The Big Trip

What a day. I some how pulled my sorry as* out of bed just shortly after 6 AM. The kids popped out of bed pretty easily, I guess the lure of a mountain ski/snowboard trip was pretty powerful. We left on time as I insisted but still just barely made it to the ski school in time.

I was harassed with “are we there yet?” for a good portion of the 90-minute drive. I finally told them that if we are going up a mountain and you see snow then we must be close. That worked and then suddenly we were there. An hour after that, my two little ones were checked into “Chipmunk” ski school and another hour after that and we had lift tickets and a board and boots for my nephew. The cashier was pretty and had a wonderful smile.

Then the real fun began. My oldest daughter was on her third trip so she did pretty well. This was my nephew’s first trip and snowboarding isn’t the easiest thing to pick up. He did great. He has a tendency to give up easily and we did have a few close calls. Just before lunch I decided that walking the rest of the way down was the best alternative. He was wet and cold. Flipping head over heals dunking your head into the snow every 30 feet or so tends to take a toll on a person eventually.

I have to give him a lot of credit though, by the end of the day he was going up the lift, getting off the lift (ever try this with only one foot strapped into a snowboard?), strapping himself in, and making it down the mountain. He was still tumbling head over heels every so often, but he jumped right back up and tried again.

Then again, it could just be the trainer...:)

As for the little two, I checked in on them at lunchtime. They had the unhappy daycare look in their eyes and all but begged me to pull them out. I resisted, gave them as much positive reinforcement as I could and slipped out quickly. That was tough. I spent the rest of the afternoon stressing about how they were doing. My nephew was ready (mostly) to go on his own. My daughter and I were itching to go down a real hill. We did the big lift together. She struggled a bit, but this was only her third time snowboarding and her first time this year.

I went straight for the ski school after that and found my middle child inside and ready to leave. She hadn’t actually given up but upon seeing me, she was done. I did have the chance to see her go down the kiddy hill once and she did fine. They run a great kid program there. I pulled her out early and went back to check on the older two. My nephew was suddenly quite the diehard, going time and time again on his own.

I eventually picked up my youngest son once the school was complete and also after watching him pull a nice wedge down the kiddy hill.

After checking in my nephew’s board and boots, the same pretty cashier was there to return my deposit. We didn’t damage the rental equipment, but I honestly don’t think that was what made her smile like that. Or maybe that’s just what I thought.

All in all, it was a great day. I would normally cry like a baby after dropping that kind of cash but with all the bragging, arguing about who was better, and stories of who had the best crash, that made it all worth while. I never even had a chance to go fast enough and really feel the wind against my face except when I thought I saw my nephew go into the trees... I guess this trip wasn’t for me though.

Fej