Day 3: Snow Day

 

Looking out the window, it didn’t look like much of a snow day. A thin glaze of ice covered brown grass. Thick fog covered the mountain. Not much actual snow.

“Lily, do you want to go up the mountain?” I asked, unsure if it would really be worth the trip.

Lily looked out the window and surveyed the drab grey landscape and frowned. “Can’t we just stay home and play with Calico Critters?”

For a moment I considered the options. The weather didn’t look promising. But the season would be ending soon.

“It’s a snow day!” I said cheerfully. “Skiing is what we do on a snow day!” Secretly, I worried it would be raining when we got there.

Lily grumbled, but she went along with my plan.

As we drove up to the mountain, the weather changed from freezing rain, to sleet, to wet snow, to finally big fluffy snow-globe snow as we pulled into the parking lot.

As we unloaded the car, Lily jabbered away about the snow, her brown eyes wide with excitement. “Mommy do you think we could ski in the woods today?”

Lily loves to ski in the woods more than anything.

Not wanting to disappoint, I played it safe, saying, “I don’t know. We’ll see.”

Lily made a face. “Awww. I REALLY want to ski in the woods.”

“Me too, Lily. Me too.”

After an icy hike from the car to the ski club lodge (“Be careful! It’s slippery!), a minor meltdown as we put on ski boots (“You’ll freeze if you let your feet get wet on the floor!”), and a chairlift ride later (“Stop swinging your skis! You’ll fall out!”), we were finally skiing.

Rumrunner is a trail that is often icy and faces into the wind. It’s usually just a way to get to other trails, not a destination in itself. But today, it was covered in several inches of fluffy, soft powder. Lily made quick turns ahead of me, hooting and hollering the whole way. “Whoa ho ho!! Powder!” she shouted. “Freshies, mommy!” As we went around a slightly steeper bend in the trail, she cruised past me, shouting at the top of her lungs, as though from the bow of the Titanic, “I CAN DO ANYTHING!!!!!!”

Lily came to a skidding stop just in front of the entrance to her favorite woods trail, Poacher’s Woods. “Come on, Mom!” she hollered and swooshed into the fresh snow, through the trees, and down the trail. Not a worry in the world.