Skiing in Deer Valley

On Monday morning, the week before Christmas, we headed back to Deer Valley to ski:

Actually, let me clarify, these 3 skied, I did not:

I have gone skiing twice in my life & I just don't think I am a fan. It's ok, but not worth paying that much money. I would rather go shopping, head to the spa or relax in the lodge, which is exactly what I did! In fact, I spent most of the first day sitting by the fire inside reading:

But these 2 girls went to their first day of ski school. Sophie was in the bambi program & Sadie was in the reindeer program:

We dropped them off around 9:00 & Sadie skied most of the day. I went outside in the morning to watch her. She was in a group with 3 other kids, all who were boys & their instructor was a college student named Skylar:

First they learned how to put on their skis, then they learned how to ski on 1 kind of like they were on a scooter:

Then they progressed to both skis on & talked a lot about french fries & pizza pies:

Once they knew the basics, they had to carry their skis up the hill to the training area:

Before she headed up, she took a picture with me & then I went & found Bryan:

You can tell it was still early in the morning, not too crowded, the sun had not came over the mountain yet & it was cold. That's why I headed back inside! Around lunch, I headed back out to meet Bryan & watch Sadie. She had been on the training hill all morning riding the magic carpet ride, learning how to turn, learning how to stop, etc.:

For some reason, he always had them going down behind each other & Sadie was always in the back. I don't know if it was because she had the most control or if she was the fastest, but he always had to help the guys in front of her. To be honest, she is pretty athletic so I had no doubt that she would pick it up easy & she did. Bryan & I got to stay up there for about 30 minutes to watch her & take videos of her:

Most of the morning, Sophie was inside. Even though they were at school all day, they only skied for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. She spent most of the morning coloring, doing crafts & staying warm inside. After lunch, they came out & she had an individual ski lesson with her instructor Holly:

She basically went through the same training. Learn to put skis on, try to scooter on 1 ski & then learn to do french fries & pizza pie on 2:

The biggest difference between her & Sadie - their attention. Sadie is a rule follower. She listens diligently & tries her best at all times. Sophie lives in her own world most of the time & you could tell she was not paying attention. In fact, most of the time she was licking her gloves or picking up snow & eating it:

I don't know if you can really tell from the pictures, but that's what she was doing! Eventually, she headed up to the training hill where Sadie was. Sadie was up a little higher on a different run, but they were in the same area so we could watch them both & they were excited to see each other. She loved the magic carpet ride. in fact I heard her telling her instructor it was just like Aladdin:

Honestly, I was iffy about wasting our time & money on school with her, but we wanted her to at least try it & you know what - she surprised us both! Once she actually got up there, she actually skied pretty decently. Better than I ever imagined:

Eventually, Bryan & I left them alone so they could finish school without us & we headed back to the lodge for lunch. We met up with our friends Tony & Jenny to eat & then Bryan headed back out to ski that afternoon with them:

I took those pictures down at the bottom before they headed back out. Jenny is a college friend of Bryan's & they kept talking about the last time they went skiing together which was back in their college days. I guess later someone took a picture of them up on the mountain:

Around 4:00 that afternoon, we had to pick up the girls. Sophie was already back inside but we picked up Sadie outside. She literally skied most of the day & she loved it! So much that we signed her up for a second day so she could stay with the same instructor & other students:

Sophie had a good day but when we asked her if she wanted to ski again, she said she wanted to go back & play. Ha! I think it was more like expensive daycare for her so I couldn't justify paying for school again when she skied so little. Sadie on the other hand couldn't wait to go back the next morning. Apparently she had another awesome day & even got to go up on the lift. When Bryan picked her up, Skylar said she was ready to go up on the big lift all the way to the top with him so they were both so excited! Unfortunately it was so late in the day they only got to go down once, but they had fun together:

Bryan had skied all day by himself & he took a couple of pictures that really show how dry it is:

Obviously they were skiing on fake snow! But the girls didn't know any difference & still had fun. Especially Sadie when she got to go out with Bryan her second day:

Deer Valley was awesome. There were a couple of options for skiing but I am really glad they went there. We had heard it was less crowded because they don't allow snow boarders & that was definitely true. Plus it ended up being a little cheaper & I thought the lodge was nicer & the food was great!

So what did Sophie & I do on that 2nd day while they were skiing? We went shopping of course! We took the shuttle to main street:

Where we spent the day walking around, checking out the stores & having lunch:

We had a great day together & honestly, I don't think she missed skiing. She was in her element hanging out with me :) 

When Bryan & Sadie got back that night, we had dinner at our hotel & played games in the lobby by the fire:

The 2 of them would have loved to go skiing again on Wednesday, but I had other plans for us. Our elf Ellie surprised the girls & tried to go skiing herself:

Silly Ellie!