Spring??

Sparring!!

Kat (finally) got to move up to the junior black belt club. Today was her second class. It's a whole new level (which is good cause she was pretty bored in the champions) that is very challenging. Today they really sparred. Awesome to watch. Esp the big kid black belts sparring w/ the master.

Talent show

Unfortunately, I was holding the phone, AND it was wrongly seated in the case, which I believe obscured the mics.  SO it's pretty hard to hear.  And likely to watch, despite scoring a temporary seat in the front row!  Sorry about that!  One of the other parents was filming with a real camera next to me......I'll see if I can get his video and replace this.  Maybe they're not totally washed out in his version!

Kat's recital

I think it's time to retire my camera for video.  Not only does it crap out at 1:50, but the quality is sketchy.  Pretty sure the iphone does a better job!  She, however, did a great job!!!

Skiing in Killington

Skiing

Well, I guess it was technically a blizzard yesterday. I never saw limited visibility. But, the good news was 12" of snow at KB! It was in the mid-teens out there, but Kat and I got out there for 2 hours. She's getting more & more comfortable on skis. And 2 days of lessons at Killington this weekend will move her along a great deal. And while it's supposed to be cold most of the next week, so we may get out here again next week. We're fitting a couple of seasons' worth of skiing into a few weeks!!

3pm blizzard shot

Well, I just read on Buffalo News.com that it is officially a blizzard. However it has yet to look like it from here. But apparently we had the sustained winds, which I hardly heard, the snowfall, and the blowing snow and limited visibility, I guess, that qualifies it for a blizzard! Of course, I haven't been outside. But still, can usually hear howling winds indoors and have heard just a few gusts. Oh well. Still hoping for more action!!

2pm blizzard

Well, still on the lame side. I did hear thunder once and heard some good winds once or twice, but....

Blizzard at 1pm

Still not as advertised......

Blizzard at noon

A bit underwhelming so far. But I have hope...

Blizzard at 11

10am blizzard

Blizzard at 9am

Blizzard at 7:55am

Here's what we have so far. It's supposed to turn ugly shortly. Everything's closed. Except colleges. Apparently no superintendent wants all the kids to get to school easily, only to have a foot or more of snow fall before dismissal time...

More skiing!

Apparently, we're getting an entire season ( or 2) in in just a few short weeks.

We went to buffalo ski club today with friends. And you can see Nilam as the mama duck leading the munchkins down the hill. And the kids spent a lot of time on the training hill. There was a little jump that was a big hit! Kat did great. She started to add some turns to her snowplow and also, much more importantly, has started looking around her to keep an eye on other skiers.

We can't believe the progress she's made in less than a week. And it was a beautiful day out there, with great conditions. We had a great time out there.

Kat on the big hill

Well, we're finally getting Kat skiing. Turns out KB has their big sale on Saturday w/ the best prices of the season. And so we're going to buy our season passes (that we can use for the balance of this year, which looks to be at least a few more week of decent conditions.). And if we buy ours, hers will be free (as it's free for 6 and under--the age at time of purchase). If we waited till fall, prices would be higher, we wouldn't get free skiing all spring and would have to pony up for hers as she'd be 7!

Anyway, so we got out today and after a few runs of follow the leader on the bunny hill, I decided it was time to make the move to the big hill. I didn't want to wait till her legs were shot and set her up for failure.

She did great!! It was a very long hill in comparison to the bunny hill. She fell several times. She took each of us out at least once--though for me it was while trying to get her back up and heading in the right direction. Most of her falls were stops/falls. And even when she lost it and was crying and spazzing out, she recovered and maintained her snowplow down the hill. Most impressive, even at the end, on the steepest part of the hill, when her legs must have been screaming, she did the best, most controlled snowplow we'd seen yet! And though she didn't want to go back up to the big hill, she then went back to the bunny hill for many more runs.

I think we have a skier!!

Kat skiing

This is Kat doing the whole bunny hill at kb. And, most important, I think, is that this was AFTER she did a run all the way down the big hill. Which I expected would kick her but and make her ready to go home, but no, she wanted to get back to the bunny hill!!