Friday was a major/classic snow day. Not only were all the schools closed, but so were the colleges and universities. The whole town screeched to a halt under a foot or so of snow. That’s like routine snow around here; what made the difference is that it fell overnight, before the plows had a chance to come through. Then it snowed all morning, too.

I had planned to spend the whole day inside with the babies. Curtis had planned to take the big kids and friend skiing and snowboarding. I checked my inbox for notes about the homeschool ski day being canceled along with everything else. I found a note saying that the basketball game Yanni had scheduled for Friday night might be canceled, but the ski day was definitely ON.

I learned that snow is very useful for that particular activity. Curtis took the kids, and they had a blast. There was snow everywhere, and the conditions couldn’t have been more perfect for skiing and snowboarding. The temperatures were in the 30s, which put a nice slippery sheen on the snow, and my people were falling constantly.

This was their first time ever going to a ski place; Xay was the only one who’d ever been atop a snowboard, so they didn’t know what to expect. Learning to hold onto the rope, and how to use the lift were challenging. Yanni gave up boarding and tried skiing. A nice girl from the varsity basketball team took her under her wing and showed her what to do. She didn’t give up on Yanni, and Yanni found that skiing was easier for her than boarding. It reminded her of skating.

Curtis talked to Yanni’s basketball coach, who had help organize the day at the slopes. He’s been snowboarding for 10 years, and remembers his first fall well. The coach described the sensation of a face full of snow and sweat vividly. Curtis kind of nodded and took note of it. Then he had his first fall. He felt the snow on the side of his face. He tasted the sweat. It was just like the coach had described.

Meanwhile, Xay and his friend Levi struggled to clip their snowy (rental) boots into the boards. They also kept snowboarding into the woods, and what Xay describes as the back side of the mountain, a part that wasn’t heavily trafficked, and was full of fluffy snow. I laughed at the description of the boys as completely soaked. It reminded me of Xay’s ‘liquid boy’ era, where he would go outside in the summer and return home completely drenched from water gun or hose warfare.

Curtis tells me I would be a total snow bunny if he took me snowboarding. I am less than enthusiastic at my current state, but it sounds like a lot of fun to non-pregnant folks. I can’t wait to get out there with the whole family!