Riley goes skiing

Guest blogger: Chris

Today Riley and I had a father and son day. For weeks I have been talking to Riley about going skiing. Every time I brought it up with him, he couldn't wait to go and kept reminding me that he wanted to go super fast down the hill. Today was finally the day for us to go on our big ski adventure. Last night I told Riley about our big day and he couldn't stop talking about it.  As I was on the way home to pick up Riley early from school, I became very nervous about the weather as a wonderful snow rain mixture precipitated from the dark and ominous sky. But I wouldn't let the weather ruin our fun adventure together. 

When we arrived at the ski park we got settled and layered up Riley in all of his "ski" gear which consisted of 3T snow pants that were six inches two short on him, pajama pants that served as his long underwear, Erin's red face mask, his dinosaur bike helmet and my old ski googles. It was quite the getup. 

After purchasing our lift tickets and getting our ski gear it was finally time to hit the slopes. I have to admit that I enjoyed a good laugh watching Riley try to navigate the snow in his ski boots. Finally we made it to the bunny hill and the moment of truth. Last night, Erin and I discussed how I should manage Riley as he made his way down the slope. Should I ski backwards while hold his hands? Should I ski down a little ways and have him ski to me? Erin suggested that we bring the jump rope and that I wrap it around him and ski behind him and we would go down the slope together. So that is what we did. 

Riley was very apprehensive as we made our way to the top of the bunny in preparation for our first run of the day. To my recollection, Riley only said that he did not want to go down about 47 times. The only thing I was say about the first run is that it was a process that lasted about 20 minutes. Each run after that got easier and easier as he figured out what he needed to do. Eventually we got into a rhythm and he would stay up for long stretches at a time. 

All in all we went up and down about 8 times. Riley's big reward was a chicken tender and fries dinner in the ski lodge. As you can see from the picture below, Riley was very proud of his prize! I was very proud of Riley. I know it was not easy for either of us but he was a great sport and really had a good time.

Before we headed home we made a pit stop at Zee's office which was right down the street. Riley really enjoyed getting the tour of the place and checking out each and every room at least twice. It was a great father and son day and I can't wait for our next adventure.