Liam's first skiing adventure!

Brian had been saying all winter that he wanted to take Liam skiing.  This hadn't happened yet for a few reasons, the main one being the horrific polar-vortex temperatures that kept sweeping through our area.  Brian knew he'd need an "assistant" to help with both kids, and since that assistant would be me (even though I'm probably like having a 3rd child along when it comes to skiing but I guess I'm better than no one?), he had to wait until a warmer day as he is smart enough to not even think of asking me to go skiing when it is below 35 degrees.

That day finally came last weekend, the forecast was nearly 50 degrees and sunny.  Time to hit the slopes! Here we are, putting approximately 42 tons of equipment on each child.  I was sweating and exhausted before we even made it out of the lodge. 

Finally, we were ready to head outside and get on the lift!

ski lift selfie!!

Funny story here: while on the lift, Brian told the boys that we would do one run down the mountain, which would then put us near the little bunny hill area that has the "magic carpet" tow system for the kids to practice on.  Jake was fine with that plan, Liam got excited.  Like, really excited.  So excited that, in hindsight, we should have been suspicious because he really didn't know what we were even talking about. But instead, we were all "Oh yeah, yay...magic carpet...Liam is being so cooperative!"  Here is a video during that very first run, where Liam even mentions going on the magic carpet (pay no attention to the awkward woman in the green and white coat, trying to not die):

Fast forward to a little bit later after the first run, and we started to head toward the magic carpet...Brian pointed it out to Liam, who promptly burst into tears and threw himself into the snow.  He was hysterical, inconsolable.  It was not even 11am and I thought we were going to have to throw the towel in for the day.  I finally got him calmed down enough to the point where he could speak, then put it all together:  he thought we were going to the magic carpet ride.  As in, the magic carpet ride that we went on in DISNEY WORLD.  Oops.  That explained his over-enthusiasm when we were talking about it.  Poor kid.  He genuinely thought that we were about to ski to Disney World.  That also explained why he asked if the ski lift was a plane, and not even thinking I responded "Oh yeah, we're high up in the sky buddy, just like a plane!" Thankfully, we were able to get him calmed down and onto the lame magic carpet located at the ski resort. 

After lunch, we decided to go back to the regular runs and avoid the drama with the magic carpet again.  Here are 2 videos of Liam going down the slopes....along with his little special helper, Jake :)  It was very cute that Jake wanted to help him out so much and hold his hands, we just kept having to remind him that he was going to trip Liam if he kept skiing so close to him. 

It probably killed Jake to ski so slowly all day, but he did a great job of helping his little brother and his mother :)  He skied with me a lot since Brian had to handle Liam, and gave me some helpful pointers and encouraging words.  Other times, he said things like, "Mommy....why are your poles so out of control?  Keep them to the side, you are going to hurt someone!"  Thanks, buddy.  :)  Here is a video of Jake, hitting some jumps:

 Overall, Liam did an awesome job and seemed to love it.  We skied from around 10am-3:30pm, with about a 45 minute break for lunch....and even though he had fallen asleep on the lift during our last run, he still cried when we told him it was time to go home :) 

Needless to say, Liam was asleep in about .002 seconds of being in the car and they were both just done the rest of the day. 

The only person in worse shape than Liam by the time we got home, was me. 

Oh, did I mention the part where I fell off the ski lift?  Very first run of the day, I panicked when it came time to exit the lift...and I just didn't do it.  I hesitated and before I knew it, the lift was getting ready to make the turn to head back down the mountain!  I wasn't sure what would happen, but I knew I really didn't want to get separated from everyone and ride it back down by myself (Brian later told me for future reference that they would have stopped it to help me off....WAY TO TELL ME THESE THINGS AFTER THE FACT!) but since I didn't have that bit of helpful info, I proceeded to throw myself off the lift. Sideways, for some inexplicable reason.  Let's just say that my pride was hurt and I'll probably need a hip replacement surgery in a few years.  Also, FYI: snow under lifts is not fluffy, powdery snow that makes for a soft landing...it's actually a very thin layer of extremely hard, compact ice.  There's your lesson for the day, kids.  You're welcome.  Safety first.

That wraps up our skiing adventure for 2014...see ya on the slopes next year!