I’ve skated my whole life (though, that statement shouldn’t conjure images of me landing triple-axels). My friend Shannon, a pro, is threatening to teach me, but I’m thinking that might be a form of penance for some bad deed she did in a former life. I happen to love the atmosphere of the rink. Usually, there are members of the Park City Figure Skating Club who are practicing their jumps, twists and axels. What’s incredible is to see the pint-sized grade school girls flying through the air. Budding hockey players practice their stops, slides and stick work. Often, I’ll spy some teenagers on a date, hands intertwined, or a snake-chain of tweens, racing around the rink. And always, families. My kids and I like to play hide and seek (we duck into the penalty boxes), practice our backward skating, and “race” around the rink. In fact, we’ve been at the rink so much this winter, I treated myself to a pair of used skates. They really are a treat, since they used to belong to a coach in the figure skating club, and just like high-end ski gear purchased at the local’s ski swap, they are tricked out (custom boot, high-end blade). Translation: complete overkill, but at a deep discount, so why not?

Cross country skiing: The first pair of skis I wore (sometime around age 2) were Nordic kick-and-glides that actually strapped on to my regular snow boots. Nordic skiing was a fixture of my childhood in Vermont, so I’ve always loved the opportunity to share it with my kids. There are miles of groomed public trails around town, but since we don’t own gear, we generally go to White Pine Touring, which is located on the Park City Municipal Golf Course (it’s the PCMGC pro shop during golf season) at Hotel Park City. You can gear up and get on 3K or 5K tracks, and then head all the way out past the white barn, if you’re ready for more. http://whitepinetouring.com/cross-country-ski-area.php

There’s something immensely gratifying about the low-key, yet high-energy, endorphin producing nature of the sport. When I’m with my kids on the track, I don’t get the same kind of workout that, say, Nancy Anderson churns out, but I’m happy just to be outside, sharing a great lifelong sport with my guys. Honestly, you can make the day as challenging or relaxing as you want, and an hour or so is as much fun as a whole afternoon. If you have ever spent a week or a ski season explaining to your young Phil Mahre or Heidi Voelker why they can’t use poles yet, Nordic offers an added bonus: they’re standard issue in Nordic skiing (NB: that still means a lot of work for mom or dad.).

Swimming: One of the best parts of staying in a lot of the lodging properties at Deer Valley Resort is that they have super-heated outdoor pools. One of my favorites is at The Silver Baron Lodge, where the outdoor pool has a sweet little water slide. But if you don’t happen to be a guest there, you can pay for a day pass to the Silver Mountain Sports Club in Prospector and visit their domed leisure pool, complete with lazy river and giant water slide (just check the lifeguard hours before you go, since the water features operate only during those hours, which are limited during the school week.) We lucked into an afternoon there where we had the place to ourselves (the lifeguard told me it had been packed before lunch; my kids had spent the morning at ice skating camp in the arena, so we used the pool for a post-lunch “warm down” activity). When my kids were born, my mother, and mother-in-law told me, “If they’re cranky, put them in water.” No piece of advice has been better used in my home. Baths, pools, sprinklers, whatever. And vacations (stay-cations or traveling vacations, alike) often produce extra-tired crankiness. This pool figures heavily into my parenting strategy. And, yes, it’s about the closest you will get to finding me sitting still.