Whistler 2024

I’m always playing catch-up on the blog!  In my defense, we've been on two big family vacations in the last month.  We spent February break at Whistler for a few days and we spent a week in Mexico in March.  I had piles of ski gear and piles of snorkel stuff cluttering my floor at the same time.  It was crazy!  

Whistler was great!  We stayed at the same lodge as we did at Thanksgiving but this time there was enough snow we could actually ski out from our place to get down to the lifts.  This has been a terrible year for snow all across the country so we were pleasantly surprised how good the snow was at the top of the mountain.  The lower part (where I spent most of my time with Henry) wasn't great but I don't care.  Turns out I really don't love skiing.  I'm good with a few runs in the morning and that's enough for me!

We had three ski days and Randy and I spent the first day teaching the most stubborn six-year-old on the planet how to ski.  Unlike his brothers, Henry is a cautious skier and doesn't like to go fast. We put him in ski school the second day and he came back to us able to ski down any green run, get on the left by himself, and take his skis on and off by himself.  The expensive lessons were worth every single penny! 

The third day we were all a little tired.  Henry tried to revert back to his old ways of not being able to ski so I had to be extra patient and insist that he still knew how to ski even if he wasn't with Astrid, his favorite ski instructor.  We met up with the rest of the family for lunch and then I decided Henry and I would ski a little more before calling it a day.  Parker joined us for what will be an unforgettable adventure. 

One Last Run in the skiing world is an ominous phrase.  It's always the last run when something goes wrong or someone gets hurt.  It's plain old bad luck.  I had explained this to Henry and he was intrigued and terrified by the idea and whispered the question, "Is this our last run?"  It was hilarious.  I reassured him that there always has to be a last run but that we would quit before we were too tired to make a bad choice.  Boy, was I wrong! We were most definitely doing our first run after lunch and One Last Run.

I made a wrong turn thinking I'd bypass a big flat area that I didn't want to drag Henry across and in doing so, put us in an area with only blue runs.  Lots of blue runs.  Henry panicked and refused to ski so finally I let him ski between my legs which isn't easy on a steep hill, plus I'm barely tall enough for this to work for us.  But we were doing fine until Parker cut me off and we almost crashed.  I lost it on Parker and angrily told him to ski down and wait for us at the bottom.  He did.  And missed the most epic crash by me and Henry.  I don't know how it happened but suddenly I was flat on my back with Henry on top of me and we were sliding down the steep run and we weren't stopping.  All I could think was to lock my knees so I didn't bend anything at an awkward angle and break something as we continued sliding.  Everything happened so fast but I remember thinking We aren't stopping!  We aren't stopping!

Suddenly, as fast as we started falling, we came to a stop.  We were covered in powder and I couldn't see anything.  Luckily Henry was absolutely fine since my body was completely under him, cushioning the fall.  I just laid there, trying to decide how injured I was.  My skis were still on which is crazy and so dangerous.  We untangled ourselves as some old guy came over to ask if we were ok.  We were.  Just shaken up.  Not ten seconds later another lady came over and asked the same question.  I'm sure we were a sight to behold based on the look on her face.  I don't know how my legs weren't bent at odd angles but I stood up and brushed the snow off.  My leg hurt but was fine.  My coat was filled with snow and must have slid up because my back was scratched up from sliding on the snow.  Hooray for miracles.  It took us forty-five more minutes to slowly work our way down a series of short blue runs until we connected with green runs.  Henry had to keep stopping literally every ten seconds to rest, or take a bathroom break, or talk about how much he hated skiing.  Finally we met back up with Parker who I figured would be back at our hotel by then.  But he waited.  For forever.  I asked him if he had been worried and prayed for us.  He didn't, the little stinker.  He was just annoyed we took so long. Anyway, our last run was one for the books.  It ended up taking so long that we arrived back at our hotel at the same as Randy and I had only planned to ski one run before quitting, which is why we split up in the first place.  

In a nutshell, we spent our days skiing, swimming in the pool/hot tub in the evening, followed by game nights with our friends who were staying down the hall.  I even managed to escape for some exercise and alone time.  Randy loved this trip because he discovered a ski rental shop at the top of mountain that lets you try out as many skis as you want for $20.  He found the perfect pair for him and bought them for a great price due to the Canadian exchange rate.  He was in heaven!  We also discovered a delicious ice cream shop and pizza place in the Village.  This was the first Whistler trip that we didn't stop at the candy store.  I'm still happily wondering how we managed that since we always buy too much and it's the most expensive candy, so that's a nice win.  

Ethan

The Castle was finally open!  Henry and I made a few stops here on our runs together.

Always on screens :(

Parker helped me pick up our skis from the valet.  Even with our big Expedition and roof top carrier, it's a tight fit getting everyone and their gear packed.

We returned home to sunny skies, temps in the mid-fifties and lacrosse practices.  It was a great week off from school!