Elliot Skis the Lemmon

Elliot agreed to go skiing with us this year! We ordered him some gloves and snow pants, then headed up Mt. Lemmon. We decided to take him out of school early on a Monday to catch a half day of skiing and avoid the crowds. It was a good plan- it was super empty up there. We didn't have to wait in line for rentals or lifts. Even the drive up the mountain was fun- Elliot was in a super pumped mood, and we all appreciated the amazing scenery as we ate our car lunch and wound our way up the mountain. 

 

Learning how to balance on skis is tough work! Even standing still was a challenge. 

There wasn't much of a bunny hill, so we did laps riding the short lift up and skiing down. The hardest part was a narrow "kitty cat walk" that led to the main way down. Elliot was pretty nervous about going off the steep edge, so Aaron had to painstakingly tow him. 

Learning how to ski involves falling down a lot. I had sticks of gum in my pocket for encouragement when he wanted to stop halfway down the hill, and we took a break at the fudge shop between laps. Eventually his feet started to really hurt, so we took turns hanging out with him at the bottom while the other one zipped through the route. Elliot greatly enjoyed throwing snowballs at us as we came down. 

Elliot probably liked the snowballs more than skiing, but his report is that it was a lot of fun! I'm glad that the good memories outweigh the moments of despair that we surely had on that hill. 

Also, note our lack of hats. It was about 50 degrees up there- so warm that I wasn't wearing my coat. 

We stopped to use the bathrooms halfway down the mountain at Windy Point Vista. We have driven past it several times, but never realized how far out you can walk! This was probably 20 minutes away from the ski resort, but quite a bit lower in elevation. It was fully t-shirt weather. 

It took SO many takes to get the timing on this picture right. I love how adventurous Elliot can be. 

What a view. 

I sure love these boys!

Overall it was a great bonding experience with Elliot. I'm glad that we made it work!

Shout out to Breezy for watching Annie and Isaac while we were shredding the slopes. They watched a marathon of "Barbie: Fairytopia" that absolutely blew Annie's mind. Isaac accepted it because there were bad guy fairies, and he's in general a fan of any activity that involves watching shows and snuggling with Breezy.