Crazy Love Gamble-Style

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...

The first video is of Ava skiing,  she blows us away with her adventurous nature. I love how it totally looks like she is going to  run over those people but then swerves at the  last minute. She might just give me a heart attack but she is having a great time and that is important right? Oh and I bought her a super awesome ski helmet, so there is that... The next video is of Norah...

I've been having issues with my photos which is preventing me from sharing all the  over the top skiing cuteness that is Ava. After way more work then it was worth I was able to salvage some of the photos that were feeling lost to me.  Without further ado, here is our skiing pro.  Saying bye to Norah. ready to hit the slopes.  She zips down the hill, weaving through all the less confident people around her.  See that lady pointing to Ava? Many parents & instructors were using her as an example to motivate their little skiers.  Norah has been the trickiest part of all this fun.  While Ava skis what do you do with Norah?  Usually I just stay home wit her but this time I let her wander around in the snow.  Either way, I don't get to ski. I'm still learning myself so I cant really take Ava.  Oh well, Norah sure is cute!  On the steeper hills Grandma helps Ava. ...

So today was the big day.   Skiing.    Skiing is something I haven't done in who knows how long, something I used to enjoy with my limited skill, something that a bad experience with a ski lift has had me avoiding for a very, very long time. But I come from a ski family (somehow I missed that gene) and my mom is determined to get Ava up there. She is four, this is the year. It's something we have been talking about doing for  awhile.  This was the trip because we were able to  get Auntie Linda to come too and she can watch Norah while we hit the slopes. Never mind that the snow conditions here are being  described as EPIC.  Never mind that the back deck  looks like this: That's after Linda shoveled out a path Never mind that it hasn't stopped snowing for a single second since we got here.   Never mind that when I woke up this morning it looked  like this outside: ...