On the last leg of our journey home from the Philippines we landed into Rochester which was covered in fresh snow. Christopher was so excited at the time. He had seen pictures of Beth and I in our ski gear and had expressed over Skype how much he was looking forward to doing that. Along with that, he also had a couple of items he wanted to do during the winter, namely sledding and building a snowman.
It had been such an unusual winter for us in that we just weren’t getting much accumulation, and when it finally dumped on us, it was so cold that the snow was awful for building snowmen. The good news was that we were able to do lots of sledding. Beth was so excited to get him out there that she even found a cheap little snowboard for him to play around on.
When the first big snow hit us it was after dark, but that didn’t stop us from going out. With headlamps on Toph and mom, they hit the side hill and ran the length of the whole side yard. With the risk of going into the ditch, and the roads being slippery, we decided to take it to the backyard where the run was shallower but much longer. Depending on the depth and type of snow, you can really go a ways.
The kid loves the snow!
We had even gotten the chance to head out onto some ice. It was so cold you could have driven a truck out onto the pond (according to my dad). It was dead smooth too, you could have played a game of old school hockey without any issues. Besides mom taking a hard crash on the ice, dad was the only one to really get any speed up and show Toph how you slide across the ice. It was also the catalyst to wanting to “skate” on the snow. Again, seeing those pictures of us in ski gear, he knew there was plenty more that could be done. Shame we didn’t have ice skates, because it would have been a hoot to see him give it a go.
Once we finally got some regular snow to stick around, asking to go outside to go sledding became a common occurrence. Dad usually stayed in side because sledding really isn’t his thing, he’s more of a snowman kind of guy. While dad was on dinner duty, mom would gear up and go out to see how things were going. He started to get quite good with the little snowboard.
Beth started to get excited about his progress and had asked if I thought if it was a good idea to take him to one of the local ski resorts. I wasn’t so hot on the idea, I thought we might settle one winter in at home getting used to the little hills and having some general fun. I knew I could only put it off for so long.
He had a couple of days of unseasonably warm weather while we still had a decent amount of snow. I knew our window was short, so I got Christopher all hyped up for some snowman building. The first day was a false alarm, the snow was still way to dry, but the next warm day was enough to get things wet and sticky. Turns out Beth doesn’t really care for rolling giant snowballs. I guess it works out she’s more into the sledding and I’m more into the building. I was requested to join the outdoor activities so I geared up. They had already built the first snowman, I just arrived for the final touches.
The snow was perfect. I was hyped to build something else and told Toph about all the creatures we used to build when I was a kid. We headed to the side yard to start on a snow horse. I’m no fool. If you have a hill, you roll those giant snowballs down hill! Things turned out pretty good, aside from the fact that the yard was still full of leaves and the snow rolling gathered them all of the leaves up into our horse. No big deal.
That was just the start of the snow animal possibilities. That weekend we were about to head out to do some sledding when Christopher decided he’d like to go two houses down to visit Lola and Lolo. Lola wasn’t home so we decided we’d do some sledding, but also surprise her with a snow creature in her yard. It was decided that we’d build a snow squirrel. I wanted to do it down the yard but Toph wanted it right next to the house. Had I remembered why you don’t build close to the house, I might have been a little more adamant.
A dog poop reenforced snow squirrel. (It was recommended to Beth that she add in our gear to the wash) 
Snow chair 
Perfect for breaks after walking back up the sledding hill.
We had ticked all of the boxes off of Toph’s winter bucket list (in my mind). Then it came back up, wouldn’t it be fun to take Christopher to do some skiing. “Oh fine.” Beth was convinced that Christopher was a natural born snowboarder, after seeing how he did on our little hill at home, but I knew better. When I finally broke down and agreed, we asked Christopher if he wanted to go skiing. He was so excited. I did give him the choice between skiing and snowboarding, and I sold the skiing, thankfully. Hill boarding doesn’t really translate to actual snowboarding all that well. Beth was so excited and we decided we’d take him to Swain for his first try. They had a learn to ski package that was cheap enough to give it a go.
Before he had even tried skiing he was asking if he had his own gear. Oh no, we told him, he had to learn and get good at it before he could have his own skis. He was disappointed but was still pretty happy to go. When we finally arrived he was so excited. We headed to the rental shop to get him all geared up.
Before we were fully geared up we decided we’d better take a bathroom break. While in the bathroom Christopher said, “I knew I was going to be able to ski Dad. I just knew it.” He was just so excited. Boy, he didn’t even have a clue as to how hard it was going to be. He was ready to hit the greens before his skis even touched the snow. He was already complaining about carrying them, ha!
And we’re off! 
Up the magic carpet for the first time. 
One excited kid and one happy mom.
It was predictably comical. “Dad, it’s too slippery! This snow!” Buddy… that’s the point. The first struggle, as Beth recalls, is just moving forward on the flats. The kid has no muscle tone, so this was a real exercise for him. He’s generally pretty coordinated so it doesn’t take him long to sort things out, but this was so foreign to him that he really struggled. That struggle naturally lead to frustration. He was part of a large group of brand new skiers. At least he wasn’t alone in the struggle. One older kid gave up trying to get on the magic carpet. At least Topher had been able to get to the top of the bunny slope.
As Beth and I took turns, I happened to be on the hill during the most memorable run. As it was recounted to me, as Topher turned down towards the hill he failed to “pizza” and was really moving along. As he approached another gentleman learning to ski, and in an effort to slow down, he grasped onto the pole of the gentleman who was already stopped at the bottom. As soon as he had a hold the guy just let go of the pole so there wasn’t any assistance with stopping at all, and now Christopher was headed towards the parking lot with his newly acquired (and ironically desired) ski pole. Thankfully by the time he struck the suburban in the actual parking lot he had lost enough speed that it was more funny to him and scary. They were both very excited to tell me all about this as I returned. The guy was unfazed apparently, and happy to have his pole returned to him.
The ski lesson was only two hours long which was exactly the time it took for Christopher to totally give up. He was told that he didn’t have to ski and no one was forcing him to participate. He was pretty discouraged that he couldn’t control the skis and if he fell had not possible way of getting back up without help. His little legs were probably pretty sore by the end of those two hours. Beth and Toph headed back to the rental shop to return the gear, only to run into Uncle Pete and Ayden. We hung out a while during Ayden’s lesson, and did a couple of runs with Uncle Pete before heading out.
Even though Christopher was completely discouraged on the skis, he was sure to tell mom just how awesome skiing was and how he can’t wait to go again. I was kind of in disbelief to be honest. I thought this might have cured him by the way he was acting. He apparently was just at his capacity with falling and it didn’t in any way affect his desire to come back and try again. He insisted it would only take him three days of lessons to be good and he was really excited to ride the lift.
All in all, it was a really awesome day and we will be back with out little Filipino snow bird.
