Skiing!

We went skiing this weekend with the ex-pats group from Opera. Just a half an hour out of town on the subway, there was a little ski-rental hut and a nice area to try it out. None of us had ever been skiing before. It wasn’t the crazy bum-bruising fiasco I thought it would be, but I definitely did not feel as graceful on the skis as the Norwegians looked. Ruby, of course, did not ski. We bundled her up and put her in the sled and we attached it to the backpack on Chris like a harness. It was pretty cute. C was a good sport and tried the skis for about 20 minutes or so before he announced he was done. By that point, Ruby was done being in the sled so I held her while Chris ski-pulled C around in the sled.

Wow! Skiing! I never gave it a chance before this week. But it really was fun. Could have been more fun, if I hadn’t been worrying about the children. But that’s life! It was good to get out again. We’ve been doing a lot of staying home. A lot of warm drinks and snuggly fires. A lot of work on the website, too…

Ruby fell asleep on the train, so I’m trying to get her inside the ski hut to bundle her up better and get her in the sled. (Thanks Markus for the picture!)

Chris and C are walking on the overpass, over the train tracks. It’s great that a mere 30 minutes out of town is the beautiful, wild area for sledding, skiing, hiking, etc.

I got Ruby inside and got her in the sled with the pelt, all without waking her up.

I got Ruby all bundled up, and we are ready to head up to the skiing area.

The group of expats are headed up to the skiing area. Chris is in the background, carrying Ruby in the sled (it was a pretty steep hill). Deepak is on the left, Yenny and boyfriend Alessandro are in the center. Markus, our German friend, took the picture.

The skiing area is actually a frozen-over pond. Large, flat, treeless… makes good skiing! C and I got a ride up the hill while Chris and the others walked.

Ruby is still asleep in the sled, and Chris and I are trying to figure out how we are going to handle her, C, and skis.

Ruby is waking up in the sled, but hasn’t moved a muscle yet.

I’ve got big skis! Chris and I had to both buy snowpants for this adventure. The children have all the cold-weather gear they could want, but we don’t really. I even bought a new more-outdoorsy hat (as opposed to my beret), but I did already have a big warm fuzzy matching scarf (thanks Wendy!).

We attached the sled to the backpack Chris is wearing. It worked very well to pull her around.

Håvard, one of Chris’s office mates, said this picture was “too Norwegian” to be true, and Chris must be a tourist.

Bent kindly helped us get our skis on and gave us a few pointers.

Look at that cute little guy on his cute little skis!!

C looks so cute on his skis! He could get around all right on them, but he kind of stops trying if you give him too much help. So, after the third or fourth time he fell, we were trying to help him, but he was getting frustrated and not trying anymore… but he seemed to enjoy himself other than that!

Ruby’s getting cold, and C’s getting grumpy… Chris doesn’t know what to do!

Chris takes Ruby on one more spin around the lake.

So, we thought we were so cool with our dinky little sled-and-backpack set up — this guy has a little baby sleigh and real harness! He’s awesome! I even saw the baby later, it was really cute. And the baby is insulated by like 10 inches of pelts and padding and blankets, and it’s got that cool wind/snow screen. I’m envious! Not that we go skiing nearly often enough to justify something like this.

Chris found this company recently that makes these things — it’s called a pulk!

So, Ruby got too cold in the sled so I took her out and C got too tired of skiing so he got in. Chris took him for a big ride around the lake.

Chris is skiing along with C behind him. In the middle of this movie, some parents help a little kid on skis go past us. The child is not much older than Ruby… but he looked more stable on his skis than some of the first-time adults I saw!

Skiing, pulling 40 pounds, is hard work!

We are waiting at the bus stop on the way home.

It’s been a long day, and we are all a little chilled and worn out. Looking forward to a fire and some hot chocolate at home!