I grew up skiing with my family and Bri is a skier and a snowboarder too. Our first "date" was a ski trip where my dad invited him to come up with our family (I think my wise father was testing the waters between the two of us). We had a great time skiing together but didn't really click in our conversation on the drive back, and nothing came of it at that point. Three years later we started dating after we saw each other again at a family barbecue, we eventually married, and we spent part of our honeymoon skiing at Mt. Bachelor in Oregon. We always wanted to teach our kids to ski at some point. When we lived in Utah – "the greatest snow on earth" per our license plates – life was hectic and busy, and skiing is expensive even on a lawyer's salary for a family of five! Bri got his skiing in with clients, but since we have had kids we never had a chance to share this thing that we love so much with the kids. Until now.
Latvians love to ski, even though there isn't much vertical here. There are a dozen little resorts (bunny slopes) around Latvia, and a little hill called "Milzkalns" about 45 minutes away from us. It took 1.5 minutes to ride up on the rope up the "mountain" and 20-30 leisurely seconds to ski down. ;) 
The international school (and the Latvian schools) have a school break that they call a "ski break," and we decided that the timing was right to teach the kids to ski. The kids love their ripsticks (similar to how you stand on snowboards) and we have been watching the Olympics and the kids were impressed with all of the snowboarding they saw; they all decided they wanted to learn to snowboard, and their snowboarding dad was only too happy to accommodate. So on Monday and Tuesday of the ski break we drove out to Milzkalns and rented four snowboards and a pair of skis for me.
Once on the slopes, Bri took turns with each of the kids giving them their first feel for the boards and for the movement. Snowboarding is a little different than their ripsticks – they turn with their back foot with the boards and have to worry about catching their edges and falling on their face or their back. Which happened a lot.
The international school (and the Latvian schools) have a school break that they call a "ski break," and we decided that the timing was right to teach the kids to ski. The kids love their ripsticks (similar to how you stand on snowboards) and we have been watching the Olympics and the kids were impressed with all of the snowboarding they saw; they all decided they wanted to learn to snowboard, and their snowboarding dad was only too happy to accommodate. So on Monday and Tuesday of the ski break we drove out to Milzkalns and rented four snowboards and a pair of skis for me.
Once on the slopes, Bri took turns with each of the kids giving them their first feel for the boards and for the movement. Snowboarding is a little different than their ripsticks – they turn with their back foot with the boards and have to worry about catching their edges and falling on their face or their back. Which happened a lot.
We spent a lot of time on a rope tow bunny hill, and the kids had lessons with a young Latvian snowboarder named Anna Maria. She was very patient with the kids and they were doing pretty well for the first day.
Bri and Thomas headed to the biggest run where Thomas impressed his dad with how well he was picking it up and Bri impressed his son with the fact that his dad can snowboard. I went up a harder lift (than the bunny slope) with the girls for a few runs before we called it a day. There are no chairs at Milzkalns – they use "anchors," which is basically a long bar with a wedge on the end that you grab and put between your legs and let the line pull you up. It's tricky to do with snowboards, and there was a little drama with all of the kids (even Bri fell a couple of times) as we figured it out. But by the end of the day the girls had it down. I went up a slope with Thomas and caught some video before we left on our first day.
Thomas was the first to catch on and figure out how to turn without falling over, and pretty much had the gist of it down after the first day and moved on to the bigger runs. We were all a little sore after Monday and waited until Wednesday to go back. Rhea picked it up early Wednesday morning, and was making beautiful turns by mid day. Savvy stuck with it and kept trying until she finally got it down.
A Latvian mom who was on the bunny hill with her called her "her hero" for Savvy's determination to get snowboarding.
Bri and Thomas headed to the biggest run where Thomas impressed his dad with how well he was picking it up and Bri impressed his son with the fact that his dad can snowboard. I went up a harder lift (than the bunny slope) with the girls for a few runs before we called it a day. There are no chairs at Milzkalns – they use "anchors," which is basically a long bar with a wedge on the end that you grab and put between your legs and let the line pull you up. It's tricky to do with snowboards, and there was a little drama with all of the kids (even Bri fell a couple of times) as we figured it out. But by the end of the day the girls had it down. I went up a slope with Thomas and caught some video before we left on our first day.
We took a break on Wednesday, and I had to tutor on TH and FRI and we had a dental appointment scheduled (that got canceled because the hygienist was sick), and Bri was sore and tired from the previous days of skiing, so we didn't go back out as a family. But Bri and Thomas headed back up to Milzkalns on Saturday with Thomas' friend Carl, his little brother Sam, and dad's DOD colleague Carl Sr. All had a good time skiing and snowboarding, and Thomas and Carl Jr. enjoyed spending some time bonding on the slopes together. After several hours they were all spent and headed home.
We are glad we finally had a chance to take the kids snowboarding and get through the miserable first few days in a humane (and inexpensive) place, and look forward to many more family ski trips together!
We are glad we finally had a chance to take the kids snowboarding and get through the miserable first few days in a humane (and inexpensive) place, and look forward to many more family ski trips together!
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