Sydney Fuller

I Like It Hot

A little trip to the Mount Princeton Hot Springs on the last day of 2011.

My Dad Rules, Wait He Sucks

After our last ski day, I decided to buy Sydney new boots and skis to avoid the future rental lines. Its an investment in saving time plus we have 3 kids to rotate through then I can always resell them. So I dropped some coin over in Frisco buying some new sweet skis for Sydney. She loved the more expensive white boots. Fine. Got the binding cheap. But the ski sizes were picked over. She was on 100s the other day. They had those but I wanted to go bigger for some growing room. 120 was the next size in stock. "Will these be OK?", I would ask. Nobody was sure but figured they would work now or eventually. So we got them.

So we are back at Ski Cooper. Same routine. Reagan and I, then Sydney solo. Syd heads up before us. All is well. We re-group at the top. Let's go! That was so much faster. Good job, Dad!

Crap. Why is Sydney falling constantly? Why can't she turn? Better go over there. I find Sydney 1/4 way down the mountain bawling. She can't turn. Her feet hurt. She wants to go home. Wow! Everything in her life was ruined at that moment. I tried to get her to just keep going but she would just fall. It was like she wasn't trying. She says she was. I didn't look like it. Just looked to me like it was harder and she threw in the towel. My fault.

So I took one of Reagan's straps off and tied it around Sydney's backpack. I then tried and finally succeeded at getting them to both ski straight downhill in front of me while I held them back. It was a huge V-formation. I looked like I was driving two horses or something. Sydney kept falling even in this situation. It was bad. Reagan was a trooper but she was getting really bored and cold waiting for Sydney all this time. It sucked for her.

After way too long, we got to the bottom and all fell into the snow to relax. They wanted to go home. I wouldn't let them. We had to think of a better solution. We ended up renting Sydney some 100 skis only and using her new boots. I pepped Reagan back up and we were on top of the mountain again 30 minutes later. Sydney had new life and picked up right where she left off the other day. I hated that I screwed up the morning. Lesson learned.

That's Syd up on a chair solo in front of us.

We took a mid-afternoon snack break and then got one last run in during a wind storm. I figured these kids had been burnt out after this. However, when we got home, they put there ski boots on and their skis and tried to ski everything on our property. Guess they had fun.

Skate Date

We took a family skate night at the Leadville ice rink. Lots of craziness. Such a fun time.

Back On Skis

Reagan, Sydney and I went skiing at Ski Cooper today. Its such a great family spot. Sydney rented skis for the day. She had to ride the lift by herself as Reagan and I would take the next chair behind her. We tried to entertain her by playing movie trivia by just yelling answers between chairs. It passed the time.

I was (and wasn't) surprised that Sydney picked up right where she left off last season. Just skiing from the start all by herself as Reagan and I followed behind. Very proud of her. Never worried about her. Even when she would fall and lose a ski. She had to deal and she did. Cool to see.

Skiing has been one of those rewarding things I get to do with the kids...like teaching them to ride a bike. Once they get it, they are off!

Sledding

Sydney loves anything outside involving snow. She doesn't even have to wear gloves when I am freezing to death. Freaky.