Annual ski date

In January the school district has a teacher in-service day. It’s a day that few other schools in the area have off.

Last year I decided it would be the perfect day to take Neko skiing, as I figured the slopes would be pretty empty—and I was right! Nancy and Mary Beth came along, and we had an amazing day.

This year, Nancy had to work, so Neko and I went solo. Someone had a small anxiety attack shortly before we hit the slopes, and almost refused to go. Thank goodness, Bill the Amazing Ski Instructor was there to greet us, so I slipped Neko into his class for the first hour.

After the class, she was ready for the green hill. After we skiied the green hill a few times, she decided she was ready for the blue hill. We switched between three different blue runs for the rest of the day, and now my seven-year-old is a better skiier than I am.

Parenthood—it is nothing if not humbling.

We capped off the day with a few trips down the tubing hill. As we sailed down the hill, I thought to myself how wonderful this was. I miss those little baby snuggles, but what a joy to have this whole person to hang with for the day.

Sadly, I committed the cardinal photography sin, and forgot to charge my camera battery. It died on the first photo, so all I have are these photos from my phone. And someone refused to let me take her photo close up, so you’ll have to just look at that little speck of her in the second photo and trust that we were there.

Special thanks to Barb and Kendall who took care of Shep and Ellery today, and to Tom who helped with transportation. It was a bit of scheduling gymnastics to make it all come together, but so very worth it.