Riley Vonn- and her brother, too.

Riley has her first "
official" training run under her belt. Dan took the day off on Friday to take the kids to Buck Hill for a few runs. We're never sure how Riley will respond to new

challenges... she's usually up for it... usually. There were a few doubts cast early on in this adventure. For starters, she absolutely refused to put on her shiny new helmet. She bucked letting Dan help her put on her ski boots. And this was all before she actually got into the car. :)

Dan was able to get her boots on after a little coaxing (and having Luke put on HIS ski boots). Once in the parking lot, she walked around like the heavy, stiff boots were simply an extension of her ankles. She couldn't wait for Dan and Luke to get ready inside of the chalet, so I took her outside to check out the snow. Once Dan and Luke arrived on the scene, there was no stopping her. She stepped right into her skis and walked around like she's been on them since birth. (okay, I might be exaggerating a little bit, but she did do remarkably well). It didn't take long for Dan to get her over to the magic carpet. She zipped up to the top of the practice hill with Dan and zipped right back down. It was clear from early on that Riley was built for speed. The smile on her face only reinforced it. When Dan tried to put a hula hoop around her to help with speed control, Riley would have nothing to do with it. Instead, she insisted on holding the hula hoop by herself and skiing down with it by her side.

During Riley's lesson with Dad, Luke nonchallantly went up the big magic carpet by himself and navigated his way down the hill without the help of Dan. It was the first time he had ever made the run by himself and he did it with a lot of pride, and a lot of caution. I don't think he could have gone any slower. :) I realized after he made it down to the bottom of the hill that the frequent stops during his run were intentional. He was posing for me so I could take photos of him. We'll need to have a good talk with him before he participated in any sort of racing competition, but until then, I'm just fine with him going down the hill at a slow and steady pace.

When not skiing by himself, Luke could be heard explaining to complete strangers that he and his sister were "training" and that this was Riley's first training session. This from a boy who hides behind my leg when running into a classmate at Target. He was really proud of her and gave her all of the encouragement she could handle. I see many ski adventures in their future... I just wonder how long it will be before Riley's passion for speed helps her zoom past her brother.