To ski or not to ski.....

One of my favorite things to do on this earth is skiing.  My addiction to fresh powder has taken me from Chile up to Alaska, and many places in between.  It has always been my dream to share something i love so much with my children.  Well, its not necessarily going to be the situation i dreamed about, but i will make the mountains a part of my kids life and allow them to enjoy them as much as I do. 
So along those lines, we went to Aspen this past weekend.  I had two epic days of skiing, both Aspen Highlands and Snowmass.  So we put the kids in ski school, or at least that was the plan.  Sam got sick, and couldnt go out, Lexi had to be bribed with presents in order to get her to go, and what to do with Jake was the real dilemma.  Now Muscular Dystrophy and skiing are pretty much diametrically opposed.  Apparently, the "eccentric" muscle movements that are basic to skiing are very bad for boys with MD, because its supposed to be all about "muscle preservation" at this point.  On the other hand, we need to balance that with quality of life, and I dont want Jake to miss out on anything, so we wanted to give him a chance to experience it.  So my philosophy is to let him take a few lessons on skis, see how he likes it, and if he takes to it, get him in a Sitski or some other type of adaptive device that he can enjoy for years to come.

So Jake really took to skiing like a trooper, he really enjoyed the "magic carpet" and he tried really hard, he did a fantastic job, and when he got tired, he stopped... simple as that.   So bottom line, although they may never come with me to ski Silverton, They will always be able to enjoy the mountains and Jake can ski if he wants to.  Then again, you never know, if Jake really likes it, im sure the sky is the limit for him.  We arent going to let this disease get in the way of that...

Comments

[Angela]

He looks darling in his gear! So glad he enjoyed it! Maybe Jake & Jack could ski together some day, that way we wont worry about them pushing each other to hard. . . .

Ang :)

[mimi]

Thanks again for taking me, i just loved spending so much quality time with you guys and the kids!!!
mimi