Last weekend we went on our "2nd Annual" Family Mountain Trip. We said after last year we needed to make this trip a tradition. It was a great time with friends and we much we needed a weekend away from the hustle and bustle of every day life, especially right after Christmas. So, we took the girls out of school on Friday and headed to Boone, NC after school on Thursday. You just never can tell when traveling with our wild things how things are going to go. You just cross your fingers and say a pray that all will survive a car ride.
Our history of travel is not great. We pretty much can make it an hour before things fall apart so a 4 hour trip can always be an adventure. I'm not one for putting our kids in front of a tv, but we have decided that all forms of entertainment are appreciated on a trip. So, off we went with 3 Ipads and a TV with hopes of happy travels. To top it off, a stop at McDonalds and we were on our way.
I have to admit that I wasn't hopeful as we left. The girls were already tired from a week of school and Dylan had not napped for 2 days. Our kids don't sleep in the car so a tired child just becomes an even more tired whiny and exhausting child while in the car. I always wished to have the sweet baby that would fall asleep as soon as the car started moving but after three tries that has never happened to us.
But, overall we had a good trip up. There were that standard issues "She's on my side!" "You're too loud I can't hear." and the all too frequent "I lost my (insert any meaningless item here.... my baby doll's dogie, my shoe though we are in the car and not getting out any time soon, my extra shirt for my American Girl Doll etc.)" But these were all manageable and we made it there in good time. Add a check to the we survived column of another trip. We got settled into the most beautiful mountain house, far nicer than our house at home with amazing views, the kind of views that makes you take a deep breath and marvel at the amazing things God created on this Earth. We got the kids settled down and ready for bed with hopes of great days to come.
On Friday our plan was to go skiing. It's a bit nerve racking to think of 3 kids on skis, especially since I have never skied before. Then as we were getting ready to leave the house, Davis adamantly refused to go out the door because as she states "I don't like skiing. It's no fun." This was very ironic as she had never been on skis in her life. My stubborn child is hard to reason with "But Davis how can you know you don't like it, you have never tried?" He response "because I have thought about it and it's stupid and stinky!" She did finally agree to go to the car though she was adamant there would be no skiing for her. "But Davis what are you going to do when we are there if you don't ski? You will be bored." and then the sibling pressure technique "But Layla knows how to ski and Dylan is going to ski. You are going to let your little brother ski and you won't try?" She then calmly stated she would play in the snow and build a snow man. We just had to let it go until we got to the slopes. The more you try to convince her to come over to your thought the more adamant she is that she's going to do the opposite so we just prayed that if she saw other's skiing she would think it looked fun and give it a try. Sure enough, we got there and she saw the snow and was ready to go. 
So, here we were with Davis and Dylan on the bunny slope. Really since I had no clue how to ski I just listened to those around us who seemed to know what they were talking about and repeated it to the kids. Jamie did his best but patience in teaching is not his strong suit. He really did a great job but our strong willed children are not the best at listening. They are much better at stating "I'll do it myself!" So, up and down up and down up and down we went. First down the little part of the slope then the bigger part. Davis adapted the strategy that if she was within 15 feet of someone she would just fall down, which made for a lot of falling. It seemed like every 10 seconds she would see someone in the distance and down she would go. At least we didn't have to worry about her crashing into someone. She really did well for it being her first time and decided that when all was said and done she LOVED skiing. She has the best smile and I loved every minute of those smiles.... there were certainly minutes without that beautiful smile but I just am going to pretend those didn't happen :)
I think I was probably more nervous about Dylan just because he's so young, a 3 year old on skis, Yikes! But there really were no other options. Poor guy being the youngest of 3 often gets thrown into the do or dies of our family. I didn't want to stay home with him and miss seeing the girls ski and he certainly didn't want to miss out so he gets to come along and give it a try. I really had no clue they made these little tiny skis and somehow felt better after seeing how cute he was with his ski jacks and little skis, ready to roll, as if by his cuteness things would go any better. He really did better than I thought he would do. He was a little frustrated by not being able to get his skis to take him where he wanted to go but he did get to ride up the hill on the lift and was so proud of himself. His specialty was keeping his skis straight, he couldn't turn or slow down well but as long as he needed to go straight, life was good. As opposed to Davis, he would never attempt to stop, no fear! So, someone always had to be at the bottom of the hill to slow him down and help him stop, otherwise I think he would have went flying into the fence. He loved it. The faster the better, then came "the crash." He seemed to catch the toe of his ski in the snow and took a pretty good tumble where he ended up a tangled mess with his skis pointing opposite directions. More that anything it scared him so the rest of his ski day with spend with someone going down the bunny slow beside him. He still has a great time and was a little mad that someone couldn't sprint beside him so he could fly down the hill.
Then there was Layla. She skied last year and did pretty good but never went off the bunny slope. She just wanted someone to tell her she was doing a good job and she was happy. She stayed on the bunny slope for the morning and then decided that she wanted to go on the Big mountain. Layla has always been our cautious child. She doesn't take risks and is pretty fearful of anything new (and did I mention she didn't get Jamie's coordination genes. She's pretty much a mess). So we were kind of surprise with her request, especially how adamant she was that she could do it. After much discussion, off Layla went with her Daddy and Uncle Dale just smiling from ear to ear. I thought for sure that she would take the lift up to the top of the mountain and either flip out or come down a short way until she fell then walk the rest of the way down.... I was really not expecting this to end well but we wanted to give her a chance. To our surprise she did great. She snow plowed down most of the way the first time but wanted to go again and so off they went back up. By the second time she was actually skiing down and by the last time I saw her fly by and thought for sure that couldn't be her, until I saw her smile!
I live for those smiles, those moments, those memories. It amazes me how adaptive, courageous, adventurous, and supportive our kids can be. I did finally get to put skis on myself, went 5 feet and proceeded to fall. Did I mention that those not so coordinated genes of Layla's may have came from her mommy. The girls came to me and said "It's ok mommy. Skiing hard. You just need to practice and you'll get better!" I did get better but don't think down hill skiing is my thing. Maybe cross country skiing but not down hill.
On Sunday we were much more in my element. We were convinced to go on a 2.5 mile hike with friends and their 3 girls. We were told that it was an easy hike, went down by the river which was cool and would be great fun. It was around 32 degrees that day and was overcast but after spending all day Saturday inside because of rain we needed to get outside. Little did we know that the hike was really going to be 5 miles, involve some narrow paths that had a cliff on one side into the river and a really rooted and rocky path. But once we knew all of this it was too late. The first 2 miles were great, the hike was beautiful and it was mostly level or a little down hill. We could see the river and the kids loved it. They got to go out on the rocks into the river, see some small waterfalls and see some caved made from the rocks. It was beautiful. But then they were done with hiking, not a good thing when by this point we were 2.5 miles either way to get back to our car. From miles 2-4 it was more rocky and uphill and we crossed over a small river about 10 times. Dylan was exhausted and I ended up piggie back riding him up the mountain for about 2 miles. The girls went into whining mode "my feet are cold, I have mud on my favorite boots, how much further." But overall they got over it quickly and keep moving along. They had their moments but really I think enjoyed it. The last mile was fairly flat and Dylan decided that he was ready to walk again so off he went with Jamie and the girls and I got to spend some time hiking together. We did finally make it back to the car and I think the girls were very proud that they made it the whole way. We did resort to a bit of bribery the last 2 miles. We were told there was an old fashion candy shop in town, where you put your candy in a basket then buy it by the weight so we promised that if we could make it without whining, we could go to the candy store. So, after the hike off we went to get candy! It was worth every penny that we spent for that candy. They were so happy. Of the simple pleasures of a child. After freezing for 5 miles a little candy made everything right in the world.
But alas, after we got back from the hike we had to get ready to come home. The girls had school the next day so we needed to make it back home. We had been on trips when they were little that I had thought, please just let it be over and lets go home. But not this one. We had a great time and didn't want it to end. But all good things must come to and end. There will be next year, more ski trips, more hikes and I look forward to every moment of it (well not every moment I'm sure but no trip is perfect).
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| Notice Davis isn't in the picture. My stubborn child, you've got to love her. |
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