Swish, Swish

We had a great time cross-country skiing yesterday. After a week of really frigid weather, yesterday was start of the big warm up, today all the snow will melt as the temperature reaches the mid-forties.

We had been cooped up all week from the lack of a car and the cold. The weekend was beautiful. The Cook County Forest Preserve District operates a ski rental facility at Camp Sagawau near Lemont. The facility is in an old farmhouse and they can rent skis to people as small as the Little Man and as big as me.

We only tried the trail labeled "easy." It has been nearly 30 years (and one original ankle) since I last skied, and after yesterday, I really regret the absence. The trail was very scenic, but started with a scary hill. As this was full of bald spots, we took the advice of one of the volunteers and carried our skis down. From there, it was smooth sailing, sort of. Mark and I managed not to fall, but not for lack of trying. The kids fell often, but only one really learned how to get up. Mark had to hold the Little Man's hand or even carry him part of the way. I focused on my balance.

The older two tackled the large up hill in the picture, and fell. Little Missy couldn't quite figure out how to stand up and managed to slip her ski and boot off, it slid to us at the bottom of the hill. That's when we realized she had removed her socks to get the boot to fit better. Yikes. Mark carried the ski and boot up the hill to her while Nathan went around the loop and got to go down the hill on the other side. The Little Man, ever so helpful, had removed his skis and climbed the hill on foot to help his sister. While Mark was helping her get her boot on and the other ski off, our munchkin managed to hide a ski almost completely in a hollow log.

We'll go again this winter. At $30 per family, it's a really reasonable outing. And, if memory serves me correctly, it gets easier, the kids will fall less and be less frustrated as time goes on. Even with all the falling and the difficulty getting up hills, we all had a great time.