack for 

it and they are bringing her to realize that.  What 

a blessing to have such family support, and at such 

a young age I'm sure Ava will be a racing before we 

know it.

 If she does start racing,

you can find me in the bar, taking deep cleansing 

breaths & drowning my worry with Mogul Mashers...