final ski weekend

Sunny days in the mountains and a long weekend at school, made longer by us having the kids ditch an extra day, became a great last ski trip since we have softball saturdays starting up.



We met friends up there are stayed in the village at Squaw Valley so that we could walk to everything we needed.

We skied with the Hsiens during the first two mornings while their kids and our kids were in ski school. In the afternoons we had the girls ski with us but their boys are beginners so after picking up their youngest at lunch each day they left the slopes.



I took a lot of photos of the kids skiing, as usual. But I thought I'd try a video of my own skiing, taken while heading down a hill. It's strange trying to keep up a reasonable speed while holding both poles in one hand and my camera out in front of me. It's not a natural position so it affected my balance, but I did the best I could. So John starts, then Yung (quite a fast, good skier) goes next, and while Diana does some wardrobe adjustment, I took off.








The twins told us that their ski instructor had taken them on an advanced run, which they proclaimed not too difficult at all. and they were anxious to show us how well they could handle one. We told us which lift to take and once up there we had a few advanced runs to choose from.

And they definitely could ski these places, though on some of the very long advanced runs they got pretty tired at times. I think an occasional shorter advanced runs but mainly staying on intermediates in where they should be.

By the end of the weekend, their instructor promoted Kate and Allison to a Level 5 skier (out of 9).

Erin, meanwhile, was promoted to Level 6, and her carving is getting pretty darn good.


Very proud and confident in herself, she started asking me to take her up the KT-22 lift. I think this was the first lift into advanced terrain at Squaw. The story I've heard is that when the owner bought the property he and his wife skied down this terrain and it took 22 kick turns to reach the bottom, and when the lift was built they named it after that. Anyways, it's famous, and high, and as many large warning signs at the bottom explain, there is no easy way down.

I know the territory up there but how difficult it is can depend a lot on the conditions, so after checking it out with John I decided that Erin could handle it. I took her to the lift and there were no other children in the vicinity. Because of that I was gathering a ton of odd, semi-horrified looks from many of the other skiers.
Here she is at the top:

And coming down. These videos never do the kids justice, the slope was steeper than it looks here:

She did really, really great and we even went up a second time. Cheers all around. Quite an accomplishment for an 8 year-old.

weekend dancing

Erin begins competing as a Highland dancer in May. I've registered her with the international governing body of Highland Dancers (who knew there was such a thing) so she's eligible to compete. Before May, there are a couple of local opportunities to dance in small shows and I've signed Erin up to do those to get her some additional practice.

This weekend there was a fair for parents at a mall nearby, where tables and booths were set up by various preschools and private schools, dance studios, music schools, summer camps, tutoring, gymnastics places and swim schools. All kinds of things parents might be interested in knowing more about or enrolling their children in. Our highland dance school had a table and some of the dancers were asked to perform as well. This was one of those opportunities for Erin to get some extra performance practice but Kate and Allison were asked to dance as well to help recruit other young girls.

Waiting to begin:


Erin and an older girl set up and dance "The Sword":




My girls did a set like the one they did in their first big performance last november:


Erin and some older girls dance "The Fling", also a dance Erin did in the show last fall:


Erin danced in four dances in all, the most of any of the girls there. Overall she did well. The Sword is complicated and switches tempo to one much faster half way through, but she did great. I think she started a turn too early in The Fling this time, but recovered. I'm always impressed with her sense of rhythm. I was surprised and impressed to see her dancing along with girls who are so much older and more experienced.

All of the girls had a great time and Erin especially loved it and can't wait until the next performance.

metal mouth

Erin entered the inevitable world of orthodontics a couple of months ago. Her dentist warned me several years ago to "start saving your money", as if I couldn't see the obvious.

When she was a baby I really, really hoped that she had been fortunate enough to inherit John's side of the family's genes for good jaw alignment and an uncrowded, teeth-proportional-to-the-size-of-head, orthodontic-free dental future. I know, I dream big. She inherited my genes instead.

When we went for an orthodontic consult a few months ago, the doctor sat me down and spelled out for me the plan for the first stage of work, which will take 2 years. Erin got upper and lower expanders a few weeks later and now about 6 weeks following that, it was time for headgear as well.

Boy, this brings back memories. Mercifully, I couldn't find any pictures of myself wearing this thing, but I had it from age 10 - 15 and they haven't changed a bit since then. Picture Erin with longer, blonder, straighter hair, and that was me.

I know it's not such a big deal. She's in good company in sporting this new hardware:


So far she doesn't mind wearing it, but it's only been a day. It's still rather novel. Unlike me, she doesn't have to wear it to school. She just has to wear it as much as possible outside of school. And there are benefits to starting younger. Whereas I had mine for years, she'll be able to correct the same problem in less than a year, potentially. Just in time for Allison to get one.

that oregon time of year

We have an 8-hour drive to our rented ski house each year, but it's a fun little trip. There is some great scenery along the way and because I thought we might hit some bad weather to slow us down this time, I suggested we leave extra early. We were on the road at 7am and since we didn't see any bad weather at all, we were first to arrive at the house, with enough daylight left for the kids to enjoy playing in the abundance of fresh snow for a couple of hours before dark.

My kids really like snow. I could barely convince them to come in the house for just long enough to put on their snow pants and boots. They just wanted to lay in it, and they did. Tasting the snow is always fun too.


Even a plain old snow shovel is novel and fun.

Over the next few days there was lots of time after skiing to play with cousins outside, build snowmen, have snowball fights.



And snuggle up at night and watch movies together.



And we also had time for some ice skating one evening. We live walking distance from an ice rink at home, but Kate and Allison had never been skating. Erin went once, at this same rink in Oregon a couple of years ago. Since I really can't skate I took photos while Terri and Randy tried to get the girls going.






They all fell a lot and had soggy pants but enjoyed themselves.
"Skating is HARD!" Kate exclaimed, "Skiing is SO much easier!"
No argument there.

oregon trails

Our annual ski trip to Oregon was last week and as usual, we had a great time. I had the girls go to ski school for the first two days, which meant I had some time to ski with and attempt to keep up with my super-skiing nephews.

I don't know why we have such crazy luck but every February the snow at Mt. Bachelor seems perfect. We always seem to arrive just after a multi-day big storm, and that was the case again this year. It also snowed off and on every day we were there so every day brought several more inches of fresh powder. It was faaaaantastic!

I had my camera with me every day but it was so cold and windy on our first ski day that I didn't take any pictures, since working the camera means taking my gloves off. I couldn't stand the thought of that on saturday. But on sunday it was just ever so slightly warmer and the gloves came off every now and again. Tim and Andrew and I spent most of the day on the back side of the mountain, where there are the longest runs, deepest powder, and lots of trees to weave your way through, if you like that sort of thing. Which we do.

Tim:


Andrew:


The guys were constantly jumping too and I tried to get pictures of that, but the darned delay in focusing and taking the picture resulted in mostly nothing. Sometimes they were just a blurry, jumping flying skier going by me.

It was a great first couple of days.


On the third ski day the twins and John decided to stay at the ski house and play in the snow. Tim and Laura had to get back to college, and so Terri and Andrew and Erin and I went out and enjoyed the only clear day during our trip. Finally some real visibility and being able to appreciate the view from up there.




Erin skied well. She handles any intermediate run very well, but she is still cautious and doesn't ski very quickly.


She even did a couple of advanced runs with me. Here she is on one with large moguls:


A moment to get that ski back on and she finished it and asked to try it again:


Then on our last ski day the plan was for us to ski with all of the kids, but another storm was moving in and the wind was picking up and visibility was disappearing.



So we decided to head over to the west side of mountain where the lifts don't go as high and would probably be more sheltered and thus have milder conditions. Luckily, that's exactly what we found. It turns out that the lifts we had just taken were then closed because of the wind, but on the west side of the mountain we had fun skiing on some easier runs and on some side paths through some trees.




Though I didn't think it would be possible when we saw how bad the conditions were on the other side of the mountain, we actually skied until past 2:00 on our last day and had a lot of fun.

all warmed up

Ah, softball. Our ski season is barely underway but our thoughts have had to turn to softball as well already. As much as Erin loves playing, there wouldn't be time in her week to do both softball (3 days per week) and Highland dancing. Erin wants to start competing in Highland dancing this spring, so...that's where she wants to put her time for now.

The twins want to play softball again and I thought I'd sign them up to play in a new league--the league in the town where we'll be moving in hopes of their getting on a team with girls who go to the new school they'll be attending this fall. This league groups the girls by school. It was a brilliant plan.

Registration was done late last year and I got an email from our coach this week. The girls will be the only ones from their (new) school on the team, all others attend a private school right nearby. As it turns out, there are no other girls from their new school playing in their entire division, so at the moment it feels like we'll be driving extra far for practices and games for almost nothing.

Anyway, unlike their old league, this one holds an optional pre-season practice day for all the girls in all divisions to warm-up their skills, or start learning them for the first time. There was a huge turn-out this morning. Everyone stretched out and then divided up by division, and then divided further into groups of about 10.
"Get a partner and let's play catch! If you need a partner come see me!" were the first instructions. Having a twin comes in handy sometimes.


Next they worked on fielding grounders on the pavement. I don't think any of the other 8 girls in our practice group had played before so our group coach quickly started having Kate and Allison demonstrate for the others.

Next we moved to batting and fielding. Allison showed the others how to swing properly, and as one girl hit the others got the balls and threw them back to the coach.


And that's kinda where the trouble started. Kate and Allison were ALL OVER fielding those balls. They were alert and ready and in position while the other girls looked pretty nervous about getting hit with the ball and a little bewildered in general.




When a ball was hit and the twins took off after it before the other girls even moved. Then they sometimes pushed each other, fighting over who got the ball and threw it back. The other girls just stayed out of the way. Even when a ball went directly toward one of the others, K or A dashed off and fielded it before it reached them. But it's not like they played so amazingly well or anything. Actually, they were pretty rusty in general, but they at least understood what they should be doing and they weren't shy about it, and that put them many steps ahead of the others in the group.


One little kindergartner didn't know what to make of these competitive girls running in front of her and she started crying. I pulled the twins aside and asked them to let the other girls get some of the balls but they could not understand why in the world I was disappointed.
"But you are SUPPOSED to run after the ball!"
"You are SUPPOSED to get it quickly and throw it to first base!"
"The other girls are just STANDING there!"

I really didn't have time to explain any further, and they went right back, and nothing really changed. I don't think the other parents were thrilled.
"They're a little, oh, I don't know..." one dad observed, "...aggressive."
Um, yeah.
But I have to mention that earlier in the day I got a question that totally threw me off guard. This was a question I haven't been asked since I don't know when. A dad asked me, "which one is yours?"

You see, around school, no one EVER asks me "which one is yours?" Quite the contrary, people I've never seen and never met know my name and all my girls' names and come up to me and mention the girls doing this or that and meanwhile I have no idea who they are or who their child is. This happens on a regular basis because, well, it's just that obvious who my kids are. It was nice being able to blend in a little better.

It's going to be an interesting season.