Dane

Everything gets a little easier with time. Even being in a far away land without my big boys.  My life is slowly getting back to normal after Soren’s whirlwind visit, excepting the pile of snowboards in my living room.  We are getting back into our normal rhythm and that is a good thing.  Frequent phone calls, a little Skype, and all my happy memories help to make it easier.

I take great comfort in sifting through my hard drive full of photo’s.  I love to edit them, get them ready for photo books, and recall all the happy moments. I like to write, I love to read, and I’m working on my journaling. I have albums of photo’s from my oma, none with journaling, I don’t know who 90% of the people in the photo’s are.  It is becoming a lost generation.  I’m determined to not be a lost generation.  I hope my kids, my grandkids, my great-grandkids will have many rainy afternoons enjoying our scrapbooks & my journaling.  As many as I have enjoyed creating them.

Our long weekend to Lech Zürs, Austria, was not only stunningly beautiful, but also one of those perfect little family weekends.  We had minor squabbling, lots of laughs, tons of fun, snowball fights & made great memories. I think Soren has really missed us.  He’s long outgrown me on the slopes.  Gone are the days were he can’t keep up with me, and I wait patiently every hundred feet or so.  Now he is the one waiting for me.  I love that he waits for me, curbing his own desire to fly down the mountain at top speeds so we can do it together.  Though, let me be honest, he yelled at me more than once to: “Quit baking a cake!”

Soren was also the knight in black armor for both Dane & Tessa.  Tess, despite having boarded & skied before, started off on the wrong foot.  Probably because her mom took her up a too long lift, on a too hard slope, on a board with poorly sharpened edges.  After sliding down on her bottom half of the run, she gave up.  I can’t blame her.  Neither could Soren, he swooped her up in his arms & carried her down the mountain, riding his board.  I wish I’d had a go pro on my head to film that!

After two runs all the way down the Kriegeralpe (this is like three American-length runs in Tahoe), I was exhausted & switched to snowboots & put on my coaching hat. Tess switched to skis & joined me, Dane & Cole on the bunny run.  I spent the first hour walking Dane up the run, towing, pointing his skies down the mountain and letting go! It is terrifying to let go of your 5-year-old and watch him barrel down a mountain.  Bunny hill or not.  But he did awesome.  True, stopping = falling, but his actual skiing was awesome.  The smile on his face even awesomer.

Tess got the hang of the T-bar tow immediately, and surprisingly, Cole did as well.  Cole, the same kid who couldn’t stay up on the snowboard, could manage a tow lift without problems.  Dane, however, couldn’t do it.  His poor little body went flying every time he tried.  Luckily Soren again swooped in & saved the day.  I’m pretty sure that this wouldn’t fly in the states, but over here they’re a little bit more about personal accountability.  Soren lined up at the lift, the attendant safe & warm inside the little hut, threw Dane over his shoulder, skis & all, and grabbed the T-bar to tow them both to the top.

They spent the afternoon going up this way, then Dane skiing down, with Soren right behind him coaching him all the way.  Skiing is now Dane’s favorite thing.  Ever.