A lot of people ask me how I can work, be a mom, and still play as much as I do. My typical answer is that I use the heck out of daycare (Daycare is open almost every day of the year. School is not.) and babysitters. But the long answer is a little different.
The long answer is this: I don't have The Mom Guilt. I mean, don't get me wrong. I place spending time with my kid and husband above everything else. I ADORE my own child. But I also do not feel bad about having fun on my own or with Barkernews. I don't feel bad if I go for a bike ride. I don't feel bad about having drinks with my friends. And I certainly don't feel bad about skiing all day while The Hizz tears it up in daycare.
And the other thing? I am really good about making the above activities happen because they make me happy. I have a queue of babysitters on speed dial. I know how long it takes to get from daycare to the mountain and I am the queen of packing for a toddler to spend 10 hours in the snow. Many people tell me how hard it is to ever get time for themselves and then they whine about it. Honestly? (and this is where I show my true colors) I want to say to them, JUST MAKE IT HAPPEN. Do you have enough money for cable every month? Then you have enough money for a babysitter. Do you have the time to sit on your butt and watch a tv show? Then you have enough time to pack your kid for an awesome outdoor outing. Do you have a voice? Then you have the ability to ask your husband to watch your kid for the night so you can go to the climbing gym. Of course, you should also reciprocate and do the same for your husband so he can do his thing too.
Anyway. That's my soapbox for the day. And it pretty much explains how I spent my whole MLK weekend getting my legs torn off and having an absolute blast.
Barkernews and I received approximately 4 days worth of daycare at Mt. Hood Meadows for Christmas so we could ski together (take note, grandparents. Best gift EVER.). We debate the use of these days like world peace is at stake. We examine every snow forecast available twice. When we pulled in to the lot on Saturday morning, it was snowing. But would it stay snowing? No snow forecast could reliably tell us. We gambled and put The Hizz in daycare.
That's when the "mixed precip" started. Yep, we lost the bet. Truth is, it was fine. We skied our butts off together and we didn't leave until we couldn't walk anymore. I love to ski, but I REALLY love to ski with my husband. So, bummer, it didn't really snow. But, YEAH, we skied together. I will count that one in the win column.
Best part of the whole day? Sticking the kid on skis for the very first time. She loved it and quickly learned to say "SCHI!" That was rad.
We went home on Saturday night and then Barkernews drove up to Meadows again Sunday morning to patrol. I stayed home, where I hired a babysitter (see: first three paragraphs) and went on a bike ride with a few of my teammates. It was the virgin ride for my new bike and Oh. My. God. It is one amazing bike. I came home, played with The Hizz, put The Hizz down for a nap and then laid around and took my own nap and read a book for three whole hours.
It was an awesome day.
Let's talk about awesome days. For the first time in...oh, EVER, Barkernews had MLK day off with me. We went to the mountain, Barkernews' third time in as many days. For the first time in a long time, it had snowed. Like, really snowed. We gambled on visibility on the Cascade chair and this time we won. Fresh tracks after fresh tracks after...well, you get the idea.
While we were there, we met up with a ski posse of cooler-than-shit people, a mix of telemarkers, snowboarders (silly knuckle draggers) and downhillers. Once we got word that the Canyon was about to open, we headed straight there.
Where we enjoyed completely virgin snow. BAM!
Turns out though, that an avalanche pretty much obliterated the Canyon runout the night before and we were forced to pick our way precariously through the trees to reach the chairlift. I loved it. There is nothing I love more than an unexpected outdoor adventure and I think this one qualified.
The coolest part of the whole thing was seeing the deposition zone of what was a huge avalanche. I have never seen the effects of something like this before and it was humbling. The snow was wet and heavy and it seems impossible that anyone would have survived such an event (no one was actually in this avalanche- it started out of bounds and occurred at night).
The whole day was just SO. DAMN. FUN.
And then I collapsed. Literally. I slept a full hour on the way home and chugged a bottle of Recoverite in hopes of reviving my completely exhausted legs. Oh yeah, and I joyfully picked up my daughter from daycare and devoted the next three hours just to her.
As it should be.
