Finally Old Enough

Ainsley was finally old enough. Madeline had promised. Shayn's smallest niece was finally 6, and he had permission to take the whole family smowboarding. His passion and the people he loved the most were meeting for the first time. Shayn was filled with excitement.


After all of the equipment was purchased and Shayn had given some preliminary instructions, they were finally here. Madeline, Jon, Christian, Isobel, Jake, and Ainsley all stood at the top of the hill looking down. Shayn looked at this beautiful family, gave some last minute tips about how to fall safely, and then he set them free to go down the hill whenever they pleased.


Isobel's attention was on some boy that she thought was gorgeous, so of course she followed him. Christian was concerned and went after his twin. Ainsley just wanted to rush right down the hill. Madeline was holding her hand. Jon held Ainsley's other hand, and they started down the bunny hill together.


This left poor, little Jake standing at the top of the hill with his Uncle Shayn. Jake looked down the slope. He instantly saw all of the dangers of the hill, and heard all of the statistics of snowboarding accidents going off in his head. Jake was terrified. Shayn was just smiling at his family members as they each took off. Then he realized that his favorite nephew wasn't moving. Shayn thought that Jake maybe even looked a little woozy.


Moving closer to the 11 year old, Shayn asked, "What the matter Jake? Don't you wanna go down the hill? Ainsley's probably already on her way back up with your parents."


Jake looked up at his uncle, the pro-snowboarder, and wanted to make him happy. He looked back at the hill and felt like he might be sick. Instead he directed his attention to the ground in front of him. "I can't do it Uncle Shayn. I thought I could, but I can't. I'm sorry."

"OK, well then why don't we just sit here and talk about it for a while?" Shayn and Jake sat down on the snow at the top of the hill. Their snowboards were still connected to their boots. "I have an idea. Why don't I go in front of you? Then you can't fall because I won't let you. If at anytime you feel we are going to fast, or feel like you can't make it just sit down like we are doing now. You can't fall if you are sitting. That's the greatness of snowboarding. They actually let you sit in the middle of the hill. How does the sound, little man?" Shayn said as he put his arm around the boy.

Jake thought about this proposition. It seemed OK to him. He had watched tapes of his uncle snowboarding, and Shayn seemed to know what he was doing. Jake thought that he could maybe do this with his uncle by his side. "Maybe....Let's try it and see how it goes. Promise that you won't let go of my hand though. I know you won't push me further than I am comfortable. I trust you Uncle Shayn. First, could you help me up?" Jake was still a little unsure, but he felt safe with Shayn there. They were once again standing at the top of the hill. Jake was holding Shayn's hand.

"I won't let go, and I won't push you. Are you ready?" Jake nodded, and they started very slowly down the hill. Whenever Jake felt a bump in the snow he would sit down. It was a slow process, but Shayn was a patient teacher. He encouraged this small lad all of the way to the bottom of the hill. Jake saw that it wasn't such a bad thing, and the hill wasn't as dangerous as he thought it would be. Then they had to face the ski lifts. After the hill though, this was the easy part. They just had to sit back in a chair.

After going down the hill a few more times, with less time spent sitting, Jake was getting comfortable with snowboarding. Madeline and Jon had switched over to crosscountry skiing, and they left Ainsley with Shayn. Everyone was having a great time. It was just as Shayn had pictured it. It was the perfect day for Shayn.

Then Christian came over to the three of them quickly. He said that Izzy had followed the teen that she had been chasing to a black diamond run. She was now sitting in the middle of the hill petrified. Being a pro, Shayn knew that he was the only one that could help his 15 year old neice get to the bottom of the hardest slope on the hill. He left Jake and Ainsley with Christian, and raced to the bottom of the hill.

Shayn decided that the fastest way to find Izzy was to take the ski lift that went over that hill. About halfway up the hill, Shayn finally spotted his older niece. She was exactly where her twin said she would be. Shayn thought that the best way to get to her would be to jump out of the lift, so he did. Perfect. He landed just above the place she was sitting. When he hit the ground he used all of his techniques of going down a big jump on a mountain. He landed without any injury to himself. Then he came up on her left side and sat down next to her.

This hill was going to be a little bit harder than the bunny hill, but Shayn had already gotten little Jake down a hill that day. He used the same approach with Izzy. Whenever Izzy got scared, or thought that it was too hard she sat down on the hill. Shayn made sure she was safe the whole time.

At the bottom of this hill was a jump that everyone had to do. There was no choice. Shayn had Izzy sit back down so he could explain how this worked. "Now Izzy, there is a jump that you have to go over. I know you can do it. Just pick up as much speed as you can, and when I say now jump up and tuck your feet under you. Then when I give the word, put your legs back down. You can do it. I won't let anything happen to you." She was unsure about this. How could she make it? Of course she trusted her uncle, because if anything happened to her Madeline would kill Shayn. She stood up confidently and said, "I'm ready. I can do it." Then she did it flawlessly. Jake, Ainsley, and Christian were at the bottom of the hill waiting. They gave each other a group hug and headed back up the hill.

After this incident, Shayn thought that it would be good to get some hot cocoa. The stories were told in the lodge, and this day was remembered for a long time after that. Finally Ainsley was old enough to go snowboarding. She was a fast learner, but some of her siblings still had some to learn. Shayn had a feeling that this was just the first of many days like this to come. He loved his family, and he loved snowboarding. Now he knew that the two things he had the most passion for in life mixed well.