Instead of flying everyone out for Christmas this year, Laurie's family decided on a big family ski weekend at their cabin, mostly because it was way less expensive to fly everybody out in January than at Christmas time. Laurie and I were flying in on Thursday, also flying Thursday was her brother and sister-in-law who live in Seattle. Her brother and cousin, who are living in Boston, flew out a little further in advance to see their friends and family for a longer period of time than just a weekend. So we were supposed to leave Thursday evening, but there was a tornado watch here in Phoenix and the airport was basically closed that night. We called before we hauled everything to the airport and our airline didn't inform us that they really weren't flying anymore planes that night, so when we got to the baggage check, we found out we had to haul everything home. Thankfully, there was a 6:20am flight Friday morning that had seats available, so we hopped on that flight in the morning. All the stuff we were hauling included my oxygen concentrator (aka the beast), a lot of snow clothing and the normal stuff, too.
""""""""""""" (<--- Bennett's contribution to this post)
So, we made it to CA (San Jose) in the morning, the flight was not as rough as we (and the pilot) expected and we set out to the cabin in the pouring (and very cold) rain. I waited with the bags at the airport while Laurie took a bus to the parking lot off airport property that her parents had parked a car for us. We were trying to make it to a 2 pm ski lesson for me and it soon became clear that we weren't going to make it. It rained consistently all the way until it started to snow on us. We reached chain control pretty quickly, about 2500 ft in elevation on highway 4. Luckily, we didn't have to bother with chains because we were driving an all wheel drive car with brand new snow tires. We thought we were doing pretty good on time, and then we had to stop for workers to clear trees, which slowed us up considerably. We were surprised at how many trees had fallen from when Laurie's parents had driven up (2:30 am) and us (11 am). We made it to the cabin about 12:30 pm and had no hope of driving up to the resort. It was still snowing pretty hard and there just wasn't going to be enough time (I needed to be at the ski resort at 1 pm for the 2 pm lesson). It was then that we learned about the harrowing tales that Laurie's family had about driving in the night before. Her parents did a 270 in their car with chains on, Laurie's sister and brother-in-law had a tree and power lines fall down right in front of them. We were all thankful that we got there safely. Arriving was also when we found out that there was no power. So much for dragging the beast with us!
I hung out and slept at the cabin for the afternoon and Laurie and almost all of the family when skiing out the back door. Her nephew, who is almost 3 stayed home with me and napped with me. We had Christmas that night, lit with candles and headlamps and flashlights. Mostly, all of us had already exchanged our secret santas but there were plenty of stocking stuffers. Dinner was some delicious salmon and green beans and rice with a delightful brown sugar/ginger/chile pepper/sesame seed/? sauce for the salmon. I went to bed early to rest up for my ski.
The next morning, we had chocolate chip pancakes and about half the family headed out for some downhill skiing at the Bear Valley ski resort. The rest of the family went out and built a sledding run for Laurie's nephews to play on. Unfortunately, some clock issues with the power out led to some miscommunications. Laurie's dad was supposed to head back from sledding so we could leave at noon and had to go be found. We had planned for 45 minutes to get me dressed and in the car, well because different clocks said different things, we ended up with only 20 minutes. So, all in all, we were pulling out of the driveway at about 12:50 pm. We got to highway 4 (about 30 sec worth of driving) and discovered that chains weren't needed and the low pressure tire light had come on. So, we drove back to the driveway, took off chains, added air to tires and headed out again. The road looked good, so we were surprised at finding chain control, oh, about 15 minutes ahead of us. So we put chains back on and made it to the resort about 2:30 pm. The resort was so wonderful about still letting me take the lessons. The lifts close at 4 pm and the lesson was an hour and a half. I used a bi-ski and the two teachers were wonderful about taking out a newbie. I had so much fun. I've never been skiing before, even when I wasn't sick. It was so awesome to be out there with everyone. At one point, some of Laurie's family went over me on a lift while I was on the slope and I could hear them cheering for me, it was just so exciting to be skiing! Adaptive technology has come so far, and I'm so glad. Ok, I'm not saying I was a great skier or anything. When the teachers were helping me balance, I did great, but when I was alone in steering and balancing (they had me tethered so I wouldn't escape) I fell a few times. My arms are so sore from using the outriggers and generally being used in ways they're not used to. I'm so happy that I had the opportunity to do this! Laurie said that she cried when she saw me on the slopes, it was that emotionally charged an experience.
When we got home, I collapsed into bed, very happy (both to be in bed and to have been skiing, Laurie was teasing me because my front teeth were freezing because I was smiling so much while skiing :) ). We had a birthday dinner for Laurie's mom and hung out before going to bed. This whole trip, we spent playing with Laurie's nephews who are 2 and 1. They are both adorable and the 2 year old is at a really fun age. He is always talking, mostly to himself, but there is always a stream of words coming out of his mouth and he has a fantastic imagination. He was a lot of fun to hang out with and Laurie got lots of nephew time in this weekend.
In the morning yesterday, we all packed off and headed off to our respective homes. We were a little worried about the drive from the cabin to the airport but we ended up with plenty of time. Our flights to Phoenix and Seattle were 10 minutes apart, so driving together worked out perfectly. The flight home was uneventful. I was able to spin on the plane, it wasn't very full and Laurie and I had a seat between us. Bennett was very happy to see us when we got home.
All in all, a fantastic weekend. Everyone was relaxed and enjoying each other's company and even without power, the cabin was well enough designed that we could cook and keep warm and even have warm showers. I am so very happy to have had the experience of skiing and we definitely have plans to do it again! (I promise pictures of me actually doing it soon!)
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