In The Hartland: On Top of the Mountain!

Sunday, March 12, 2023

On Top of the Mountain!

Although I didn't write a post about it, both Logan and Ella graduated off of the bunny hill last month and made it to the top of the mountain. When we all went skiing as a family on February 18th, I spent the morning on the beginner hill with Logan and Ella while Ron went to the top of the mountain with Lia and our friends, Noel and Elle. After a few runs, Ella started to get really brave and began following me into the trees on the side of the beginner hill. After watching her maneuver between trees and even ski through some powder, I realized that she was more than ready to try out the top of the mountain. After we all joined back up at the car, I announced to Ron that I was taking both Lia and Ella to the top after lunch. Although Ella was a little afraid, Lia and I dragged her up there and she did great. The three of us had so much fun skiing blue runs together all afternoon. There was only one steep part on the way down to the bottom of the mountain that Ella had to take slowly. Otherwise, she did an amazing job and I was so proud of her.

After hearing about this, it gave Ron the motivation to finally get Logan to the top of the mountain, especially since he has been snowboarding one season longer than Ella has been skiing. After we got home that evening, Ron bought lift tickets for just the two of them so that they could go boarding alone the next Saturday, February 25th. After going down the beginner run a few times, Ron brought Logan up to the top of the mountain for the majority of the rest of the day. Just like Ella, Logan did a great job and seemed to really enjoy it which is something that he has struggled with more than the girls. I was so excited to hear about Logan's success as it finally meant that our family of five could spend the entire day "skoarding" together instead of being split up on two different parts of the mountain which has been our experience ever since Logan started snowboarding two years ago.

I then scheduled a Saturday in March with my mom so that my parents could watch Emmett again, and bought our family's tickets. We left our house at 7 a.m. yesterday morning and got up to White Pass by 9:15. Although it was really crowded, we made it to the top of the mountain an hour later and spent the funnest three hours together. With the exception of Logan having a major attitude problem about boarding on the top of the mountain (that he did not have with Ron the previous time), we had a wonderful time. It was so much fun to finally share this activity together as a family. While we were up there, the clouds broke up and we were blessed with some beautiful, sunny weather and gorgeous views. In addition, we had wonderful fresh snow on the groomed runs and powder in the trees. After we finished eating a late lunch at 2:30, Lia offered to take the two kids with her back to the bunny slope for the rest of the afternoon since Logan was not happy about the idea of going back to the top of the mountain. After talking it over, Ron and I decided that we could trust Lia being in charge and so we spent the next 1.5 hours skoarding together which isn't something we have done since 2010! After going on several late afternoon runs together, we met up with the kids a little after 4 pm in the lodge and learned that they had had a great time together minus Ella losing her ski goggles. I am so grateful for this fun day that we were able to spend together as a family and for the fact that three of my four children have officially graduated off of the beginner hill for life! Hallelujah!

The three kids at the top of the mountain before starting down a run.

Logan, Lia, and Ella taking off!

Since it had snowed a lot last week, the trees were covered in a thick layer of snow all over the mountain. Here is Ron posing for me in front of some of those beautiful trees.