Great ski season~ over and out.

Our ski season is done! It was a great one.  Started late, but then the crazy snow allowed us to catch up on our visits.  I lost count after the boys and I hit 10 visits, but Mark had only gone a few times, so he at least squeezed in trips there, this past weekend.  He went with Cam on Saturday and then with Logan and Cam on Sunday, which was Pats Peak's closing day.
Looking forward to spring, but thankful for all of the fun we had on the slopes this year!

Fitness

So proud of my middle guy for wanting to try to get fit! He just started a middle school online fitness class, and has been doing a great job with making healthier food choices and with getting his workouts in. 

Today we got to get a little run in outdoors, for our first time this year.  He finished the rest of his 2miles on the treadmill, when we got home.

 Good job, Fit Kid! 

(Ps- look! No snow on our driveway!!)

First Aid at the mountain!

Got a call, last week, from my eldest kid, while I was in the ski mountain locker room, waiting for him(we were done for the day, and were supposed to be heading out). I was surprised that he was late- he is a typically well-behaved firstborn, and is rarely late to anything, but I was sitting in the locker room for 10-15minutes, waiting.

When I answered the phone, I asked where he was, and his calm reply was something like, "...Um...I think I've...hurt my ankle. Pretty badly.  Um, I can't ski on it, and I'm not sure I can walk on it. Could you please come and get my skis and boots for me?" 

I ran over to the lodge and saw him sitting on the edge of a bench, outside, by the ski racks.  His face, when he saw me, gave away his pain level.  He has a very high pain-tolerance, but I could tell.  I had him try to take his boot and sock off, so I could look at the ankle, and he gingerly did so.  The swelling that was already there, plus the way he flinched and said it might be broken, had me running over to the office to ask for medical help. 

First Aid arrived on the scene, after skiing down from their post at the top of the mountain.  After taking a look at the ankle, the main guy told me that he thought it was likely broken, but was not certain.  He and another man strapped E onto a wheelchair-type chair, a female staff member helped Logan and Cam bring E's skis and boots to the locker room, and another man helped me gather our bags and bring them to the van. 

Once we all met back in the First Aid building, they splinted E's ankle up and filled out paperwork.  They offered to call an ambulance, or taxi, or to help load him into the van. I had already called our doc and Mark, and had arranged to meet Mark halfway so he could bring E to Urgent Care(and I could bring L to drums and make dinner).

They helped carry and hoist him into our van, and E's pain was high but he was not complaining.  Met Mark and they got over to the hospital.  Mark got a wheelchair and lifted E out of the van and wheeled him in. Luckily, there was not a wait and the hospital had him in, X-Rayed, air-casted and fitted with crutches, pretty quickly.  Within a couple of hours, Mark was on his way home- the XRay had not shown a break. However, a fracture was unable to be detected on it, and an appt w a specialist (w fancier xray equipment) was needed, as a follow-up.

It's been a week and the swelling has gone way down.  E has done awesomely on the crutches and has kept his foot elevated most of the day.  He ices it morning and evening.  The follow-up xray appt is tomorrow.  We're hoping for no fracture to be found! Would be so awesome if he could lose the crutches earlier than originally expected. We will see!

He has written a little blurb about it, on his blog: www.playthekeys.com

Week 15!

I had repeated Week 1 of this running schedule, twice, because I had gotten sick.  And this last week I've repeated as well, because I seem to have developed some "extendor tendonitis" or something like it, on top of my foot.  So after resting it last weekend, I restarted this week and just did my long run- 11miles!

I had been hoping to try it outside, with Mark, but it was snowing here, AGAIN, this morning, and I didn't feel like slipping all over the place. 

I thought the clock on the machine was acting wonky, after 10miles, so I grabbed my phone and recorded the treadmill clocks to show Mark after.

And then- when I was at 10.56miles, the treadmill came to a halt!  I yelled, "NOOOOOOOO!" The machine was displaying my distance, but the clock reset to zero!! UGH!

I hollered for Mark and I ended up just having to do my last half mile (I was mad so I did it at a 7.30mm pace), and then when I came upstairs, Mark watched my videos and helped me solve the mystery. The machine can't time anything over 99.59minutes!

So, we took both of my distances with the times, and added them up.  

Anyway, even despite the treadmill drama, 11 miles are done! Yay! Also, my hurt foot does not feel terrible! Double yay!

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling...

Rocking the Irish look today, like a boss. Ha!

Dragged my boys in for a silly group pic.  This is what the teenager thought of that idea:

Got it!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

PS- I'm always a sucker for easy, cheesy Pinterest snack ideas:

MIT

Elijah was old enough to attend MIT for both Saturday and Sunday's Spark program, for middle schoolers.  This was an amazing experience for him, and he can't wait for next year. Saturday, we left home at 6:45am to get to a friend's house, 45 minutes away, who graciously drove both Elijah and I and her kids, as well as another friend and her son.  We were Boston-bound by 7:30am.  Got a parking spot in a nearby garage (free!) and then walked over to wait in the rainy line for a bit, until registration opened at 9.  We were early enough that registration went very quickly, and once the liability forms were turned in and the student received their name tag and packet of information for the weekend, they were all set.

We took some time to step aside to look through the maps and itineraries for the students, trying to figure out where they were headed first, where they were going for lunch, and where we should find them at the end of the day, after their last class ended(5pm).  Us Moms walked them over to the main building and found a meeting place for the end of the day, walked the kids to the general area of their first class building, and said, "bye" (hoping they'd stay safe, not get lost and that they'd have a blast)!

The 3 of us then found a spot in the building on campus designated for parents to hang out, and we got comfy at a table for the day.  Chatted, got some work done, ate, popped into a parent workshop or 2, people-watched, and yawned a little, all the while hoping that things were going well with the kids.  Luckily, Elijah had wifi so he was able to text me every so often, to let me know that he was finding his way around campus ok.

At 5pm we gathered with tons of other parents, in one of the lobbies on campus, and watched the crowd for our kids to show up.  We were so relieved to see their happy faces as each of them came on the scene.  They were all chatty, and had enjoyed their day.  We ate together on campus for dinner and headed out of Boston.  Elijah and I didn't get back home until around 8pm.

Day 2, today, included needing to leave by 6:45am again.  The roads looked icy so Mark was gracious to drive E to our friend's house for me, and this time, my friend's hubby offered to be the driver for the day!  He took the four kids down to campus again and they all split up and went about their day, to all of their different classes that were spread out all over campus.  Again, Elijah came back home pretty late but was chattier and even happier than yesterday, saying his classes today were fantastic.  He loved the freedom of getting to walk around the campus without a chaperone. He also had brought his laptop to take notes on, so he felt pretty cool when he did so.  :)  He also had a free period this morning, where he did some sight-seeing on campus...he loved that.  He had texted me a few times today to let me know he was safe, but I tell ya what, I was ready for the giant hug when he walked in the door!

Drawn to the Music (Part Deux)

I have already posted a blog post about this program, hosted by the NH Philharmonic.

The update is that all 3 boys' art pieces were selected, for this year!  There were over 600 submissions and 100 pieces were selected. Elijah's piece had even been in the running to be on the cover, but sadly, I had been mistaken- this program only goes up to 6th grade, not 8th!  However, they enjoyed my 7th grader's work so much that they still wanted it in the presentation with the other winning pieces...we opted to have his name not be listed in the program, though (he is listed as "anonymous").  I will likely still have him create a piece in the years to come, but we now know that he (and Logan, next year) will be too old to submit a piece for this beautiful program.  All of the submissions are put on display at the theatre, and the winning pieces are displayed together.  Seeing the artwork all together creates a fun and colorful backdrop for photos with the proud artists.

The music piece for this year was Jennifer Higdon's "Blue Cathedral."  There was an amazing orchestral lineup for today's program, including a lot of Tchaikovsky. Jennifer Higdon's piece was what the children's art accompanied.  When the students create their art, they do so by picking a scene in the "storyline" of the music piece.  After they've selected a scene, they draw their piece, after(or while) listening to the music piece, for inspiration.  While the orchestra plays, live, at the performance, the students' art pieces that "fit the scene" being played, get displayed up on a screen above the musicians.  It is a beautiful mix- the juxtaposition of brightly colored, children's artwork, paired with the sophisticated instrumental music, is so pleasing to the ear and the eye! For anyone in K-6th grade, in NH - try this lovely program out!

Skiing

We have had so many great skiing days this season, even with the weird weather.  We got snow late, and then went from nothing to PUMMELED by it.  This was the first winter that most of the time, the snow was too deep to sled or even snowshoe, most days!

We have season passes at the ski area that is close to us, but we also really wanted the boys to have the chance to try out a different mountain.  Mark had the day off, so we hit up Mount Sunapee, on Friday.  Our friends, the Youngs, showed us around and we followed them down the trails all day...what a beautiful ski mountain!  It was a lovely time and my favorite skiing of the day was with my dear friend Sharon.  We also found one of the boys' buds, and his Dad, to be there for the day, and Mark and Elijah spent a lot of time doing the hard trails with them (while the other kids and us Moms stuck mostly to the blues).

We still have a few ski days left for the season...and it's been a great one!