Good Times at Okemo

What an epic day spent at Okemo this past Saturday! Big thanks to our good friends Rob & Joy for extending an invite (and a couple of free passes) to join them for a day of skiing. Probably even bigger thanks to Joy's sister Janet who was willing to babysit all of our kids so we could get out together for a day. I think we were so fired up at the prospect of getting out together and so sure of Janet's ability to take great care of the kiddos, that none of us ever really stopped to do the math on the adult/kid ratio. Sometime around 2pm, Joy mentioned that she herself had never taken care of four toddlers alone... I realized quickly that I certainly had not, either. Somehow, we'd asked poor Janet (who does not yet have any kids of her own) to dive into childcare waters none of us have even attempted to navigate! Not only have I not navigated them, but I'm not certain I'd even try... But of course we knew she was up to the task, and not surprisingly came home a little later to find four happy kiddos and one tired Janet. THANK YOU JANET!!!

A couple of thoughts about Okemo... I had skied there once many years ago and didn't remember much about the terrain. We have stayed there at the end of Rob's race (the 100 on 100) and knew the accommodations were pretty sweet. As it turns out, the skiing was really very good. Definitely not the steeps that you can get at some of the bigger mountains, but the runs were nice and the conditions were excellent. The weather was warm and left the new snow kind of heavy, but we dug around and found some really sweet bump and tree runs. On the other hand, we were all having some good laughs about the number of crashes we were seeing. I can't remember the last time I saw so many people learning to ski at once... I did a lot of stopping and enjoying the views of seas of snowplowers trying to clear out the new snow. Rob made the good observation that there really are some outstanding skiers at the more northern mountains in VT. Sometimes I take that for granted, but it really is fun to watch the pros.

My favorite part of our day came after we'd discovered a really nice little woods run. I've been pushing Lauren towards bumps and trees for a couple of seasons now and until our trip to Jackson in '05, she had maintained that the woods just didn't hold any fun for her. I keep saying that people who can't find fun in the woods don't know where to look. Anyway, her skill set and desire for off-piste adventure is beginning to peak, and after a pretty challenging run through the trees, we were at the top of the lift again, waiting for Lauren's choice of trails. The decision? Right back trough the same trees. :-) Who loves you, baby?

Looking forward to at least another 6 weeks of spring skiing. I'll leave you with a parting shot of the aftermath of one of Rob's aerial maneuvers: