Saturday was Mason’s first day of Tee-ball for 2008. He’s playing in the 5/6 league that’s run by the Webster Athletic Association. Last year, his first season, Mason played for the White Sox. In Tee-ball you bring a pre-paid registration card to the park and you wander around until you find a team you like. So, the anticipation was killing him as we arrived at Kent Park.

Picking the Team
I wore my Cubs hat that day and wouldn’t you know it, the first team we ran into was the Cubs. We asked if they had room on the team and they said they had one spot left. Surprisingly, Mason passed it up. So we walked around a bit more as Mason passed up the Mets, Dodgers, and Athletics. Then we saw THE ONE. As soon as Mason saw the “tough looking” Tigers logo on the shirts of some player, he knew that was the team he needed to play for. I knew his reasoning as I had just spent the prior 2 weeks watching him critique the mascots of all the major league clubs. He got really annoyed with dopey mascots like the Blue Jays’ ‘Ace’, and the ‘Swinging Friar’ of the Padres.

Mason Chooses the Tigers for its ‘tough logo’

Opening Ceremony and Practice
The league is very smart. They tear through a potentially grueling opening ceremony, complete with national anthem and ceremonial first pitch in about 10 minutes. This allowed plenty of time for the boys to get right out there and start practicing together. Mason started right off in throwing drills where he showed a lot more strength than last year. He was able to get the ball in the air to the coach.

Mason participates in throwing drills

Batting practice was also held to get the kids familiar with swinging the bat, and running the bases. Mason had no problem remembering what to do.

Mason takes some batting practice

Pllllaaaayyyy Ballllll!
After a drink and a snack, which is the kids’ favorite part, they got down to the business of their first game. The Tigers first opponent was the Red Sox. We were first up and Mason was 4th or 5th in the order. When he got to the plate he hit the ball past the pitcher and it actually made it beyond the infield. This was a first for Mason so he was very excited. He ran with a full head of steam to first base and had a huge smile on his face. I knew after that he was happy to be a Tiger.

Mason runs to first base after a big hit

We saw the Red Sox take batting practice. A few of them could really hit. So I guess I wasn’t too surprised when their first batter hit line drive went right toward one of our Tigers and knocked him down. Luckily they play with soft balls in tee-ball so the boy was fine. After both teams batted around the game was over. One inning is definitely enough on the first day. Next week they’ll likely get in at least 2 of the 3 innings they are supposed to play. The best part of any team sport for the kids is learning sportsmanship. So I always enjoy them chanting “2-4-6-8-who do we appreciate” and shaking the little hands of their opponents. That topped off a great opening day of Tee-Ball.

The Tigers cheer for the Red Sox after opening day

We wonder why summer goes by so fast in Western New York. Well, it’s because we only get about 13 weeks of truly summer-like weather. Memorial Day weekend kicks it off, and before you know it we’re into Labor Day. It all becomes a blur. I try to spend more time outside and far less in front of the computer blogging. So, here we are in the weekend after Memorial Day and I haven’t even talked about what fun we had.

Wii Skied on Friday
Friday night we had our friends the Krolczyk’s over to our house for a nice little barbecue. Afterward we all huddled around the Wii Fit and had some laughs learning how to ski jump. Tricia has been honing her Wii Fit skillz for her training biz, so she was the expert teacher.

Tricia shows Mia how to Ski Jump in Wii Fit

Lake House Chillaxin’
On Saturday we headed down to my parents’ lake house and got our first taste of decent weather. While the adults had some fun drinking Dirty Water (Brandy, Sprite, lime), the kids met all of their lake buddies. Anna was particularly menacing as Batgirl with her friend Olivia.

Anna is a Batgirl Bada$$

Sunday morning we started the day with one of our favorite summer pastimes; a visit to the East Avon Flea Market. It’s held at the Vintage Drive-In Theater. We always walk away with at least one bargain, and usually at least one thing we didn’t need. That day I got a fishing rod holder for my garage and a ‘crowd-pleaser’ fishing lure for my upcoming trip to Canada.

Celebrating Uncle Adam’s Entry into the World
Sunday afternoon we headed over to Nana and Poppy’s house where they were throwing a party for Adam’s 25th birthday. Uncle Matt, Aunt Ali, and a deep fried turkey all showed up for the party.

Poppy deep-fries the bird

For dessert, Adam requested brownies not chocolate cake. The kids were very happy with his decision.

The way to the kids’ heart is through brownies

Monday Memorial Parade
Mason got to stay by himself with Nana and Poppy on Sunday night and into Monday. While Mason was fishing, playing mini-golf and having a jolly good time, Tricia, Anna and I went to the Webster Memorial Day parade. I haven’t been to a parade in a long time, so it was awesome on such a beautiful day to take in Webster’s offering. It was only 20 minutes long, but we got to see everything from Boy Scouts, to marching bands, to decorated veterans. It was a great way to cap off a very relaxing Memorial Day weekend.

Troops in the Webster Memorial Day Parade

For the few of you who might be wondering why the frequency of my posts is way down, I can blame a wide variety of things. My best explanation right now is that I’ve taken on a side project for my wife to get her personal training endeavors off the ground. Every night I pound out a little copywriting, web design, blog consulting, PHP programming, HTML wizardry, photography, Photoshopping, to get this honey-do item off the list. You are welcome to follow along as I build it and contribute any 2 cents you may have. Nope. I’m not doing this in private. This thing is getting built before your eyes with Google fully indexing every piece of greek text still in there, every bad copy idea, every unfinished page. Enjoy Training With Tricia – a work in progress.

This is on top of some extremely stressful family goings-on as I pray for my parents, aunts and uncles while they search for the right answer in putting my grandfather and grandmother into permanent care.

Tricia put on a great party for me the other night for my birthday, and I’m very thankful. It’s not very often that I get to hang out with 22 people who hold me in as high esteem as free booze and appetizers. We had a good old time with 2 Hold ‘Em poker tables and a craps table too. We passed out 50 chips at 8:00 and counted at 10:30pm giving people plenty of time to hit it big or go bust. The top 3 counts were 387, 338 and 226. Congratulations to the 3 winners who are not related Mr. Papagiorgio. For anyone not remembering National Lampoon’s Vegas Vacation, Rusty pretended to be a high-roller by that name and promptly won enough for a Lambourghini.

Kris runs the craps table

Dad explains the finer points of poker while losing his stack to the ladies

Tensions mount at the living room poker table as Christine builds her dynasty

All the fun took place 3 days after my real birth date (April 2nd) where my kids got me a professional waffle maker.

There were a few other new things I learned in the Bahamas beside what I’ve covered in parts 1 and 2. I’ll start with the ultimate undersea experience.

6. Seriously Could U Bring enough Air (SCUBA)
Dad decided he would surprise Mike and me with early birthday presents. Available at the resort was a PADI Discover Scuba Diving program. This was an intro course where we watched a video and took some pool instruction before going on a real dive with an instructor. The first day we got the video program out of the way which, for me was like watching an in-flight airline safety video. I figure when I really need the information they’ll probably remind me how to put the mask around my head in the event of cabin depressurization, so let’s not sweat all of the details. We then went to get our gear and head to the pool.

Scuba involves a few things that are strange to the uninitiated. Perhaps the most perplexing to me were the BC (Boyancy Compensator) and the Regulator. The BC is a vest that holds the air tank to your back and inflates/deflates to ascend and descend in the water. The regulator is the set of tubes hooked to the tank that you breathe from, the back-up breather, and the air gauge that tells you how much air is left. Of course you must also fiddle with fins, a mask, a wet suit, a weight belt, and the all-important air tank to complete the ensemble. We got instructed on how to put it all together and then we hopped into the pool.

Kris, Mike and Dick get schooled on their Scuba gear

Once in the pool we had to learn all of the worst case scenarios first. What happens if your mask fills with water. How do you signal that you are out of air? What if your regulator falls out? How do you prevent your ears and lungs from imploding? You know…the truly enjoyable parts of Scuba that make you hop up and say “Hooray, I’m so glad that man figured out how to fake being a fish without evolving some gills.” We learned a few hand signals and it was time for my first taste of underwater breathing. What a rush!

We got going at 11:30am on day two by getting all of our gear and heading out to the excursion boat that would take us to the ocean reef. Our instructor told us we would be down for about 45 minutes. The air was cold that day with a 20 MPH wind whipping and some pretty good waves, but the water was warm. I was worried about remembering all that we had learned the day before and getting cold before our dive was over. Mike, on the other hand had his marriage to worry about. The cold weather made his fingers shrink and his wedding band loosened up. Rather than leave some booty at the the bottom of the ocean he decided to clip it to the boat. The good news was that if he encountered a mermaid she wouldn’t be scared away by the symbol of matrimony. hmmmm….

Mike’s wedding ring stayed aboard the boat

Despite our jitters we managed a smile in anticipation of warm water and a great reef view.

Kris and Dad ready to dive

The next thing we learned was how to jump off of the boat and into the water. Once we had all taken the plunge it was time to head down. As each of us went down, we equalized our ears. Mike had a little trouble getting equalized, and Dad seemed to be floating off to China after letting go of the rope. I felt pretty good as I went down, but all I wanted to do was stick close by the instructor. When we finally got comfortable, one of the instructors snapped this shot of us.

Kris, Dad and Mike make their first ocean Scuba dive

The dive itself was spectacular. It didn’t take long for us to feel at ease in 10-15 feet of water. The reef was breath taking with all sorts of plant and marine life. I took a few shots with the disposable underwater camera, but it can’t do the experience justice.

45 minutes went by in a heartbeat. When we got back on the boat we were all tired and happy. A few days later Dad and I were each battling a water-plugged ear which was a small price to pay for a great new experience.

7. Workouts in boat shoes are not advisable
Let’s get this out of the way first. Tricia did not pack my sneakers. There I said it. Therefore it is undeniable truth that it was her fault I had no suitable athletic footwear on vacation. So, after I let it be known how annoyed I was that I had no sneakers to work out in, I decided that I would pick from my remaining footwear to hit the gym. We were on vacation so technically I didn’t need to work out. However, my body was protesting my buffet addiction and was aching to burn off just a bit of it.

The choice I made was this lovely pair of loafers.

Even worse was the only socks I packed that would go above my ankle and protect my foot were black. I’m positive that I got dirty looks when I entered the gym because I looked like this guy I met on vacation a few years ago.

Kris with hid future self Legoland 2004

So I ran my usual 3 miles in the loafers and black socks on 3 separate occasions. I developed a large blister and a well deserved complex about what a Tool I looked like.

8. It does rain in the Bahamas
Here was the view from our airplane as we approached Freeport on March 22.

In the month of March Freeport is supposed to get a total of 1.57″ of rain. We had that much rain in the first 4 hours of our stay. By the time Monday night rolled around we at least doubled that rainfall estimate. The best part was that it beat the 25 degrees and snow we had left behind in Rochester. The rain really didn’t damper our fun, and by Friday we had enjoyed 3 perfect Caribbean days of sun and beach fun.

9. Non-umbrella drinks are not welcome here
It is common knowledge that you don’t go to the islands to drink dirty martinis. For me, the new experience was the volume of variants to be had. Here’s some of what I sampled:

• Sex on the Beach
• Rum Runner
• Bahama Mama
• Poison Ivy
• Green Monster
• Pina Colada
• Strawberry Daiquiri
• and my personal favorite…Dirty Water

Even more fun was ordering all of the above “Virgin” for the kids. One of the highlights of the trip they recite to every adult who asks is “We had lots of cool drinks like Sex on the Beach”. D’Oh! Why can’t they remember ‘Bahama Mama’?

10. I figured out how to use my Canon camera’s stitch function.
It works reasonably well. The photo below was composited from 8 stitch pics on the beach in front of the hotel. I had to do some blending between the photos to make one continuous scene, but it is still pretty cool. Click and Enjoy.

There you have it. A synopsis of our Bahamas Family vacation through the lens of 10 new things that I learned. Thanks again to my parents for inviting us on the trip and to Lindsey, Mike and Lily for some great memories. I can’t wait til we come up with our next vacation. The tour guide within me is ready for another round.

Yesterday I posted Part 1 of the 10 New Things I Learned On Our Family Bahamas Vacation where I talked about Trapezery and Biking X 2. So let’s continue the fun with what I learned about my kids.

3. Our Kids Love to Be on Stage (at least in theory)
I didn’t know what to expect heading into an all-inclusive resort with a Kids’ Club. I thought that I would feel guilty for even thinking of leaving them off with some stranger while we went to the beach. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The first day we took the kids to the Club they met Denise, the most fun 20-something from Mexico that anyone could meet. The kids immediately fell in love with her, and BEGGED to go to the Kids’ Club every day; especially the rainy ones. There was always something to do, and they met lots of other kids their age to hang out with. Every night before the live entertainment there was a mini disco where Mason and Anna got up on stage with Denise to dance silly songs. We thought it was great for Anna who has developed a little stage fright in anticipation of her dance recital later this year.

We had also reviewed the entertainment schedule at the beginning of the week to see what shows to attend. At the top of Mason and Anna’s list were Pirates of the Caribbean and Lion King. So, imagine our surprise when Mason came out of Kid’s Club one day saying that he was going to be Baby Simba. We thought for sure he was imagining a little too vividly. Sure enough by the day of the show, Mason had befriended Gustavo, the resident choreographer and had also volunteered Anna for a part too. This made Anna very excited as she had been jealous the previous days for all of Mason’s squawking about being the star of the show.

Needless to say we were thrilled for our kids to get this unexpected opportunity which made the trip for them. After a week now we are still creating mini-performances of the show in our basement, and the kids are glued to the Lion King DVD. Enjoy the show! Make sure you watch the last minute. They just crack me up.

Mason and Anna perform in the Lion King at Viva Wyndham Fortuna Beach March 25, 2008

4. Teenage Girls are Born at 4 Years Old
Anyone who has parented a fiery little girl out there I’m sure already knows this to be true. I really don’t need to give this much more of an intro, other than to stop laughing long enough to click the play button again.

5. Snorkel First in the Pool
Hee Hee. I got a good Daddy lesson after I heard for so many days that Mason wanted to snorkel. Tricia went to Target before the trip and got each of the little ones a snorkel, mask and flippers. Mason couldn’t contain himself any longer when the sun finally came out. He had to snorkel. I’m not sure what came over me, as I thought that the swimming lessons at the Y had properly prepared the boy for deep sea snorkeling.

So, we had fun putting on all the equipment. Sticking a snorkel in his little mouth was a very unfamiliar experience for him. He learned to walk backward with the flippers and how to spit in his mask to keep it from fogging up (he loved that of course). Then I took him out into the shallow water and had him lay on my hands. Immediately he took a big gulp of saltwater that leaked into his snorkel and came up coughing. That was the end of that lesson, and I thought, snorkeling for the rest of his life. This picture gives a glimpse of the brief ocean adventure.

Mason’s First Ocean Snorkel Experience

Afterward I got to thinking. There’s a 1.5′ deep kiddie pool with no salt water and a shallow bottom, why not go over there and learn? So I convinced Mason to give it a whirl one more time. I made sure that the snorkel was actually sealed to his mouth. and that the mask was tight enough not to leak around his face. Then I gave him the Ultimate Challenge. I threw a bottle opener on the bottom across the pool. I told him to go find the bottle opener. Sure enough, that got him to put his face in the watter and use his snorkel to breathe. The rest of the trip he couldn’t wait to keep playing snorkel in the kiddie pool. Maybe next time around we’ll try the ocean again.

I’m still headed toward 10 new things. In my next post I’ll tell you about my experience breathing underwater for the first time too. My dad and Mike and I learned to SCUBA. Plus other oddities that only happen on Rzepkowski vacations. In the meantime keep looking at the Bahamas pictures.

I spent last week with my wife and kids, my parents, and my sister’s family in the Bahamas. We stayed at the Viva Wyndham Fortuna Beach near Freeport on Grand Bahama Island. The trip had been in the works for over a year, with Mom and Dad choosing this all-inclusive resort for some good family R&R.

It took me over a day to unplug my brain from work, eased by all the food and drink I could handle. Once I vegged out just a bit it was time for activities. When my brain is free to explore other interests I learn lots of new things. So, here are 10 new things I learned while in the Bahamas

1. Trapeze Tricks
Yep. The flying circus act. Who knows why a resort decides to install a trapeze as an amenity? Perhaps it ranks right after the cucumber facial exfoliation wrinkle reducing treatments and before heated toilet paper. Whatever the case may be, we had a 30′ high apparatus not far from the back porch of our first-floor beach front rooms. We were fixated on watching the pros do it, and joked with Anna that she should try it. We checked the schedule which included kid sessions in the morning and adult sessions in the afternoon. Mike, inexplicably volunteered to take the challenge. I was perfectly happy to chicken out, but I’m just too competitive. So, after he came out alive I decided to do it. Dad is even more competitive than me, so he took to the sky to prevent any ‘skirt’ jokes. Even Mason gave it a try late in the week, because all of his camp buddies got into it.

This was one of those experiences that I was happy to have done once, and just as happy to never do again.

The ladies were glued all week to the high-flying theatrics. Ultimately, they could not let the other smiling guests have all the fun. So Tricia, Mom, Lindsey, and even little Anna built up enough courage to give it a shot. Tricia lived out her tom-boy, tree climbing, monkey swinging childhood. Mom conquered the very same event that her sister as an adult had promised to do at Circus World, but chickened out. Yeah Mom! You beat Aunt Darrell on that one Lindsey’s experience was similar to mine. We were never ones to do the monkey bars, no less swing upside down. Hers was a conquest probably not to be repeated. And Anna…well, she finally got to do what she was begging to do.

2. How to Ride a Tandem Bike
On Thursday, only our second fully sunny day of the trip, Dad came up with the idea to leave the resort property and bike to Port Lucaya where there was some souvenir shopping. When we went to the security desk to check out the bikes I joked with Tricia that we should take out the only tandem bike on the rack. I really wasn’t serious. She spoke right up though and said, “That sounds good”. So, she climbed on the back and we started off toward Port Lucaya with my Dad.

The bike took a lot of getting used to. The two sets of pedals are chained together, and of course her handle bars did no steering at all. When I wanted to slow down she kept pedaling. When she wanted to see something ahead, all she could see was the red t-shirt on my back. After a while though we developed a system. I said “Coast” every time I wanted her feet off the pedals and this let the bike glide. If we were stopped and needed to get started easily, she acted as the “rear engine” getting us underway. The teamwork made the whole experience really fun, and actually far less effort for both of us (just ask my dad). If we ever get a chance to tandem ride again, I’m sure we will.

Kris and Tricia on a double bike in Port Lucaya

I promise, there really are 8 other new things I learned. I’ll talk about them in my next post. In the meantime enjoy my pictures of the trip, or check out Tricia’s vacation recap.

One night last week the kids were getting in our hair, and I just couldn’t take one more “I’m bored”. For some unknown reason I thought it would be good to do something I haven’t done for MANY years – a jigsaw puzzle. Yep, I have reached the height of excitement. I was either channeling my inner old folks home, or grasping for any way to make this winter go away faster.

We had this 750 piece Chicago Skyline puzzle from Buffalo Games gathering dust on the shelf. My grandma gave it to me at least 5 years ago. The minute I cracked it open, we had instant family entertainment. Mason and Anna have never seen such a large and complex puzzle, and of course Tricia and I were eager to dig in. We spread out all of the pieces and flipped them over. We did an initial sort, looking for all of the edges. By the end of the first night we had the edges somewhat constructed, and Tricia completed all of the lettering at the bottom.

Over the next 10 days the puzzle quickly lost its luster for the rest of the family, but not for me. I was hooked. I attacked this thing every morning before breakfast, and during lunch, and instead of watching TV at night. The whole experience was so much more stimulating and calming than I ever remember it. I’m convinced that the old school jigsaw puzzle is every bit as useful to the brain as BrainAge could ever try to be. As I built the puzzle I kept building different strategies for organizing and completing the different sections.

Tonight, at 1am when I can’t sleep on the eve of our family vacation, I completed the beast. When it was done, I could only wonder if there were puzzling strategies out there from world champs of puzzling or something. Without knowing it, I had in fact followed the strategies that puzzle junkies who do this all the time devised. Building a puzzle has some intrinsic satisfaction for the builder in me. It was as much fun as a home improvement project or building a website.

To top this off, let’s visit our friend YouTube for some jigsaw inspiration.

Ahh…Easter. It’s that time of year in Western New York where every day is 40 degrees and overcast. Piles of old dirty snow line the sides of the road reminding you that winter was but 5 days ago, and it could yet bite again. It’s also the time to take an hour ride to Buffalo and visit the Broadway Market.

2008 Family excursion to the Buffalo Broadway Market

It is a place steeped with Polish tradition. The history is recounted on their website:

The Broadway Market is over 118 years old.

As immigrants flocked to the east side of Buffalo in the late 1800’s, they looked for the continuation of old world customs in their new and unfamiliar environment. While they wanted to enter the mainstream of city life, they also sought to preserve their Eastern European traditions and heritage. The Broadway Market would prove to serve these needs quite well….

…Famed for its ethnic old world shopping atmosphere, the Broadway Market’s fresh food merchant base is comprised of family-owned, family-operated butcher shops, poultry stands, fruit/vegetable stands and bakeries….

Since we won’t be around for Easter this year (we’ll be taking a vacation to the Bahamas), and we had a HUGE morning Easter Egg Hunt at our Friends’ house, we thought today would be great time to do the market. Normally, I starve myself before the trip so I can partake in the best Beef on Weck that Buffalo has to offer. Unfortunately, we hit McDonalds to be able to last in the car ride and we weren’t really hungry.

We started our tour by finding some hand painted wooden eggs. We usually get an egg for each of us.

Mason and Anna show off their hand-painted Polish wooden Easter eggs

Next, we had to pick up some Polish sausage and pierogies. We found 2 varieties at one of the meat shops so I got a package of each – one was Wardynski’s the other Redlinski’s. The pierogies were HUGE. Each one was the size of a Hostess Apple pie. Sauerkraut is my favorite, so I picked up 6. My next mission was to pick up some potent horseradish. I went for the “Broadway Market Horseradish”. I bought small jars this year, because it will stay fresher in smaller quantities once I open each jar. I topped off the visit by buying my typical obnoxious Polish-themed t-shirt. Thank goodness there’s a new one every year.

We met Matt and Alison at the market. This was their first trip, and since they will be hosting an Easter crowd next weekend, they purchased a Butter Lamb. Excellent call! We decided that we couldn’t carry around 6 pounds of meat and not give it a try, so we convinced Matt and Ali to invite us back to their place for a taste test.

Before we went though, we had to pick up one more sausage varietal. This time we acted on a hot tip from a Buffalo local who said to hit the Market in the Square grocery store in West Seneca for some Dubel’s sausage. We rushed back to the apartment and had a “Sausage Fest” complete with the appropriate laughter at how inappropriate that sounded. We had a very scientific toothpick system for keeping the different sausages straight. We all preferred the one without the toothpick which was Wardynski’s. It had by far the most complex and delicious grouping of spices.

Tricia and Alison get cheeky at the Sausage Fest

Thanks to Matt and Alison for letting us invade. It was fun spending our Easter tradition with you.

Sunday was Mason’s final ski lesson for the season. The weather was heading toward perfect all week. A snow storm on Tuesday and Friday gave us 6 inches of fresh powder, while the Saturday temps in the low teens headed toward midday highs of 35 yesterday. With bright sunshine and no wind, there could not have been a better day for skiing ever. We went down as a caravan – the Rzepkowski’s and our friends the White’s as we had done earler in the year.

When we arrived at the mountain, the trails had just been groomed and Mason was psyched to try out his new skills on the real slopes. He started out his 10:15am lesson on the magic carpet, and quickly advanced to the real lift. He was now able to ski Swain completely on his own which was a huge difference from the first time this year.

While Mason took his lesson, Tricia, Anna and I went up the lift for some skiing together. Anna did very well with the help of an outstretched pole, or some between my legs skiing. Had the magic carpet not been packed with lesson kids, we should have had her ski there all day so that she could learn to stop. I can’t wait till she’s old enough for lessons next year at Powder Mills because I know that she’s going to pick this skiing thing up quick, and be racing by year’s end.

When Mason’s lesson ended, his instructor, Ron told me that he just wasn’t able to give Mason any instruction. There was another kid in his class that was over his head and needed to be carried down the hill. Ron offered to give Mason another lesson at noon. So, we went back to the lodge for a break and some lunch and convinced Mason that getting some more one on one ‘professional help’ would be great for him. In fact his second lesson was good for him as Ron told us that Mason made a lot of progress. He also said Mason’s legs were popped out by the end, and he needed a break.

Tricia kept the boys and Anna in the lodge so Andy and I could hit the perfect conditions for some real skiing. We took a couple of GREAT runs, and then somehow I let Andy convince me to do a Nastar race. I’ve never raced in all my years of skiing. All you had to do was pay 5 bucks at the top of the hill and you could ski the course for time. I was definitely nervous and my first run didn’t calm my nerves at all. I fell on the second to last turn which cost me 15 seconds to end up at 45 seconds. We went up the hill again, and on my second run I managed to finish with a turtle-slow time of 35 seconds, but at least I stayed on course. Andy’s best time of the day I think was 29 seconds which awarded him a bronze medal. Racing was really fun, and I could have done it the rest of the day, but alas we wanted to get back to skiing with the kids.

In retrospect the second lesson for Mason wasn’t the best idea because it cut our family time short. Our second run together up to Mile Sweep, Mason skied awesome at the top of the hill. But his legs and mind were so shot, that he melted down somewhere in the middle and wanted me to carry him the rest of the way down the hill. I coaxed him down the rest of the way by holding a pole next to me. That was at the end of this highlights video – a summary of a day of great family fun and great times with great friends.

I hope we might get out one more time skiing this year if our busy schedules allow it. Otherwise, I won’t be sad if this perfect day of skiing is the exclamation point on a terrific 2008 at the slopes.