Live from Boise following the Idaho Erben's one post at a time…

Tyler Carving up Brundage

Last weekend, we dusted off the family truckster, grabbed a bite to eat, and headed up to McCall on Saturday.  On Sunday, we had one destination on the itinerary, Brundage, and a skiing lesson for Tyler.  Since we turned in fairly early, everyone was up and ready to roll, including our tasty breakfast at the hotel.

  

It was a wee bit chilly, hovering around 6 degrees when I cranked over the Tahoe at 8:30ish, and we were off for the short trip northwest of McCall to Brundage.  We arrived around 9, and headed into the kids center.  Flossie signed Tyler up for his lesson, and he went into the kids area with the other "bears".

 

Nora was clamoring to head into the daycare area after spying their collection of toys, but unfortunately for her, she had to tote around with Mommy and Daddy.  We headed up to the lodge, grabbed some warm drinks, and spent a little bit gazing over the base area.  It was a beautiful, blue bird day, with nary a cloud in the sky as the Bluebird quad hummed in the distance.  The lodge was fairly quiet, but Nora managed to find another little girl around her age, and stalked her for a few minutes until her parents wisked her away onto the slopes in a backpack child carrier.  I am quite sure I could have done the same with Nora and she would have been content.

  

Tyler was not scheduled to come out of the Kids Center until 10:30 (I think they start gearing them up around 9:30, and going over some inside instruction, as well as letting the kids interact with each other), and Nora had already dragged Mommy and Daddy outside a couple times onto the balcony from the lodge, so we headed back to the Tahoe to dress Nora in her snow gear.  Then, we headed to the north side of the parking lot, and took Nora for a little sledding.  She did not show much emotion either way, but it was pretty clear while she tolerated sledding, she was just more interested in getting out and walking in the snow, touching it, and eating it (so, we had the "Just say no, to, yellow snow" talk).

    

After a bit of fun with Nora, we headed over to the Kids Center as it was nearing 10:30.  Shortly after we sat down, Tyler came waltzing out with his instructor and classmate, carrying his skiis, oblivious to our existence.  We were curious how he would do being dropped off in a strange place, with strange people, in a strange setting, but he seemed to have no issues and looked excited to get out and play in the snow.  For parts of the next 90-100 minutes or so, we hung around the Kids Center, watching Tyler while entertaining Nora.  Peaches loved walking in the snow, so we covered a fair amount of terrain, going up and down snow banks, sitting our our hiney and sliding, while Tyler went from ski noob to a little pizza wedging four-year old.

         

It took ~30 minutes for the two kids to make it down the hill the first time.  They started with putting on their skis, walking around on one ski, then standing up with both skis.  Next up, they made a little trek down a slight incline, both making it about 10-15 feet before introducing their rear-end to the snow.  As they worked down though, they slowly gained control and then it was time for a ride on the chairlift.  As we watched them coming up the triple-chair, you could see, and even at times hear, Tyler, yapping, the entire way up.  Hands were waving, pointing, and his mouth was rambling, presumably about the war on terror or economic policy.

After getting off the lift, the two kids were totally different, and they glided out and down the run, playing red-light, green-light with the instructor, working on starting and stopping and good pizza wedge form to slow to a stop.  We were quite excited looking on as Tyler seemed to have no issues with ski control, and also seemed to be having a ball.  Quite the feeling to see a four-year old tackle something like this and pick it up so quickly.

     

Of course...he did wreck once or twice...

but after a couple tries, he was cutting through trees with ease...

 

The lesson lasted until about 12:15...and the boys took off their skiis, carried them in, with Tyler passing us on the deck, finally noticing we were around.  He had a huge smile, but was headed in for lunch with the other "bears".  Picking him up and walking back to the Tahoe, he was yabbering as usual about skiing, hot chocolate, and his cookie.  Maybe another couple lessons and it will be time for Mommy and Daddy to strap in and hit the slopes with Tyler Robert.

More photos are available on the Flickr Set.  We also have a few movies of the day as well: