"Sir, you can't park your whale on the ski lift. It's getting away! Oh wait it fell! Get the harpoon!"

I went skiing again today and I had decided that I would take it really easy and work on my skills going down the little bunny hill and "learning area". Kell was sweet and skiied with me even though I know it was probably a bit boring.

At lunch, Kell and I met up at the top with my dad, Tante Traute, Rob, and Rich, and we ate up in the snow on the observation deck. My dad was trying to convince me to ski with him and Kelly in the afternoon but I was feeling like a chicken as usual. It was really cold on the observation deck, so my Tante Traute made us some tea.

TT: Here, Sara, drink some tea! It'll warm you right up!
Sara (drinks): Whoa, what's IN this?
TT: Oh, some of that rum that I got in Austria. It's pretty strong huh?

Yeah, like half tea half rum from what I could tell. Needless to say, by the time we were done lunch I was ready to ski with Kell and my dad. And my skiing got waaaaaay better. I'm a scaredy-cat, so my biggest challenge in learning how to ski is fear. I had a great time once I'd had some tea hahahahaha!

I love that though... she had the Austrian rum in her backpack. That's so... her.

Seriously though my skiing did improve a LOT today and it was really fun to actually do some runs that were real runs. There were some points where I was just overwhelmed by the absolute beauty of it all... I WISH everyone could see this. It's incredible. It's beyond words as usual. I think it's probably even beyond pictures. It's the whole experience of being on the top of a mountain, with the wind whipping in your face, and then you're speeding through soft white snow towards this stunning view. Gahhh I LOVE IT!!!! No wonder people love skiing so much! It makes my heart ache in the good way.

Sigh.

Another really amazing part of the day was the bonding part. My little sister was my teacher this morning. She skiied with me, gave me pointers, laughed at me, encouraged me. She was patient and kind and modest about her own skills and we just had a great time laughing and falling and learning together. She's kind of at that age where she looks to me as a role model and I KNOW that she really loved helping me today. It's really important that she realize that we aren't going to be good at the same things, and I think it's fantastic that she's kicking my butt at this haha!

My dad - wow. I was so proud of him today. He decided to ski with Kell and I, like I said, and I was a bit skeptical because sometimes he can be a bit... "why aren't you getting this?"... but today oh my gosh he was fantastic! He taught me more than my ski instructors did in two days and he was patient and he told me that I was doing great and he didn't make me feel like a retard! Of course my dad loves me and he's proud of me for things, but today was just so cool! Yay! He may have ulterior motives though... recently he got this idea in his head that I'm going to go to law school. I heard him talking about it in the hot tub last night and I gave him my evil eye. Hahaha! Hmm... come to think of it, he DID buy me ORANGINA (my favorite pop in the world - discovered it in London). Uh oh!

It doesn't matter; either way I had a great day with Kell and my Dad!

When we got back we went to the pool and the hot tub at the lodge. Kell and I went snow-rolling. We got all warmed up in the hot tub, then we rolled around in the snow... then we hopped back in the hot tub. It's something that Tante Traute likes to do because she's crazy. Heck, the woman is incredible. 61, skis black runs all day and then rolls around in the snow!

So! My family is fun and skiing is fun and I adore beautiful scenery. Oh, and rum makes me ski better. "Special" Austrian rum!

Sara

ps - Zahida got a blog - http://superzeeadventures.blogspot.com/.