Yesterday marked Stella’s 4th day on the mountain, and she truly is improving by leaps & bounds every weekend that we take her up. We have gotten to the point that we’ll take her on the big ski runs and let her just practice her turns & stops without being on the leash, though when we get to the steeper inclines I use this leash contraption thing you can see below as a safety measure to help her slow down and stay in control until she gets to be a stronger skier. It’s an awesome invention, but HOLY HELL it hurts my legs because I end up in snowplow mode behind her the entire time!

That being said, it’s worth it to see how quickly she is getting a feel for her edges and turning and speed. Yesterday we skied for 5 hours, and her Dad ran the leash for half of one run. However, his knees & legs were killing him and he’s not as good of a skier as I am, so back to me the leashes came after about 10 minutes. Not gonna lie – I’m a little stoked he tried it out at least so he could fully appreciate how hard I was working yesterday. Every sore muscle is worth it to see the smile on my kid’s face!

On an unrelated healthy living side note, after 18 years of shunning the skiers and snowboarders around him, my husband has re-caught the bug! Bringing Stella up has reignited his desire to give it a shot, and half way through the day yesterday (his 2nd day up this year), he turned and looked at me, and with the BIGGEST grin on his face said, “I am SO getting a ski pass next year!” Seriously, who is this man? LOL. We will be taking Harvey up next winter as well, so hopefully this can be a fun way for the entire family to get exercise and get to spend time together in the winter!