Oveson Family

The boys’ birthdays were this past week. Something they’ve wanted to do, especially with the Winter Olympics going, is to go skiing. As their father, I felt it my duty to teach my boys the rigorous sport of downhill skiing. We went and rented some skis and headed up to Wolf Mountain, a nearby resort. The beautiful thing about Wolf Mountain is that it’s A) close, B) cheap, and C) has an awesome learning area. They have something up there they call the Magic Carpet, which is just a conveyor belt that you can stand on to go back up to the top of the learning hill. This was really cool for the boys. Here’s a video of Preston on it:

When we got up to the learner hill, Zach just took off. He said “Bye, Dad!” and just started going down the hill. He crashed about halfway down, but he did rather well for just taking off like that. I tried to teach him how to snowplow but he wasn’t very interested in that. So he just kept going, learning through trial and error but learning quickly. By the time we stopped four-and-a-half hours later he was doing incredibly well. Here’s a video that Zach shot skiing down on his last run:

Preston hung back with me as I tried to show him how to turn and stop. For anyone who’s ever been skiing, it’s not so easy to learn. Some people really take to it. Trying to tell somehow how to ski for the first time is harder than I thought it would be. Preston was a real trooper though and just kept going and going, despite my confusing directions. At one point he wanted to go home, but we took a break and ate some M&M’s. After that he kept going and going. It was awesome. Here’s a video of him coming off the Magic Carpet. This wasn’t his best exit, but he was awesome even when he fell:

And here’s our fearless Zach, looking like someone on the A-Team…

Preston posing for his skiing debut:

The boys kept wanting to race me, which we did. Both boys beat me soundly, and it was a lot of fun. Here’s a video of the boys racing:

A few funny comments from the day are listed below:

Preston, after crashing: “Dad, I thought you said the snow was soft.”

Zach: “Dad, I think you should work here”

Dad: “Why’s that Zach?”

Zach: “Because then we could ski here EVERYDAY!”

Dad: “Preston, I think you could use some M&M’s.”

Preston: “But we don’t have any M&M’s.”

Dad: “Oh yes we do. They’re in my pocket.”

Preston: “How did they get in your pocket?”

Dad: “Magic.”

Preston: “There’s no such thing as magic.”