Skiing and slush

Reuel had MLKJr day off yesterday, so he and Owen headed for the regal slopes of...Wachusett Mountain!  A mere 1 hr drive from our house...not the fanciest skiing in the world, but when you're going with a 3.5 year old, that's pretty much what you're looking for.  They left at 8:15a and got back around 6p. 

I have never seen Owen that tired.  Never.

It was adorable, actually.  He energetically hugged me when he came in, but as soon as his arms fell from around my legs I looked down at him, and he looked like he might fall right over sideways onto the floor.  From 6 til 6:20 when I got him in bed, his eyes would kind of half-shut, he'd get a little woozy, and then all of a sudden he'd snap out of it and tell me something about skiing.  He wasn't tracking mentally normally either, he was so tired...he only half-heard most of what I said, 'Let's brush teeth and go potty.  Where are your pj's?'  [Dazed.]  I got him dressed, laid him in bed, said goodnight, kissed him and turned off the light.  No response.  Close door.  Sleeping. 

This afternoon, he decided to really open the floodgates and share the experience with me.  He had a blast.  "Mommy, this is my BACKpack, and there are the ropes that Daddy holds me with, and we made new friends on the chair lift, and I LOVE the chair lift, and there was a girl learning how to ski holding her mommy's ski pole, and when I'm going to fall Daddy says squat down a little and then I won't fall, and we went way up on the chair lift so we could ski a long time, and we never did the magic carpet, and I LOVE skiing, and we are going to go again but today the road is not safe to go there, and next time I'm going to wear my GOGGLES and Asher is too little to ski but I'm not, and Daddy and I had chocolate when we were resting, and Daddy gave me these really, really great hand warmers and they made my hands get warm, and my LONG skiing socks kept my feet warm and I only fell a little bit."  [Breathe]

He is a pretty geared-out kid.  We got him these so he can hold a 'pizza slice':

 

and this so Reuel can hold onto him; the harness has a great handle for picking him up and getting him off the chair lift as needed:

Reuel said most of the time the lines are slack, but now and then he steers him or pulls a bit to keep him from falling.  Seems to work pretty well, but you have to be a pretty good skier in order to use it, so you don't land on your kid when they fall!  (Guess that rules me out as driver.)  With all the gear, it's not *exactly* like he's skiing, but he's enjoying himself, starting to get the hang of it, and starting this young maybe he won't be as afraid of it once he knows enough to be afraid ;)

This was quite a weekend for the two of them, as the day before skiing they had gone sledding for a couple of hours in the town nextdoor.  Owen was insatiable and never complained about the laborious climb up the hill...over...and over...and over.  At the top he would say every time, '1, 2, 3, blast off!' and jump on his innertube sled.  Reuel said he was the littlest guy there, but lacked no gusto.  The only funny thing was that he would always stop just a few steps short of the top of the hill and try to start sledding from there.  If Reuel pushed them all the way up, Owen would carefully walk down the mountain to his preferred starting spot and start there.  Reuel said the difference in fear factor between the 2 spots was virtually negligible, so he couldn't figure out what that was about.  In any case, it's official, he's a snow sport lover!

After the 2ft of snow last week, we got another 8 inches today, followed by...freezing rain.  Can you say YUCK??!  The snowblower broke, too, not that it would have been useful on that slush anyway.  We both went out to shovel a bit, but that was some heavy labor.  Reuel stuck it out a bit longer than I did but he's not going to do the whole drive.  Best part?  Tomorrow night is a nice 12 degree freeze to turn the driveway into a super bumpy skating rink that probably won't melt til April.  We had that 2 years ago and it was a bit of a pain :P  Ah well, we actually like the snow, crazily.