The Best Ski Day

 A few weeks ago, as Brayden was waiting for more bloodwork at Children's Hospital, I suggested that we pick a day for him to skip school and go skiing with me. We looked at the calendar on my phone and arbitrarily chose February 9th. To be honestly, I initially suggested the 8th, but Brayden did not like that day because Wednesdays are early dismissal days (school is out at 1:30) and he wanted to miss a FULL day of school. So, we decided on Thursday the 9th instead.

When I went to buy lift tickets, a friend tipped me off that tickets at Crystal Mountain were on $60 on the 2nd Thursday of each month. What a deal! Adult lift tickets are normally $149 during the weekdays ($189 on the weekends)! So, for $117, Brayden and I were off to ski on Thursday.

Brayden LOVES to ski. LOVES. I told him on our drive there that he could choose every run. I would just follow him around the mountain all day. And that's what we did. Since most of our ski adventures involve our whole family, and many times multiple families, Brayden enjoyed leading the way. It was a truly awesome day. As we shared a cookie at lunch, I told Brayden that I will remember our ski day for the rest of my life. 

After lunch, we met up with a friend of mine who was also ditching work that day. She is an incredible skier (she telemarks!). Brayden loved watching her ski. She showed Brayden some fun tree trails (mom is too scared to do those anymore), so B was super impressed.

At the end of the day, we met up with Laura Quartiello. Laura worked as the Director of Children's Ministries at BelPres for 20+ years. She recently took a severance package from the church and now teaches snowboard lessons at Crystal. She was such a rock for me and Brayden when he was in the hospital last summer, so we loved seeing her and doing a couple of runs with her.

Did I mention that it was a beautiful day too? Lots of blue skies and sunshine. Oh, and the best part of playing hooky? I was honest with his teacher (well, I initially said Brayden was taking a mental health day, and then when he was concerned that something was going on at school, I came clean). Mr. Bland was pumped for us and said he wanted to plan his own skip day. He even teased Brayden the next day by saying that he still had goggle marks on his face. 

On the way home, we stopped for Chick-fil-A (again, Brayden called the shots). It was a truly epic day with my little buddy.

Love you, B. Keep skiing!

Ali, Laura, Brayden

I was trying to capture my little buddy skiing some black moguls with the mountains and gondola in the background. This picture does not do it justice.