But my mommy thinks I'm funny

Last Friday through Wednesday we taught lessons at Park City. Last season, Jon got lessons almost every day we taught and I only taught twice all season. This season has turned out to be the opposite. Monday through Wednesday, I was put down in Sig 3. This is the special lessons for the three to five year olds. There are only three kids per class and lessons consist of more indoor play than actual skiing. I have never taught down there and let me just tell you, it was like nursery on steroids. From the moment I walked through the door, there were kids screaming and crying for their mommy. Don't get me wrong, they were super cute, most of them anyways. I taught a little boy who kept burping. He was four and already had learned how to burp on command. I laughed a little the first time, but when he kept doing it, I told him how gross it was. His reply was, "but my mommy thinks I'm funny when I do it at home".

Those three days were the best form of birth control/parenting lessons I have ever received. Like I said, there were some really cute kids. Like the little girl who was almost parallel skiing and only four who told me that she was way faster than me, but I was a little better skier than she was. But working with those kids really made me think about raising my own children.

Jon and I have talked about having well rounded children who aren't shy and are fearless. This experience only helped to confirm this. I hope that when the time comes for my kids to be left with strangers that they will be the ones comforting the crying kids and cracking jokes with the grown ups.
Ok, so this picture has nothing to do with skiing. This is Anika (I think that's how you spell it). She went on the river with us this summer and totally exemplifies a brave, well-rounded child. She spent the week in the freezing cold April rain (and snow) without her mom. She washed her hair in the freezing cold river with me and braved the huge rapids of the early summer like a pro.