{ Hitting The Slopes }

Yesterday the whole family headed to Hidden Valley to ski.  Since Ava hasn't been coming with us, we decided to get her a longer group lesson in the Rippers Program from 10 am to 3 pm.  She only needed to rent boots and skis and she was ready!  I got her all set up and then met up with the boys to make a few runs.  We checked back in with Ava around 11:45 am and she started crying, saying she wanted to go home! Crap, not what we were expecting!  It was almost time for them to break for lunch, so I told her I would stay and watch her until then..while the boys made a few more runs and hit the truck for a packed lunch.  She did well until the break and the instructor (Chase) said they were going to try the ski lift after lunch...so I told Ava I would check back in on her later.  I skied over to the North Summit and down to where we had the truck parked and ate lunch with the boys.  By the time we went back over to the other side of the mountain, we couldn't even find her class; they had gone up the lift and were heading down the mountain....we were on the lift when we spotted her on a slope to our left...she was doing fantastic, turning and everything!  She only fell once, got up and kept on going!  We went to pick her up from the class at 3:00 and she said she loved it and wanted to keep going with us!  So we made two runs with her and she didn't fall once (even getting off of the lift!) She is totally awesome!  Andy was all over the mountain too...going through the woods, making his own path...he didn't fall either; in fact, if I'm not mistaken (and I'm not), Tim was the only one who fell the whole day...hmmmm!