We took the kids skiing on Friday at Crotched Mountain. Kate really started skiing last year. Shad and I think she is like me in the way that she looks at the sport. She looks up to the top of the lift and says “I want to go up there.” She goes up the lift, looks at all the runs on the way up and chooses which one she wants to ski down. She has no idea that there are different levels of runs and I am not about to tell her that it’s green, blue, black, etc. Reilly, on the other hand, is a preparer. He believes that he needs to do all the greens and sees no reason to move to the blues (although he is totally capable). Once he figured out Kate selected a blue run to ski down he began his lecture. I cut him off and Kate and I skied down. She did great and who am I to tell her she can’t do it when she believes she can. Instead I told her to take her time.

After a couple runs we went in the lodge. Reilly realized we were not going to spend any money in the snack bar for him, so he opted to leave with Dad. Kate wanted to stay and ski with me some more. We did two more runs, one of which I LAUNCHED on a skier. Kate and I were about 10 yards apart playing follow the leader when this “tween ski racer” skied through us. Yes, through us. She was a fully accessorized racer with her bump guards on her poles. She skied right in front of Kate then cut right in front of me skied to the side and stopped with a girlfriend. I started screaming at her. It went something like this…. SERIOUSLY???????????????????? SERIOUSLY???????????????? YOU JUST USED AT FOUR-YEAR OLD AS A SKI GATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A SKI GATE AND ON A GREEN RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SERIOUSLY???????????? WOW…. long pause… tween chin resting on chest… tween girlfriend says “sorry…….”. My reply: WOW, I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE SEEN YOU HERE AT THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Needless to say I was furious this girl who was a beautiful skier felt the need to practically clip Kate’s tips and then mine. Thankfully Kate tends to be a bit oblivious and said to me… “why are you talking to that girl and her friend, do you know her?”

My response was “c’mon, let’s ski five more turns…. pizza….. french fries….. pizza…..”

Tween paused quite some time before she passed us again.