Colorado 2012

 

I am willingly acknowledging, the yearly Colorado ski trip is not my favorite thing.  Brian and the big girls really enjoy it, but the last few years the trip has been a struggle for both me and Lucy.  Altitude sickness and not being able to ski left us feeling like prisoners in a foreign place. Even options like sledding ended with me and Lucy on the hill behind the house and everyone else on the tubing hill.  I promised her and myself it would never happen again.  When it became clear it was indeed happening again, I started looking for options.  I’m not sure many people understand how extremely hard it is to live life as a forced spectator; to sit on the side and listen to others joy and be told you should learn to be content with your limits. Very thankfully, we discovered an adaptive program at Breckinridge, and so began the adventure.

The Breckenridge Outdoor Experience is a hole in the wall with an assortment of adaptive equipment, a handful of staff, brilliant volunteers, foam pieces, duct tape, and a “nothing can stop us” spirit.  Lucy waited patiently with Daddy.

This is sort of like a big wheel seat mounted on two skis.  She is seat belted in and you can see the handle behind that one of her guides used to steer her down the hill.  The guy on the right told Brian he sold Harley Davidson's all week but he lived for this job.

Jack had his own great instructor at regular ski school.

Lucy got to ride the regular ski lift.  The chair slid between her seat and skis and away she went.  How wonderful to watch Jack, Brian and Lucy all within a few seats of each other.

This girl is front of Lucy also had CP.  She was skiing with a walker that had skis.  We also saw a blind skier and every other issue imaginable.

Gasp!!!  They even skied through the trees.  Lucy moved her arms up and down the entire 2 1/2 hours and moved her body with the turns.  Obviously, she ended each morning completely exhausted.

We didn’t even get her clothes off or lunch in her before she was in really deep sleep.

Skier Jack of course kept going!