For the last few days, we’ve been at Copper Mountain during the day, and hanging out with our cousins at night. We have had a lot of snow. From Thursday until Saturday morning, it snowed and snowed. I think all told, we had about 12-14 inches of snow. We had a little trouble getting out in the morning, but we persevered and once we were on our way, the roads were passable.
It was so cold yesterday, wind chills of -18, that at one point Harlan was crying that he couldn’t make his turns because he couldn’t feel his feet. I had the others go on, since our friends were out from Denver for the day to hang out and ski/ride with us. Harlan and I spent 20 minutes inside with him drinking hot chocolate and me rubbing his feet and trying to get his boot warmers working. Afterwards, he was raring to go. We had one of our best runs ever, with him practically dancing down the mountain.
Gilbert has been skiing and snowboarding. Yesterday and the day before, he was on his board, because he went with his cousin to snowboard and then our friend rides, and he wanted to chat with her. On the day he skied, he and I took a last run while we were waiting for Seamus. He decided to try it without his poles, so we rode up the gondola and talked. He is a natural on the snow. It’s really beautiful to watch.
Seamus has been skiing with us, until he just can’t take how slowly everything moves and requests to ski on his own. He’s been doing glades and moguls, and just working really hard to find terrain he hasn’t covered yet. One day, his cousin came with us to ski, and the two of them had a great day exploring the mountain together, having lunch, and at one point losing each other and having to call on their phones from 10 feet away. He does not get lost up there.
Porter has been having a lot of fun in the terrain parks. Copper is great for all sizes of terrain park. There are several little learning parks that the younger boys especially have enjoyed. Porter like the boxes, and Harlan tries them, sometimes (mostly he bails out and goes for the jump). Porter has gotten really good on the different sized boxes. Two days ago, I was skiing the little terrain park with the boys and we decided to take the right-most lift on the mountain. It was an older one, and right at the end, it popped as we were unloading, and Porter’s ski got stuck. The binding didn’t release, and Porter went under the lift. He was okay, but his ski was broken, He skied down the broken ski, but he couldn’t do the box or make turns well, and by the time I found him at the bottom, he was sobbing. I reassured him that it wasn’t his fault that the ski was broken, and yesterday, we went to Sun and Ski and rented him a pair for the rest of the week. He was so happy to be back out there again, and even was happy to not take a day off skiing, since I told him we had paid for the skis for 6 days, and he had to use them. Luckily, we have another pair for him at home that will fit for the rest of the season. Unfortunately, we hadn’t brought those with us.
Today and tomorrow look absolutely gorgeous. Sunny, and in the 30s should make for beautiful ski days. We plan to ski Copper once more today, then A-Basin tomorrow for Patrick, me, and the younger boys. The older ones are going to Keystone with their cousins. Tuesday, we have to pack out, but we plan to try to get in a few hours at A-Basin before heading to Winter Park, where we have a condo for just the six of us for three nights.
Hopefully, we’ll make it to Denver Airport on Friday without incident, and our flight will be flying, and we’ll head home, probably just in time for virtual school. My friend joked that we should just stay out here. I almost would! The boys’ school says it’s going to be in-person, but my work is already virtual for two weeks, and, to be honest, I’m just dreading it. But I’ll drum up enthusiasm by the time I have to, don’t worry.
Academic Leigh Speaking 