The Yellow Snow

Chad has opened my eyes to a lot of new things that I never knew I would enjoy. Skiing was not one of them.

In college, Chad took me to go skiing at Snowshoe in West Virginia. We went up those beautiful, twisting mountains that always make me want to puke in the car. When we got there, a light rain was freezing over the already fake snow. Chad outfitted me in rental skis, awkward ski boots and sent me out into the cold in my jeans and not so warm jacket. He had high hopes that I would take to it like riding a bike, but it didn't happen. We took an intermediate slope first, "you'll figure it out quick if you have more of a hill to work with," was the thought. Despite being 16 years ago, I still remember the turn that ended any chance of getting me back on skis ever again. I wonder if the woman I plowed into and knocked out of her skis ever skied again either.

Ok, I know that was a trip without kids, but I am building up a learning experience here. 

The first thing anyone should know, especially boyfriends, is that if you want someone to enjoy what you love, provide them with the most comfortable gear available to participate in said experience.  Though even if Chad had taken me to Vail, Colorado for my first ski trip, skiing would have never been my thing. I'm not a fan of my feet crossing and twisting and putting my knees into positions knees should never be in.

My new warm snowboarding gear
with my flexible, thin K2 snowboard.

On our second attempt, Chad got smart. His  first goal was to keep me as warm as possible. He bought snowboarding pants with an amazingly warm satin lining. Even in negative 30 degree weather all you need are these pants on. With nothing under them you still stay perfectly warm. They are spectacular (and by the way, I loaned them to someone and never got them back, so I want them back if you are reading this!)! He also got me a jacket that vents when needed, has a wrap around my face and ears and even my hands. His next job was to get me on a snowboard instead of skis so my knees would never cross and the only thing that may hurt is my bum when we were done. We got free passes, for 10 trips to 10 different mountains, to demo snowboards. Our first trip was to Blue Knob, PA. We grabbed a brand new K2 board from the demo tent. It was thin and flexible. It made turns simple and painless. He then took me down an intermediate slope that no one was on and we made frontside to backside to frontside turns together. He taught me simply and patiently. By the first run I had only fallen once and completely understood how to snowboard. By the end of the day, I was completely in love with snowboarding and even more in love with Chad.

Lesson learned: The original desire to learn and share the love of snowboarding and skiing only led to struggle and frustration, but the patience to truly enjoy the journey led to a love for snowboarding and an even greater love for one another.

Ok, Fast forward...we've taken lots of snowboarding trips, before kids, to Stowe, Breckenridge, Tahoe, and Vail (this includes all the mountains around them). Once we had children, we had expenses elsewhere and didn't pay to snowboard again. Chad took up surfing in Florida, which seemed to curb the appeal to be flying down a mountain. But after three children, our friends the Klocks invited us to enjoy a free condominium stay and free airfare from my in-laws to the beautiful Jackson Hole, WY for Christmas! The elevation there is steep, the snow is powdery and deep, the ski instructors are phenomenal, and the scenery is epic. We even planned to go into the woods and cut down our very own Christmas tree. This was going to be an adventure for us and the kids. We couldn't wait to get there.

So how do you get to the other side of the United States with a 4, 3 and 10 month old and a lot of snowboarding gear? We started by mailing everything, including our clothes, to the condominium. We booked our flights, but there is no direct flight to Jackson, WY, so we had to go through the Phoenix, AZ airport. It was disgusting. The airport carpet was damp with mildew. It smelled like something died at our terminal.  It was a four-hour lay over. Try keeping your little kids from not touching the filthy floor for four hours! There was a lot of hand washing, and that's when we just hoped for the best.

We finally landed at the tiny Jackson Airport, where Dick Cheney was also visiting in Air Force One.

Air Force One is twice the size of the Jackson airport. 

We headed to pick up our ten days worth of food from the grocery store and then up to the mountain. There was so much snow and Elijah and Esther were so excited. They put their snow boots, pants and jackets on and went straight out to play. 10-month old Abby watched from the window. 

The first day, I stayed back at the condo while Chad and the Klock family went skiing. Chad skied till his legs ached. I went snowboarding with them the next day. We then decided that we really wanted to be together, so we forked over the credit card and put Esther and Elijah in ski school. Ski Pizzas (stopping) and Ski French Fries (going) were a hot topic for them while on the slopes, but their favorite was the hot chocolate breaks they received every hour. Abby went to the daycare. 

Now, let's put all the early experiences back into play. Yes, I can snowboard now. Yes, I can even bypass many a snowboarder down some steep black diamonds, but this experience was new. I hadn’t snowboarded in 5 years. I had just had my third child 10 months before. Five years ago I was 23 years old, just finished a college volleyball career and still in good shape. Things are a lot different now, but I hadn’t realized that yet.

First thing we decided to do was take the tram to the top. There were lots of signs that said, "Stop! Danger of Avalanche!" They pointed us towards an open run. Now, I am not a lady who is directionally challenged, so when Chad went sideways off the run towards some “fresh powder” for our first run of the day, I got worried.  The snow was very deep and instead of going quickly through it, I slowed down drastically which brought me to a complete stop. When I was 23, I would have plowed through the snow and not thought twice about it, but I had three little children waiting for me to pick them up in a few hours and the threat of an avalanche put me in a defensive mode. As I slowed down, my snowboard sunk into the powder up to my thighs. Chad just jumped up out of the snow and turned towards the run we should have been on. I, on the other hand, was stuck. I couldn’t pull the board out of the snow. I couldn’t jump. My hips were still not back into place after giving birth within the last year and every movement was painful. The snow felt like quick sand.

At this point, I was very upset at the potentially dangerous situation we were in, and Chad said he would take us back to a safe path. He was far enough away and downhill that he couldn’t help me, but he waited patiently for me to wiggle, pull and jump my way out of the snow and head his direction. I finally got my board pointed towards him only to be taking a line straight towards yellow snow. By the time I realized it, I was making a turn right where he had peed in the snow waiting for me. What in the world? Now I’ve turned angry.

“I’m getting us back to the right path,” he tried to divert my attention to what I really wanted.

He then took off quickly. I tried to follow but took a high path and couldn’t spot where he had gone.

“Chad!!” I screamed. “Where are you?”

“Over here!” To this day I have no idea where over here was. As I yelled, I looked up and the snow

was cracking. Have you seen the movie Ice Age when the ice begins to crack and the snow and ice begin to slide? It looked just like that. The snow started to slide at my feet. My face was staring at blue ice. My hands gripped above the crack, hoping to pull myself clear if the snow continued to slide underneath me. I started to cry. I cussed. I screamed in anger. I kept moving towards Chad who begged for me to stop before the weight of both of us made the snow completely slide.  He got clear and yelled for me to move quickly. I took off on my front side edge as fast as I could and ended up on a run with moguls. I wrapped both my arms around that mogul and thanked God to be there.

My first instinct was to go straight to my children. I couldn’t pull Elijah and Esther from their class, but I went and saw that they were okay and picked Abby straight up from her daycare.

The next seven days we stopped trying to get snowboarding in for ourselves. We did a lot of fun runs together and we pulled our kids from ski class to spend time on the slopes with them. They knew how to do French Fries and Pizza and even get on the ski lift. That was good enough for us to have some fun with them. Watching a 3 and 4 year old get on a chairlift was a little nerve-racking for me, but they survived and even dismounted better than I do half the time. 



The rest of the week we made a lot of memories. We built a huge snow fort with Little Dex and Dexter and threw snowballs. We took the tram to the top of the mountain at night with them and had hot chocolate around a fire. The kids saw Santa Claus ski down the slopes. We used wrapping paper to wrap and decorate our Christmas TV Tree. Esther and Elijah still talk about when we wrapped the tree for Christmas. I believe they will remember these small, unplanned memories for a lifetime. 

We can't end a Wilson trip with fluffy, easy times though. No Wilson trip ends all that easy. Remember those dirty carpets at the Phoenix Airport? Yes, I blame those carpets coming back to haunt us. The night we prepared to go home, Dexter came to say goodbye. We were all sitting on the couch and having some lovely goodbyes, when Elijah proceeded to throw up all over the cushions. Completely embarrassed, the goodbyes ended abruptly and we spent the evening getting the stench out of the upholstery. Our flight was leaving first thing in the morning and all we could do was prepare to have kids throwing up the whole way home. God graciously spared us from that happening, but I had my share of time in the bathroom while on the flight. You gotta take the good with the bad. You have to enjoy the times along the way. Despite any mistakes we made or horrors we encountered, we continue to travel. We continue to grow to love one another each and every day on our crazy adventure of Wilson Family Life.