Our Little Skiers

 

 

 

 

Elsa and Ava waterskied for the first time! This is why I love where we live. Where else can you spend the day with your friends and neighbors playing and riding bikes and spend the evenings waterskiing right out your back door? The evening started out a little rocky. We had grand plans of spending the evening skiing but our boat didn't start (typical). We spent almost an hour loading, trying to get our boat working, and unloading the boat. At 6:40 we were going to call it a night, but then our friend Julie borrowed her friend's pontoon boat. It meant that the adults couldn't ski, but it ended up being the perfect set-up for Elsa, Ava, and their friend, Addison to learn to ski. We got our beginner ski for Christmas and have been waiting for the right time to use it. We've needed three adults - one to drive, one to be in the water with the kids to help them up, and one to hold the other end of the rope. I have also been reluctant to take a newborn out on the boat, but I finally relented. So glad I did.

At first the girls were timid to get in. We started with the oldest, Elsa. But she hesitated. Then Addie said she would do it, jumped in, then decided she didn't want to. Ava got in the water and quickly got back in the boat. Elsa mustered the courage, jumped in, and got right up. She was so proud of herself and so were we. It didn't take long for her to have one hand free waving and giving the thumbs up signal to increase the speed. She was cruising over wakes with no problem. Seeing how much fun Elsa had, Addy couldn't get in fast enough. She got right up too. Ava went in last and got scared. I swam her back in and she told me she felt something touching her leg. I assured her it was Brian's arm since he was in the water helping the girls get up. Realizing that it wasn't a fish or shark (she has been scared of sharks after her Ocean's summer camp), she was eager to get back in and ski. She got right up and did so well. There were lots of big waves that made her a little nervous but she held on and grinned and giggled through it. When Ava finished, her hair wasn't even wet. Brian told her that she skiied like Grandma without even getting her hair wet. She liked this comparison and repreated it a couple of times, "I ski just like Grandma, your mom, Daddy."

I was holding the ski rope with one hand and trying to take pictures with my other hand. The pictures are a little blurry, but it was the best I could do with what I had. (We need a fourth parent to take pictures.) We would have stayed out longer but we lost sunlight. All three girls were so proud of themselves. We wondered why we didn't do this sooner. Elsa remarked as we were idling in that "EVERYDAY right after school we need to go waterskiing." Now were all going to be fighting for ski time.