Mountain Explorers

I may have mentioned in a past post that one of Gwen's Christmas presents was a month in Roundtop's Mountain Explorer program. She went four Saturday's in January from 10-3:30. She was with the same kids and had the same instructor each week, so all the kids were at the same level. Gwen is in the 2-tone purple ski jacket in the front.


We can't say enough good things about this program. While some people may pooh-pooh our local ski mountain (or large hill!), this program is superb. The instructors are great with kids, really enjoy them, and are totally excited about skiing with them. I know I would never have the patience, but these people really love working with the kids.

At the end of each session, Gwen was revved up and so excied about her class and what she could do. They played games like follow the leader, Simon says, and had races. The learned skills by, as Gwen put it, "skiing sideways, backwards, and on one leg." I'm not sure about going backwards, but slip sliding sideways and skiing one one leg are fun things that teach you to keep your skis flat and teach you to make correct turns. As you can see from this video, Gwen not only learned her lessons well, but she had a total blast doing it.

This ski experience was totally a Gwen and Grandpa bonding moment. Grandpa would pick Gwen up, deliver her to class and make sure that all was well. He would check in with Gwen on the mountain to snap some pics and would pick her up at the end of the day. Gwen found a new appreciation for her Grandpa and they found joy in each other. It doesn't get any better than this.