By MAGGIE DING
I started skiing when I was 5 years old, and every year thereafter during my childhood, my family would take ski trips, sometimes with other families. They were always fun trips, and I have fond memories.
To start giving our girls the same opportunities, Kevin and I decided to see if this could be something that works for our family, as Maven is now 4 1/2 years old and figured to be able to handle learning to ski.
We originally considered going to Colorado because Kevin was going to be in Denver the day after Christmas, but a little research showed that the ski resorts are actually very far from Denver and hotel rooms were quite expensive (running close to a thousand dollars a night).
That all said, we opted for a semi-local trip to Mammoth with the help of Kevin's sister -- while including my family to celebrate my mom and dad's 40th wedding anniversary! So it turned into a big group fast.
We started by all meeting at my parents' house in Bel Air and driving five hours to the five-bedroom house that we rented so everyone could relax under one roof.
Our first meal all together: Dings, Changs and Wangs.
The next morning was our first day in the snow, hitting the slopes at Eagle Lodge in Mammoth Lakes ...
Kevin's parents don't ski, but everyone else tried, including Sedona and Maven in their debut attempts. We opted for lessons for them the first day -- quite expensive, in my opinion. (We also had to stock up on helmets and clothes. Who knew this was such an expensive sport? I never paid for it as a child! ha-ha)
Six-hour lessons ran $168 per kid (that is the discounted early bird price), plus another $29 for ski rental. But it was well worth it, because the girls learned the basics on the "Magic Carpet" and slight hill and had fun.
Here's a video from Kevin of them going down the little hill: Sedona navigating the blocks in her way, Maven righting herself after starting out going left ...Here's a sneak peek at Day 2, when Sedona used the ski pole to learn with me most of the time and Maven enjoyed going freely. It's a video from Mary ...
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