Adventures in Big Sky.

2019 is shaping up to be a year of wonderful adventures. Kristen turned 40 last month, and has always wanted to go skiing in Big Sky, Montana, so she and Jeff organized a trip for a half dozen friends and their families. We took off on Wednesday morning (early morning) and landed in Bozeman, Montana later in the day. Between the six families (originally five, but Sara Jo and Whitney got a steal of a flight out of Long Beach and surprised us on Thursday - there was much screaming on my part) there were 11 adults and 10 kids, so quite the group of rowdy friends.

We had a blast! I was initially hesitant going in, and stressed out. It's just a lot of work - there's no way around it. There's no way to go without checking bags, there's a lot of money involved in renting skies and buying lift tickets and ski lessons and it's just a lot to manage. The parents all joked that there were moments where we wanted to yell at our kids "WE ARE HAVING SO MUCH FUN RIGHT NOW. WE ARE MAKING MEMORIES. THIS TRIP IS EXPENSIVE AND YOU WILL HAVE FUN!" Thankfully though, we truly DID have fun, so much fun. The kids loved it - they were in lessons all day (well, half day lesson, half day daycare for Adam) and then got to hang out with their friends all night, including sharing bunk rooms in matching jammies, and they got to spend plenty of time playing in the snow. We rented two enormous cabins and had access to their village lodge, which had a pool, hot tub, game room and a little bar with free beer and wine and cheese and snacks (and hot chocolates. So many hot chocolates.) The first night we were there, three of the moms went to the store and filled four grocery carts. One of our friends is a wonderful chef and made enormous family dinners so that we didn't have to worry about eating.

The mountain was gorgeous, truly. I had some of the prettiest, most scenic rides of my entire life. Despite only skiing one day between freshman year of college and now, I felt like I got my legs back under me and was grateful that I got to ski the day with some of the better skiers (we had a varsity and a JV squad. Tim was JV team captain.) We all met up for lunch every day and apres drinks. Ellie skied from 9:15-4pm every day, and she did amazing - was doing green runs all over the hill by the end of it! She and I took the final runs together every day, and I was so impressed with how she'd improved, and how much she loved it. Adam stayed mostly on the bunny slope, but he also had a great time - I'm glad we pulled the cord and put him in the lunch and afternoon day care program. He wouldn't have probably managed to ski all day, and neither Tim nor I wanted to leave the slopes early. Poor dude - he actually threw up from exhaustion/altitude sickness before bed on Wednesday night, and at 4am on Friday morning.

One of the funniest/most horrible moments was when we were renting our gear and the guy checking the bindings on my skies goes "your boots are really old - they're almost too old to work with these bindings" and I said "they're from 1997. They're still good," and another kid goes "I was born in 1997." NO ONE ASKED YOU, WHIPPERSNAPPER. I was also wearing my old high school snow gear, though I had to chuck my snowpants on the last day after they ripped when I fell. And Lexi asked me if I was wearing my mom's jacket. Nope, I've owned this since 8th grade. Just turned out, never truly grew into it.

Dog Sledding!

One of the best things we did on the trip was go dog sledding. It was such a fun day - we went on Saturday, so we'd had two days full of skiing, and it was nice to not wake up and race to the mountain. Instead, we woke up and geared up to go racing.

Since we were such a big party, we were all of the sleds. There was a guide sled for each parent-guided sled, so we rode with our families for the most part (except for two of the dads, who drove each other in the sled of romance.) Most of the dogs are Iditarod drop outs, though there was one dog who had been on a winning sled. About a third of them are females, most of the dogs are males. They were very friendly to us and the kids and delighted to be petted - apparently when they're doing working with the teams, they become great house dogs (despite how stinky they are, woof.) They're definitely working dogs though! They warned us that there was going to be a lot of barking while they hook up all the dogs, and there was, but once they start running, they go totally quiet, focused on the job ahead (but when we'd stop and pause, back to rolling in the snow or barking at each other.)

It was AWESOME. The scenery was so gorgeous, and it was just such a cool, once in a life time thing to do. Tim drove on the way up - we were the second sled in line. At the halfway point we had hot chocolate and home made cookies, and then Tim and the guide let me drive back. And... I dumped the sled. I caught an edge on a snow bank and couldn't brake hard enough, so I threw my (thankfully helmeted) family into the snow. Ellie was SCREAMING about it and weeping, but was nothing more than snowy, not hurt at all. Poor California kid has never been thrown off a sled before!

Schoolwork.

The return to routine has everyone worn out this week - we had gotten far too good at sleeping in far too late. Ellie was of course, thrilled to see her friends, Adam remains convinced that school is boring. Please witness this note that he wrote as part of a lesson:

"Hi Mom, I have to be at school for a long time." No kidding kid, but three hours isn't hardly long enough for me to catch up on everything!

Then yesterday he left the classroom bearing this last 'nugget' of holiday cheer. To make the Grinch Smile I Would "give him poop." Adam told me that the Grinch is gross, and that's why he gets poop. I know I'm supposed to admonish him, but I nearly fell over laughing.

Meanwhile, Ellie was reading aloud a book that features a female engineer at its center. There was some disaster going on and all the other engineers were frazzled, but the heroine, "she remained clam." And when Tim asked her if she meant "calm" she said "no, it says clam." Way to use context clues, kid!

2019!

Happy, happy New Year! Tim is back to work these week and the kids have been doing morning camp at the YMCA, for fun and a way out of the house. Yesterday as I was leaving after my work out, I could see them on the soccer field and Adam was in tears (from what I could tell in a "this game is not my favorite" cry, versus a "my bone has broken and pierced the skin" cry) and I just slowly got in my car and drove away hoping they wouldn't see me. You're someone else's problem now, kid!

Last week before the year was up, we went and used some passes to Legoland. The kids love Legos, both building and playing with, and even though I loathe amusement parks, for free passes, I can try a lot of things. Miraculously, the only crying we had at the park was on the way in, when Ellie doinked her dome off of a parked car's side mirror. The kids were a great age for the experience - both big enough to ride all of the rides and patient enough to wait in the long lines for the rollercoasters. Adam wasn't sure about the coastering, but at the end of the day, said it had been his favorite part. They also loved all of the cities built out of Legos, and we had a really nice day as a family.

For New Year's Eve we were over with our friend crew, and once again, hired babysitters to entertain the kids until 9pm, while the adults gorged ourselves on appetizers and champagne cocktails. This year, the kids nearly made it to midnight, as we were home and tucking them in at 11:55. Every year gets a little easier, and they are more ready to party hearty. We're staying busy all through the weekend, and it should be a shock to the system to head back to school on Monday, and not spend most nights having dinner with friends and staying up far too late.