Oops

(Imperial Bowl!!)

Ooops haven't blogged in awhile...Kinda forgot about it with so much going on these past two weeks. Lately my lessons have been pretty good. I had one student for about a week and he was visually impaired which was a new experience for me. It took some getting used to but I really enjoyed the lessons. He had a pretty short attention span and thoroughly enjoyed giving me a heart attack. The lesson was challenging and took some getting used to in order to figure out what rewards worked for him. My last day with him was so fun, my brother and mom had just gotten in the night before so Chris decided to be my volunteer for the lesson which I think really opened his eyes to what kind of work I was doing. The next day momma and I spent a girls day shopping and catching up on everything which was amazing! I skied that afternoon with my brother and did a few black diamonds which was a nice change of pace from my usual lessons. That night Kevin came over to the condo for dinner and a game of Farkle with the fam which was so much fun. It is really nice because Kevin fits into the group really well and has fun with it. My brother however hauls ass down the mountain so keeping up with him is ridiculously difficult but so much fun. Kevin and Adam joined us for a few runs which was fun. The next day (Christmas) Kevin, Adam, Chris and I skied all day together which was AWESOME. We went up to the Imperial Bowl which is double black terrain and hiked up to the top of the peak which was expert only terrain. This scared the bejeezers out of me but I am so glad I did it. I felt so good about my skiing afterwards and had such a blast. That night the boys ad Charley came over for Christmas dinner. We all scrunched into the living room and ate together then played Apples to Apples which I really enjoyed. The fam left yesterday which was a bummer because I really enjoyed having them here and spending time. I love my family so much and when we are all together its so nice. My last two days of lessons have been great my student is so much fun and such a jokester which is awesome. He skies blues which makes for a fun day. Tomorrows lesson is a different boy but he is a sweetie and great skier. Can't wait for more lessons!

xoxo

-L

All types of great folks

Hiya!

Alright so lets fill ya in on the last few days...Recently we had a group come that was from Africa which is crazy and super cool. My girl was from Kenya and had an awesome story. She was different from the rest of her school group in that they were living in a more civilized area however Doris actually lives in a mud and grass hut with her tribe. I honestly don't think I could do it justice if I tried to spell out her tribe name so just imagine =). Anyways Doris was the apparently the first girl from her tribe to be allowed out of the group to be educated. In her tribe they believe women are something you own. Women don't have a say and can't do anything without permission from the men. Somehow she was given permission to be out and about learning. She hopes to be a doctor someday after university. She is currently the equivalent of a high school sophomore. All of this I didn't know until later which would have been nice. She was my first lesson that I was the lead instructor and I had a volunteer with me. My volunteer was great, he had taught skiing for about 15 years before he got a virus that ended up getting his legs amputated. If you know me at all you would know that I was just chatting away to Doris telling her about gliding on one ski and two and turning stopping etc etc. She nodded and tried her best but her efforts never came out as I explained and I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. Later that morning I overheard one of the assistants to their group saying her incredible story and mentioning that she is just learning English. This would have been a LITTLE nice to know before we started the lesson. Once we figured it out she was great at follow the leader. She progressed nicely and seemed to really enjoy herself on the slopes.

On Tuesday I had a day off which was MUCH needed after 8 days of working. I spent the morning relaxing with Bethany (Adams girlfriend) watching a movie. Then I headed out to the slopes to snowboard for a few hours to expend some energy. This seemed like a great idea...until my binding broke. Now let me tell you this binding breaking sitch must have looked really cool if you were on the lift above me. My foot came out of my board and I did a rather graceful 360 down the mountain and the BOOM I blew snow everywhere. The mountain safety guy came over to see if I was alright and I was fine minus being at the TOP of the mountain with a broken board and a loooong hike down. This guy was awesome and offered me a ride down, little did I know it was from the ski patrol sled...awesome. I was pretty nervous my boss or coworkers would see me on the sled and be pissed/upset thinking I was hurt. The ride down was awesome, ski patrol was incredibly friendly and were a fun sled ride down the mountain. Hopefully this will be the last time I am on one of those sleds or need their assistance. That night we had a clinic to learn sign language which I was dreading but actually turned out to be really cool. I learned and retained a lot which surprised me. I can now say all the essentials for a lesson via sign language.

My next day was spent with a visually impaired client (VI). She was a total sweet heart and incredibly cautious almost to a fault. She was making great turns and has awesome speed control and stopping however she didn't want to go down the hill faster than walking speed. She explained that previous instructors really made her uncomfortable by pushing her to ski too fast so I tried my best to be patient and practice skiing backwards while we had a girl talk session skiing down. Even though each run took roughly 30 minutes I was more happy that she felt safe a secure on the mountain otherwise her experience with us wouldn't have been fun.

Today I was an awesome day since I got a surprise day off. I was supposed to drive to Denver to drop off clients but they ended up canceling one of the vans trips so I got the day off besides having to do the end of trip van checks. This morning I made Strawberry jam since I despise the grape jelly we have in our current collection. It came out delishhh and all over my nice newish shirt (bummer dude). After this I went out to watch the Poor Boyz productions team filming some guys being crazy and doing jumps off our ropes course on their skis. It was pretty awesome to watch them bust out these crazy moves. After that Kevin and I went down to town because he wants to find me a Christmas present but can't figure out what to get me. It wasn't very successful since pointing out presents I want is super awkward... =) After that we went and ate our lunches and people watched til we met Charley on the bus headed to the Dew Tour for some free schwag (sp?). The Dew Tour was cool with lots of bro bras and free stickers galore! I got a cool free bandana and some bright orange shoe laces. After this we went to the "adopt the interns" dinner at the Sullivans. I had no idea they made houses this big...literally the BIGGEST mansion I have ever seen in my life. They made us a delicious dinner and a ton of appetizers while we decorated their 30 ft tall tree. It was such a nice time and I really enjoyed talking to Don Sullivan about his life working for GM and traveling all over. He has lived some crazy places and has such a passion for it. After that we headed home with full tummies and a bag left overs YUM!! Tomorrow we get a tour of Keystone Mountain should be a great day!

xoxo

-L

Ski Spec exhaustion

( Chris [left] and Eddie[right] )

Ski Spec has been the most tiring thing I have done in a loooong time, holy moly! I am going into my 6th day of work on an 8 day stint and I am pooped out. I have loved all of Ski Spec and teaching Eddie how to mono ski while learning a lot myself. We were accompanied for the second part of the week by Chris Devlin Young who is basically a paralympic badass. He has been in the sport for over 20 years so he kinda knows what he is talking about. Yesterday night it snowed a ton (14 inches). Lots of snow is great except when it is my week to shovel and would y look at that folks it is my week...greeaaaat. As if my back isn't sore enough from a long week of fun now I get to shovel a bunch of snow in the morning before work. Today I had a lesson with a mono ski again but my participant was about 12 years old. Poor guy was not used to the cold weather and it was pretty chilly and windy out today. After just about every run we needed to go inside and warm up so that he could hold up his outriggers. He was a trooper and made it through the day which was great. He came with a youth at risk group from his school. They come out to Breck 9 times this season and learn how to ski/board. The week has been so much to take in but I have really enjoyed it. I finallh feel lik eI am in the right place at the right time and with all the right people. It feels pretty dang great!

Night,

xoxo

-L

Ski Spectacular

So I am in my second day of ski spectacular which is a huuuuge program we do in Breckenridge at the Beaver Run Resort. This program invites the wounded warrior program to come out and ski or board. All of the people we are working with are previous soldiers or their family who want to learn to ski and snowboard. A lot of our lessons are adaptive lessons for amputees or paralyzed soldiers who have been previously hurt in war. My current student is a guy named Eddie who has all of his limbs but was injured and is now a T7. He is paralyzed from just above is belly button all the way down to his toes. Eddie has an awesome attitude and is a really great guy. He is from Arizona where his wife and 2 yr old daughter live. He has been working his butt off trying to get his mono skiing down so that he can move up to more difficult runs. I am doing some instructing myself but mainly a lot of getting him on and off the lift and picking him up when he falls down which has been quite a bit since he is still learning. The head instructor for our group is a guy named Kevin who is the US paralympic ski racing coach. Kevin is an awesome guy and really cool to work with. He has been trying to talk Eddie into being a racer for them but first he needs to learn how to race. The setup the racers get is pretty awesome because everything and I mean EVERYTHING is paid for...housing, food, gear, etc it sounds legit! I have really been enjoying my time so far and hope that I stay with this group the rest of the week. I was told last night that I was going to be leading a lesson out of our ski office (separate from ski spec) with a young man with autism and it scared the bejeezers out of me. Here I thought we weren't teaching until February and I'm already on a lesson..WHAT THA??!?! Either way it was super cool that they put me on the lesson so last night I studied up and did my homework on working with this population. This morning I grabbed my gear from up the hill and skied down in the powder which was awfully difficult. I was stoked on powder until my skis decided to super suck and not go anywhere so I got stuck and it was a long haul. Once I got to the office I was told I was moved off the lesson and my boss told me I needed to haul ass back up the hill with my 30 pounds of gear to make it to a staff meeting. It was a nightmare to get up there...ugh! Anyways I got that all sorted out and we were good to go except I couldn't find my student today for a good while then we couldn't find his ski and well it was just a mess.... Once we got that sorted we hit the hill and he kicked but making TONS of progress! After today I am soo pooped out and ridiculously tired I don't know how I will do this everyday but I can honestly say even though the days are long and I don't get paid....I friken love my job!!!

miss you all!!

xoxo

-Leah

I love my job!!

So it's official I love my job!! Wednesday we learned how to bucket people and also tether them in the sit down ski's. This was a beast to figure out because the person is essentially teeter-tottering trying to stay balanced while you allow them to ski forward til you can get tension in the tether. It takes time to figure out but we spent all day loading and unloading people and tethering down the mountain.

The best part of yesterday was that KADEP one of our groups we work with was coming in to get themselves fitted for the ski's. At first I was really nervous because it was our first group and I didn't know how to talk to them or act and I was afraid I would say something stupid. I did my first wheel chair transfer yesterday and that went well. We got my participant Sue fitted in a ski and ready to go. Sue was so beyond excited to be up in the mountains and on the slopes again. Before her accident she was a kick ass tele skier and cross country skier so she was missing the snow.

Today we actually went on the mountain with Sue and that was a totally new and exciting experience. She hardly ever stopped smiling which was awesome, she had such a great attitude. The hardest part about working with Sue was that she was cognitively on point. She knew everything that was going on and what she wanted or needed but her issue was that she couldn't get the words from her head to her mouth. She mostly made sounds that you could kind of tell what words they were but when we didn't understand which was most of the time she would get so frustrated. I can't even imagine what it would be like to know exactly what I wanted to do and not be able to actually say it to the person. We finally decided to write out the alphabet on a piece of paper and she would spell out for us what she was trying to say. This was great because our conversation got away from only yes/no questions to actually hearing about her life more and her love for skiing. Today was so fun and kind of tiring but I can't even explain how awesome it feels to see someone like Sue grinning for 5 hours straight. Knowing that I got to be a part of such a great experience is just so rewarding. The good news was that I felt really confident on the lesson. Sarah the lead instructor allowed me to take the lead on loads and unloads every once in awhile and I didn't mess them up so that was great. I really enjoyed working with Sarah she is around my age and has an awesome personality and is so easy to get along with. Overall I absolutely LOVED today and had such a great time that I can't wait to get back on the mountain with whoever comes our way and shoot down the mountain.