We took the day off yesterday. We had to -- it actually snowed and the mountain had powder conditions to ski and ride! But I should have known we'd have issues as soon as I woke L. up.

First she simply wouldn't get out of bed. "I'm soooooo tired mommy." Then she did not want to eat breakfast but I made her sit down with a bowl of cereal while I packed lunches. She begrudgingly ate a bowl of Trix, not the most nutrious breakfast, but at least it was something.

Then after finally getting everything loaded in the car, which seemed to take longer than I remember (it has been a year since the last trip to the mountain) we headed to Shawnee Peak.

After arriving and getting ourselves organized, we headed to the chair lift. L. was still a little grouchy and I thought her complaints about her new (used) skis being "too slippery" was just a reflection of her having one-of-those-days.

But then halfway down our first run L. took a tumble. It took her a few minutes to calm down enough to let me check her out. She was OK, just a bit shaken up. She did manage to get herself down the mountain on her own even though she cried all the way.

We took a break at the base of the mountain for a few minutes and G. reviewed for L. how to turn and stop on her skis. I thought it best to take another run before a snack break simply to get L. over the unpleasantness of her fall. She agreed with a candy bribe and we headed back up the mountain on the chair lift.

That's when the next tragedy hit.

L. took off her glove to open her candy and whooosh. It flew right off the chair lift. After a lot of crying, we reached the top of the mountain with L. wearing one of my gloves.


I did OK as a one-handed snowboarder.

After retrieving L.'s glove from the very friendly chair lift operator at the base of the mountain, I decided it was time to have a snack. When someone is in a grouchy mood I feed them. It usually worked for my grandmother and I've had some success with it myself.

L. ate some fruit and half a sandwich and she thankfully was back to her old, happy self again. We pretended to start the day over again and had 3 hours of enjoyable runs down the mountain.

It was a beautiful, cold day at the mountain and the snow machines were working hard.

L., in her own words, about how the day began: