Last Friday, the kids had a Teacher Work Day so Jeff took the day off too and we drove up to the cabin Thursday evening. This picture was taken Friday morning. This was a first for Jeff and me. We have never taken our three children skiing without other adults (grandparents) around for extra hands.
We spent most of the morning on the two smallest hills working with Nate and Lizzie while Cooper did circles around us. About an hour before lunch, Jeff and I got the brilliant idea-note much sarcasm applied here- to take all the kids up the hill on the chair lift. The plan was to have me ski with Lizzie using the harness and Jeff to work with Nate on his snow plow. This particular run was an easy green, but also one of the longest runs on the hill. Literally the top of the mountain to the bottom kind of run. Nice and easy. Of course, Cooper can ski just fine and we knew he would be able to keep up with us. We didn't really think that it might be the opposite and we couldn't keep up with Cooper.
But that's what happened. We assumed and parents should never, ever assume, that Cooper understood to wait at the different intervals of the run so we could all touch base. We also assumed, again should never have done this, that Cooper would understand that he should stay within our sight. Cooper on the other hand assumed as an over confident nine and half year old would that as long as he was on the designated run he was free to go. And go he did...at top speed. It was only a matter of seconds before he was out of our sight and Jeff and I started to get frantic. When we made it to the next two stops without any sign of Cooper we went into full blown parental panic and just decided to piggy back Nate and Lizzie down the rest of the way so we could get down and find Cooper and/or ski patrol at the bottom. He could have taken a wrong turn, fallen off the run, been run over by a snow boarder, any number of horrible scenarios were running through my mind.
One very long, panic stricken, painful hour later, Jeff and I had finally made it down the mountain with Lizzie and Nate on our backs to find Cooper patiently waiting at the BOTTOM OF THE HILL. He had been waiting there for quite awhile. I felt like I had pulled a hamstring because I had gone down the longest run on the hill with a 41 pound sack of potatoes on my back. We should probably add close to ten pounds of ski gear to that number. Jeff had carried over 60 pounds with Nate. We were completely winded and that's the only reason Cooper didn't receive our full wrath. We were too exhausted. We were so relieved he was okay that we decided not to kill him. But it was a toss up for a little while.
After a nice calming lunch we all headed back to the bunny and rope tow hills and spent the early afternoon skiing, all within clear sight of each other. Minus a terrible hour, it was a great day.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment