Aubrie's First Skiing Experience... AAAHHHHH!!!! - March 12, 2011

Probably since I met Landen and we became friends he's been bugging me to go skiing.  He loves skiing and has done it for years.  The pressure came on a little more strongly once the snow hit a few months ago.  I've been dragging my feet because frankly I didn't want to die!  He would be looking online for new skis and say, "Hey look!  I found some that would fit you!"  Ummm...no thank you.  But as time went on he wore me down.  He needs to thank some of the patients in my office at work who encouraged it, especially Leah.  She is a ski instructor at the Canyons Resort in Park City.  I was doing her ultrasound one day and we got talking about skiing and she told me I had to try it and that she said she could get us some discounted passes.  Going for 1/2 the price made it a little more appealing...I'm so cheap!  So, I decided I would finally do it and Landen was sooooooo excited to say the least :) 

Well, I sure had an experience of a lifetime!  I had to go rent my ski equipment and this is how I was feeling afterward:

Saturday came and I was preparing to face the mountain!  Not gonna lie, I was nervous.  Very, very nervous.  We got there and got all our gear on and headed up.  When I got to the ticket office to request the tickets Leah left for us I was trying to pay and the girl looks at me and said, "Those are free."  WHAT?  Leah left us free day passes instead of 1/2 off passes!  Oh my goodness!  That was the nicest thing ever!  It was awesome. 

(note, these two pictures were taken at the end of the day after it started raining, but when we got there it was beautiful!!!  It was sunny and pretty warm :)  I was really grateful for the great weather!) 



This is my scared smile...



All ready to go :)  I definitely wore the yellow jacket just in case I needed to be rescued...

Finally Landen and I got on the new heated bubble lift (it was pretty amazing that it was heated!) and headed up the mountain.  And this is the point where I started freaking out!  HA!  I was so scared.  We got off the first stop of the lift...and that was our first mistake!  But we didn't know it at the time.  Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I fell the first time off.  Blah. The beginning of the run wasn't too bad and Landen was teaching me how to snowplow and control my speed that way, but I didn't know how to turn yet. Well, eventually that run merged with another one...a BIG BIG BIG one!  AAAHHHHHHHH.  We didn't know this was going to happen.  I was trying to go down but it got too steep for my skill level.  There was really no way I could ski down it.  Due to my lack of being able to turn we were stuck in the dead middle of the run, no joke. Luckily it was so big that people coming down could see you and had plenty of room to avoid us.  Eventually I just laid there and cried because I couldn't do it, I just couldn't.  I had to take my skis off to turn them around and then we headed for the side.  I just scooted across.  It was ridiculous.  Oh, while we were in the middle this snowboarding instructor came down and asked us what was going on and then she started kinda yelling at us that we were in the wrong place for beginners and she was just really rude and then just snowboarded away and didn't even offer to help!  That didn't help my emotional state at all.  Anyway.

We got over to the side, finally, and we were trying to decide what to do when some workers/ski patrol guys came and asked us if we needed any help.  They were sooooo nice!  I'm so grateful for them!  They literally saved me!  They told us they would get me out of there and to where I needed to be.  They carried my skis down while I walked down...and eventually slid down on my butt...to where it flattened out and I could get my skis back on.  We had to take a lift back up...yes, UP...I wasn't too thrilled about it at first, but it worked out.  They were so good to me and wanted to make it a good day.  Hey, I got off the lift without falling that time!!!  Progress!  That one got us almost right to the beginners run :)  Happy day!  They skied me the rest of the way down...so I pretty much got a free lesson from them!  That was pretty cool.  It felt soooo much better being where I should have been...glad we finally made it there!  They took me through the ski school part and helped me learn how to turn.  They kept telling me to let my skis get a little speed because they work better if they're moving.  Well, I finally started to get the hang of it and it was actually fun!  Yes, I said FUN.  It ended up being a positive experience thanks to my new friends :)  Oh, and thanks to Landen, he was soooo good to me!  He was so patient...love that boy :)  We got back to where they do the adult ski school and I finally got to sit down and get some water, I was exhausted at this point.  We sat for a few minutes and I wished I could have practiced a little more, but my legs were shot, so we took the gondola down to the bottom.  Landen made me promise the night before that I would go at least one more time after today and I will definitely try it again.  It was fun once I finally got the hang of it so hopefully next time I'll be able to remember how to do it :)  All in all it was a good experience!  I'm glad I finally did it!  Now nobody can bug me about it anymore. 

 I DID IT!!!

 

When we got down to the bottom we went and ate lunch, which was delicious!  The worst part was wearing those dang ski boots!!!  I was sooooo ready to get those off!  After lunch Landen went and did a few runs by himself so he could actually SKI...and I went down to the car to get out of those boots!  Man...that felt soooooo good :)  Then I went and walked around some shops until Landen was done.  By that time it had started to rain so we headed out.  It was a fun day!  Glad the first time is over though!!!  The second time must be better...it has to be....I'll let you know in a few months! 

On our way home we stopped at the Outlet Mall in Park City...and it was awesome!!!  We got some sweet deals!!!  We saved over $400!  Oh yeah, that felt good.  It's probably bad that we found those outlets...I'll have to limit my time there...ha!