Adaptive skiing for kids with disabilities: Max hits the slopes!

We've spent the holiday weekend at Keystone Resort in Colorado, a great place for families—especially ones with kids who have special needs, because there is an awesome adaptive skiing program for kids of all abilities. It's run by the Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center, with 25 staff members and about 350 awesome volunteers. They enable everyone to ski, whether independently mobile or not, and have worked with kids with various needs—cerebral palsy, autism, Down syndrome, you name it. 

Max had three lessons, each with the same staffer (thank you, Chris!) and a volunteer. It took him awhile to get into it, but once he did, he was very happy—and very proud of himself. If you've skied, you know how good it feels to get into a groove. For Max, the thrill is extra-awesome because it gives him added confidence about moving his body. By the end of his lessons, he was able to turn his skis and independently walk with them on.  

Check him out! (The wobbly spots are my camera-holding challenges, not Max's.) Then come back tomorrow to see the new sport Max invented. 

Our ski trip: one accident, two happy kids and an OMG pizza

Here's the view from our room at the Clay Brook Hotel at Vermont's Sugarbush Resort. I could have sat on the couch all day and looked out the window. Actually, I did sit on that couch for two days in a row, with my leg elevated. You can guess where this is headed.


Friday was absolutely gorgeous—sunny, thirtysomething degrees. Sabrina went to ski school, Max went to day school (we signed up for Saturday adaptive skiing), Dave and I went out for a few runs. I've been skiing maybe eight times in my life, and I'm still a beginner. I flew down this slope about four times, no prob. Then we decided to try the adjacent slope, called Pushover. How bad could a slope called Pushover be? Well, I hit an ice patch and down I went. My left knee went the opposite way. I managed to ski back to the lodge. The doctor thought I'd torn my ACL, a ligament that is kinda sorta crucial to your knee's well-being. He mentioned I'd need an MRI and physical therapy but I decided to not worry until I see a sports medicine doc when I get home. I am very good at delayed worrying. I am also very good at sitting on a couch. Hanging out after skiing (aka aprés ski, its fanciful name) is secretly my favorite part, anyway.


My souvenirs of the trip and, wow, does my leg look slim in x-rays. I think I need to get myself an x-ray camera, that way I would never look fat in photos.


The living area of our suite, where I aprés skied my ass off.


Sugarbush has a program for adaptive skiing run by Vermont Adaptive Ski & Sports. The team was amazing; they colored and played with Max first, so he'd feel comfortable with them before they took him out. They actually try to make the skiing as least adaptive as possible so kids can be their most independent. The three volunteers with Max said that he kept his skis parallel when they slid him around, no small feat. Max had a blast until he caught sight of Dave nearby, and then he was done.


Sabrina had to get used to the ski boots (at least she didn't complain they weren't pink), but once she got past their clunkiness she decided she liked skiing (that's her on the far right).


There was a game room with a pool and air hockey table, a Wii and other toys. Besides being beautiful, Clay Brook is totally amenable to kids, not to mention adults. Vermont's famous for making maple syrup and good cheese, but I'm telling you, they also make some supernice people.


The kids enjoying the jacuzzi. Sabrina, in a rare show of sisterly love, decided to help wash Max.


Max's purple masterpiece. When we picked him up from his first day at the day school, the supervisor asked, "Did you know he likes purple?" HA!


They personalized his boots for him.


One morning, we drove around for a couple of hours. The area had a lot of working farms.


A semi-frozen canal.


A dog got really mad at me when we stopped the car to shoot this.


If you're still skiing when you're over 80, you definitely deserve a prime parking spot.


The area had a lot of great places to eat. We did some cooking in the room, which had a full kitchen. Max whipped up his famous pot o' donuts.

We dined at Timbers, the hotel's nice restaurant, and The Common Man, housed in an 1820s barn (wild mushroom ravioli: yum). Tonight, we got a babysitter, went out to American Flatbread and had the best pizza of our lives.


This is Matt, making the pizzas. His cap is an object of contention; everyone else there thinks it's a strawberry, but Matt maintains it's a tomato. I struck up a conversation with the owner, George, who helped build the clay oven. It's a type of oven made to bake breads, but George had the genius idea to use it for flatbread pizzas. He's a good guy who delivers pizzas every month to a local hospital's pediatric ward. And oh, the pizza! It's a revolution—all-natural, made with organic flour and tomatoes, and lots of organic and locally-farmed produce and meat. The crust is thin, but not crunchy; the slice basically melts in your mouth. We had a cheese-herb-pepper combo, then Dave ordered a mini a chard-potato-corn one. Thankfully, there's a frozen version, in case you're drooling onto your keyboard.

So, that was our trip. Max was into adaptive skiing, Sabrina made good progress, Dave skiied up a storm, my ACL is in dubious shape but I'm walking OK, I am now a certified aprés-ski instructor, and we are all totally relaxed and happy.

And don't I look so svelte in x-rays?

There's no business like snow business

Pretty pun-tastic title there, eh?

We had a glorious time in the snow on Sunday, so much so that we booked ourselves a last-minute trip to Vermont for the weekend. We haven't been on a vacation since the Disney Cruise, so we're all really excited.



Max held his own clomping around, I was so proud of him. He's pretty steady when he walks, but the snow can throw him off-balance. Even when he fell, though, he thought it was hysterical.

Sabrina had a meltdown before we left the house; she didn't want to wear the navy blue snow bib I'd gotten for her at Target for the bargain price of $16.99. "It won't make me look beyootiful!!!" she wailed. Yes, tragic, they were out of pink.


After she finished having a tantrum, we baked cookies. Then she realized I wasn't backing off and she agreed to wear the damn snow bib.


For the first time ever, Sabrina went down the hill by herself on a saucer (we got them each a purple one). Max wasn't ready to use his yet, maybe next year.


Max literally squealed when he and Dave flew down on a sled.


Could Max look any happier?

We found a resort that offers adaptive skiing, so we'll be trying Max out on that again. He did OK last year. Sabrina pretty much whined, "I'm coooooold" her entire first time skiing. This kid could win the Olympic gold medal for whining if it were a competitive sport.

All in all, it was a wonderful day, and I can't wait for more snow fun later this week. Not psyched for more whining. Still, it's impossible to truly get upset at either one of my kids. Their cuteness saves them every single time. I'm sure you feel the same about yours!