Arthur and Sadie invited Olivia and me to our annual father-daughter ski trip with the Brian and Katie. Kjell and Aaron were there to supervise. They all arived on Sunday, but Olivia and I didn’t head out until Wednesday afternoon. It was getting late by the time we were on the road in Denver and the trip was somewhat harrowing with snow and high winds. Thankfully, we made it safely after everyone was already asleep.
Olivia only attended ski school for a day last year and decided she doesn’t enjoy it. This year, we had a deal that she would go to ski school every other day, so on day 1, she stuck to it, but negotiated me down to half a day. It seemed like she did okay, even though she was on the same little magic carpet hill as last year. After lunch, we skied together on chair 12 the rest of the day.
On day 2, we skiied together from 9:15am to 4pm, with only one stop for lunch. It was a beautiful day and Olivia really worked on learning to ski rather than just holding my hand. It takes about 5 minutes to go up and down, with virtually no lift line. I estimate we took at least 60 runs that day. Too bad we weren’t getting tracked on our Epic Pass.
On day 3, Olivia was supposed to go to ski school, but somehow she got out of it. My deal was that she had to go to the top of the mountain because we were done with the bunny hill. Everyone else was leaving that day, so we skied half the day with Sadie and Katie. Olivia had a hard time keeping up with those girls, who are both skiing really well. After a couple breaks and then saying goodbye, Olivia and I skied the rest of the day and real progress was made.
On Saturday night, it was just us, so we headed into town for a nice dinner. My old friend, Worth, from our days together at Andersen in Chicago, happened to be in Vail. We met up at dinner and it was great catching up after so many years.
We were leaving Sunday afternoon, so we headed out for a half day of skiing and Olivia was awesome. It was cold and windy, so we took a few breaks. Olivia wanted to quit a little early, so I decided we’d ski all the way to the bottom rather than download on chair 6. This turned out to be a potentially traumatic decision, as Olivia became tired and cold on the long ride down. 30 minutes later, after a little assist from me down a blue, we were atop her bunny hill and she finished strong on her own just like last year.
The snow this winter has been bleak. I’m glad I was able to make use of my season pass. Private lessons with tiger dad are a lot cheaper than ski school and seemingly effective. Olivia and I had such a great time together with our friends. Can’t wait to get Lucas out there this year or next.
