This picture makes my heart swell with pride and melt all at the same time. A moment several years in the making and filled with blood, sweat, and tears. Many tears!
My husband, Sean, grew up as an avid skier and is amazing! Although I grew up in New Jersey, I lived at the shore. Never having been introduced to skiing growing up, my first ski trip was when I was 30. Sean desperately wanted me to love the sport as much as he did and I really thought I would. It all looked really good on paper. I mean, you get to wear a super cute ski outfit and enjoy an apres-ski cocktail by the fire in the lodge afterwards. What’s not to love? Turns out, I have a very healthy fear of falling so it didn’t go as well as expected.
When Delaney was old enough, Sean gave up on me and set his sights on her. I also wanted her to learn young because it truly is a beautiful sport and I didn’t want her to share the same fear as me. So as our first family ski trip, we headed out to visit Sean’s family in Arizona. We met his brother and family in Snowbowl, AZ. We thought it would be a great first experienece as Delaney and her cousin are only 5 weeks apart. We enrolled them in ski school together thinking they would have a blast. Delaney really did take to it right away and was the first student brought to the magic carpet. Unfortunately, that’s where it all ended. She refused to go on the magic carpet and promptly ” dropped out”.
Fast forward through several failed ski trips. She was always enthusiastic about the going and was sure she was going to ski “this time” but, alas, would only end up playing in the snow. Truthfully, this caused many arguements between my husband and myself as he felt we should push her harder and I felt we should just keep exposing her to it and see what happened.
Finally, a break through! We tried another family ski trip, this time with my cousin and his family. We traveled to Cataloochee, NC where my cousin, Delaney, his daughter and myself all took a private lesson together. The instructor was great and Delaney really started to shine. Although she still wouldn’t go up on the ski lift, she gained confidence with repeated runs down the bunny hill.
This past New Year’s we skied Mont-Tremblant, in Quebec. The first bonus to this ski area was the gondola. After warming up on the bunny hill, we convinced her to go up to the top of the mountain on the gondola. The second bonus is that from the top, you can take a 3 mile green run down. By the time she had her first real run under her belt, she was unstoppable! She easily agreed to take the lift to other runs and had a blast. She was poles up, speeding down the mountain. By the second day, she even “accidentally” went down a blue and mastered it.
I am so proud she conquered her fear and is now excelling at a sport she has grown to love. Now, I just have to try and keep up with her!
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