Wow! I just logged into my blog to become a follower on a friend's blog and realized that it has been 11 months (almost ONE whole year!) since I last wrote anything here. Since this year was a challenge, medically, for Emmy I switched gears and started her Caringbridge site and was far more faithful in keeping that one up to date. I think I will, at some point do "a year in review" however, for today I will do one entry with photos.

Emmy started skiing last month. We joined our Winners on Wheels group, along with Oregon Adaptive Sports, for a day on the slopes at Hoodoo, here in Oregon. She is the youngest person in the group and Oregon Adaptive Sports made an exception in allowing her to ski this young, this year. We are so glad they did, because she LOVED it. We went back up to Hoodoo last weekend and she was able to ski with the same instructor for this lesson and again... she LOVED it.

I think this is where I give a bit of back ground on Adaptive Skiing. The equipment that Emmy uses right now is called a bi-ski. A sit ski with two skis parallel to one another. At this point in the game, her instructor is teaching her how to balance and lean into the turns. Once she has a good mastery of this she will learn to use Outriggers, poles that fit the arm like crutches and have skis on the bottom rather than tips. She will use these to keep her balance and to lean on when turning. Once she has mastered the use of the outriggers (many years from now) she will graduate to a mono-ski, a sit ski with one ski and continue the use of the Outriggers.

Emmy is quite an adventurer and loves the thrill of speed. Skiing is perfect for her!

Getting strapped in to the bi-ski.

Ash has a chance to watch Emmy ski!

Heading up to the top!

Down she goes!