Alpine Weekends

Work hard all week, ski on weekends, repeat.  That's been our routine this winter.

We decided this winter, we would really invest in skiing.  We signed Hayden up for a season of lessons.  We rented a place with another family.  Every Friday evening, we head up to the mountains for the weekend.  Before we moved here, I had skied only twice in my life, with more than a 15 year gap in between.  Last year, we accidentally ended up on a red and Hayden was yelling up to me, "Come on Mom, you can do it!" while I was panicked at the top of what felt like an impossible steep hill.

 Now, we mainly ski red runs together.  And Hayden has taken to off-roading so that can catch air on jumps that people carve out on the sides of the runs.

While the US has gotten some crazy cold temperatures and lots of snow, Geneva has actually been really mild.  It snowed just once and barely stuck.  In the mountains, we have had a really nice winter. Lots of fresh snow and fresh moguls to keep us entertained and challenged.

It's so fun to see how much Hayden has improved, even in the past 5 weeks that we've been skiing this season.  Last season, we used a harness so he couldn't go too far and we could always slow him down.  This season, he has advanced one more level in ski school and we sometime hear some remarks of amazement as he zips past people on the slopes - now usually way ahead of us.  His skill to size ratio has definitely gone up. :)

It's fun to see Hayden enjoying it so much.  He doesn't seem to tire of skiing and then going home to play for another couple of hours afterwards.

Beckham doesn't get out nearly as much but when he does, he's pretty content to be a big, puffy, waddling cold baby.

Every day, he becomes more and more of a little boy than a baby.  His comprehension surprises us.  Whether it's body language or actual words, he usually knows exactly what's going on.  The other day, I asked him to go get the giraffe from his Noah's Ark set and he brought back both of them.  I can tell him to put something back in a specific place and he'll do it.  Without fail, he knows when we're getting ready to leave and he'll go to the door and say 'bye'.  

He is also really clear about what he wants, and more often than not, what he doesn't want.  He uses a lot of words and signs...and sometimes made up words of his own, to get his point across.  He's an independent, determined little boy -- much like his big brother.

It's been a really fun time for our family.