Play day #2

One day off wasn't enough for me last week so I decided to take Friday off for some more playing.

My good friend Tracie invited Zoe and me to come skiing with her and her daughter and since that is something I have been dying to do, and actually resolved to do this year, it was an offer I couldn't refuse.

Before Friday I hadn't actually been skiing since the winter before I got pregnant with Zoe so that was 8 years ago! I was a little nervous about remembering how to actually ski, but a little voice in my head was reminding me of an article that my father clipped and mailed to me once about "muscle memory." Besides a day of bad skiing has to be better than even a good day of work, right?

So, off we went Friday morning up into the Berkshires. I do love it up there -- as a place to visit. I could never really live there. Zoe and Tracie's daughter were singing along to their iPods and we were chatting away and before I knew it we arrived at Butternut. Zoe and I struggled our way through the ski rental process and got all our gear on and then we had a quick lunch in the lodge before Zoe's lesson started.

I dropped Zoe off for her lesson and she was pretty nervous. So nervous that she really didn't speak. Anyone who knows Zoe, knows how unusual that is for her! I was only a bit worried about her though. She's pretty coordinated and very strong. There was no reason why she couldn't get pretty far along in learning how to ski in a 3 hour lesson.

Tracie, her daughter and I then headed for the bunny hill chair lift line. There were a few butterflies in my stomach as we rode up. I struggled a little to get off the lift, but easily maneuvered to the top of the mountain from there. And just like that we started skiing and I was doing it. It was a thrill. One more run down the bunny hill and we moved on to better parts of the mountain. I think I had a smile on my face for the entire time. Until my legs started to ache anyway. Luckily that coincided with the end of Zoe's lesson. I couldn't wait to see how she did. I was hoping for a smiling face, but prepared for a serious pout.

We made our way over to the lesson area and there was Zoe going up the chair lift with her instructor. When she saw me below she shouted to me, "Mom! Mom! I can ski!!" The grin on her face was about a mile wide. It was awesome. I was so proud and happy. We can't wait to hit the slopes again!

I think this picture pretty well sums up what a great day it was:



Thanks again Tracie!