Vermont, and more skiing

Went to Vermont last weekend. The kids love it and get pretty excited in the days leading up to it. Tough to say what they love more: seeing Nana and Baba, taking a trip (until about an hour into the drive), playing with the 40-year-old toys, or checking out the Disney catalog of VHS tapes. Jack also enjoys rifling through my shelves for books and (a new one this trip) digging through drawers in Scott's room for knickknacks I have never seen before and in some cases don't even know what they are. He came back to New York with some of my Choose Your Own Adventure books, an HWR stamp/seal or some such, and my old reporter's dictaphone. And Kate saw 101 Dalmations and I believe Lady and the Tramp, although maybe she didn't finish the second one.

The first day we went skiing at Okemo, and got up pretty early to do it. Quick breakfast, quick drive, I had no idea it was less than 20 minutes away. Rented skis, checked in, dropped both kids at their lesson, insanely got on skis ourselves, thought we were crazy all the way up the magic carpet, fell a bunch on the way dpown, but kept doing it, and got better. And had an absolute blast.

We checked in on Kate before lunch. I walked in and asked after her at the counter. The woman looed at a sheet behind her, then said, "The good news is, she's not on The Cry List." That's right, there's a cry list. And Kate wasn't on it! She then checked with the teacher, and came back to say, she's doing fine. "She's apparently a little stubborn," she added. Emily and I laughed at that one. OH, not our Katie!

We collected Jack from his lesson; the instructor spoke well of him but seemed reserved, which was weird because we couldn't believe how well he did later with us. Maybe he ran over the guy's foot or something. We had lunch with Jack, which was a blast, 'cause we were all starving and ate everything, and then skied together. It was funny, because he was basically lapping us. "Go straight," he encouraged. "Fast!" as we made S curves down the mountain. He just cruised on down, stopped on a dime, turned to avoid people. Considering it was just the second time he had been on skis since a very introductory lesson two years earlier, I kind of couldn't believe it. Amazing! Better than us already. He probably could have handled the lift, I thought, since he didn't know enough to be concerned. And he continued to encourage us to speed up, as he lapped us yet again.

Eventually we got a call saying Kate was done (refusing to continue, in fact, which is fair; it was a longer lesson than we intended anyway), so did a few more runs, Emily collected her, and we took turns doing runs with Jack. Kate had a blast sliding down a little slope on her butt, saying "Wheeeeeeee!"

It was an awesome day. Got some pictures of happy skiers, cruised home weary and sore to shower up for a steak dinner, and spent the rest of the snowy weekend sledding, making a snowman, hiking in the woods, and playing. Kate laughed a lot during sledding, even when she fell off the sled halfway down (which was typical). Emily and Jack had me in a near-panic when they wandered off in the wood exploring and were gone for what seemed like an hour. I went after them, only to find them way behind the house with walking sticks, looking at deer and bunny tracks. Not lost, not hurt, but walking trails my family and I walked 35-40 years ago. If there is a better way to spend a Vermont weekend with kids, I don't know it.

Crazy it took us so long. It won't again. To quote George Eliot, thanks to the front quote of The One and Only Ivan, "It is never too late to be what you might have been." Hey, maybe not.

Skiing

Took the kids skiing today. Kate had a little weekend cold, and we weren't sure yesterday if we'd take her, but she seemed fine this morning so we tumbled into the car and went. We'd scheduled lessons for both, with Kate in a beginner one and Jack, who'd had the beginner lesson two years ago, one step up.

Besides Kate's cold, we considered bailing because it was really cold, and windy, and we had this worry that they'd both be freezing and have a miserable experience. But again, we shrugged it off and went anyway.

And good thing we did. Both of them completed their 3-hour lessons -- with a brief break for hot chocolate and snack -- with flying colors. Jack seemed to fall a ton the first hour, but I didn't see him fall at all in the last hour. Kate, by the end, was doing some slow zombie walking and some flopping, but she kept getting up, kept doing the next run, kept smiling.

It was cold, but it was sunny. They were tired, but they kept doing it. At the end, when I brought Kate back to the lodge to return her rentals, she could barely stand. But she did. And we got her back into her boots, and then Jack showed up, windburned and red-cheeked and exhausted, but fine. (Said he wanted to ski more, in fact.)

I didn't ski a lot as a kid. I remember having lessons a couple of times. I don't know if I didn't like it, didn't want to push myself, didn't want to get pushed, whatever. But I wish, now, I'd skied more, and I'm glad, now, to see Jack and Kate doing it, and enjoying it. In a few days, we're planning to go again.

We went to a diner and ate burgers and fries, cruised home, spent the afternoon relaxing. Kate went to bed singing about having a great time skiing. Jack figures he's knows how to ski now and doesn't need another lesson, which is the way he is; already knows all there is to know, until of course he finds out he doesn't.

Anyway, I was proud of them today. I don't care if they become big skiers. But it's cool to think they might be.

Ice cream

Jack had his winter clinic baseball tonight, so Kate and I dropped him off, and then we headed to Carvel, because there was an event of some sort where you buy lots of ice cream and 25% of the proceeds go to a fundraiser. Plus we got to meet Fudgie the Whale!

Kate had been afraid of Santa, so I couldn't be certain she'd be ok with a ballpark mascot sized Fudgie. But she walked up to him, and we shook hands, and she beamed "Hi, Fudgie!" And then we got ice cream, and she watched Fudgie, and showed me how he did a little dance where he threw his flippers in the air, demonstrating. And then she posed for a picture, and hugged Fudgie goodbye. And she babbled happily all the way home.

That's pretty much it, suffice to say that it was as much fun as you can have getting ice cream in February.

Winter

We didn't have much snow last winter. I think it snowed in late October and then once more after that. So it was pretty cool when it snowed two weeks ago and we made a snowman, and then snowed this morning and is still snowing now, 14 hours later.

We made another snowman, or really I did and convinced Kate to help me with the face and getting the carrot and stuff. Jack went inside, uh, he probably had something else important to do. Kate posed for a picture.

After lunch it was snowing and snowy and beautiful, and the kids needed some exercise, so I talked them into heading down to the little playground. And Jack suggested we bring his sled, which was an awesome idea I would like to take credit for. I did get it out of the shed and blow it up last night!

We traipsed down to the park and Jack, for the first time in two years, zipped down the hill at the edge of the park, a fairly decent incline, laughing all the way. And Kate ran down after him, laughing almost as much. And I kind of thought she might be a little wary of the hill, but in fact, she wasn't. Or rather, she took a turn anyway, and afterward said, "that was so scary!" and "can I go again?"

They went down separately, and together, over and over again. I am pretty sure it was Kate's first time sledding. It was pretty cool.

Baseball

Jack had baseball tryouts Saturday. He will be playing regardless, but this was a chance for him to move up from Rookie, where he played last year, to Minors. So we loaded his gear into the car and off we went. It was kind of cool; he was clearly excited about the whole thing, even though we stressed it didn't matter which level he played at.

We checked in at the gym, threw our jackets on the stands. At first I thought I would be able to watch. Uh, no. Kids were shuttled into a smaller gym, given a number to stick on their shirt (#205 for Jack), and parents were sent into the hall. Then kids were sent into the bigger gym and the heavy doors slammed shut.

We stood in the hall, me and the other Dads. Maybe there was one Mom. At one point we heard a kid wailing, like he had taken a ball in the face. Not Jack! Whew. Maybe 20 minutes later, Jack came out. "I need my bat!" he said. It's in there, I said. He ran back in.

Evidently they all fielded a few popups, a few ground balls, made some throws, ran some bases, hit some pitches. I asked a friend who was helping out later on how Jack did. "jack did good," he said, both encouraging and noncommittal.

We headed out and Jack seemed happy with himself. Said he hit 4 of 5 "in play," which sounded promising. I told him I was proud of him whatever happened, said either level would be great. And meant it.