march 5

kevin left today for his first of two short trips this week.  it actually snowed a teeny bit last night, so i awakened with the urge to go skiing one last time this season.  i knew it had to be the last day that perfect north would be open with all the unseasonably warm weather we've been having.  so, i packed up all of our gear and lunch, picked the kids up from school and headed straight to perfect north.  i was pretty proud of myself for taking on the challenge of taking two little ones skiing, and i couldn't have been happier with the way everything went.  gavin took a little nap on the drive over, which was perfect.  it was quite cold and windy, so we got all bundled up and made our way out to the bunny hill where we did several runs together.  gavin was quite disappointed that the slushy snow made him go slow.  he kept yelling at me that he wanted to go "really fast!"  that just wasn't in the cards today.  he was too light to cut through the melting snow.  since there was almost no one there, i decided to be really bold and take gavin up the chair lift.  he's been begging to go up the chair lift for weeks, but we haven't taken him because he doesn't really know how to stop himself yet.  i figured today was a rare opportunity, so i took it.  brooke stayed on the bunny hill with scott the magic carpet attendant (i could see her the entire time), and gavin and i skied down to the chair lift line.  gavin fell almost immediately once we started going down a steeper slope, but we got him back upright, and he skied down to the line with no problems.  i was able to have the chair lift attendant slow it way down for us to get on and off, and gavin loved the experience of being on the chair lift.  i got him safely off the chair lift, and then i fell getting off!  thankfully, a man came to my rescue and helped me get up.  i gave gavin the end of my pole, and off we went!  gavin took one hard fall, but he shook it right off.  it took a lot of upper and lower body strength for me to turn us across the "mountain" while also controlling gavin's speed with the pole, but i did it!  we made it to the bottom of the "mountain" with just that one initial fall.  not so bad!  i wish kevin would have been there to witness gavin's first time up the chair lift, but then again, if kevin was there i probably would have been the one witnessing it and not doing it :)  after our bravery on the slopes, we headed over to go tubing one last time.  the only section open was the steepest hill, which we hadn't tried up to that point.  our first time down was super scary for brooke.  her face was white as a ghost, and her face was frozen.  but, we got to the bottom and she yelled, "let's do it again!"  i couldn't believe it.  so, we did it three more times, and it was great.  what a fun way to spend our afternoon!