Ski bums.

As I mentioned before, we celebrated Christmas with a variety of winter sports out in the Rockies. Santa brought Danny some cross-country skis, so we hit the trails on Christmas afternoon to try them out. R and I used to cross-country ski quite a lot back in our pre-kid days - it was practically free, which fit well in our budget. Now that we have to pay a babysitter the equivalent of a lift ticket for a day of skiing, it's not quite as cost effective, but we're hoping to get back to it one of these days.

Our first outing was pretty successful, all things considered.

Shuffle, shuffle, little buddy.

Easy does it!

And yes, that's Miss Lina in snow shoes! This was the first year that everyone is old enough to operate snow shoes without stepping on their own feet - I think there are some good times in our future with those. (Of course, Mother Nature is a hilarious gal - last winter, while my cold-loving husband was sweltering in the desert, we had weeks on end of unbelievably frigid temperatures. This year, he's home and itching to get out in the snow, and it's been in the seventies. Un-freaking-believable. Very funny, lady.)

Of course, it wasn't without a few mishaps.

My father-in-law felt pretty bad about accidentally capturing this inglorious moment. Because I am a sensitive and very caring mother, I thought it was pretty hilarious. No child was (seriously) injured in the making of this photograph.

Because one kind of skiing is definitely NOT enough when one is in the vicinity of places like Vail and Breckenridge, we also fit in a day of downhill skiing. It was a first for the kids, a second for me. R put us all in a morning of ski school so he could get some actual speed in (I am the biggest downhill chicken of all time - it's kind of embarrassing.) Ski school was a good idea - I wasn't a total wuss, and the kids were AWESOME.

I may never be much of a skier, but I'd pay for a lift ticket just to watch this again - holy cow. Watching these little guys ski may be the cutest thing ever.




That's Danny coming down first, asking to continue down the hill without a grown-up (sorry kiddo, maybe next time), and Rome heading down second - he DID stop right after the video ended - no crashes. Thanks, Opa, for taking the video! Lina was just as brave - just less prone to being in a good spot for the camera. Her favorite trick was to ski directly at me, and stop six inches from my skis, once she could see the whites of my eyes. Good times, good times.

Rock on, little dudes!