Big Sky

Now that the cat is out of the bag I can spill my own beans.  (So many figures of speech in there, I love it!)

For my dad's 60th birthday my mom flew all us kids and sons in law and grandchildren to Big Sky, Montana for a President's Day weekend bash (all 18 of us! Imagine the 16 children and grandchildren all on the same 10pm flight from MSP.  It was pretty epic).  We'd been anticipating it for many months and I will say it did not disappoint!

Personally, I was on the fence with how I thought the trip might go.  Correction, how the skiing would go.  I used to love skiing but have gotten more reticent as I age and the kids had never skiied before so I wasn't sure how they'd take to it.  I knew we'd have a blast being in the beautiful mountains and enjoy winter and our family time together, but 8 tiny people on a trip is always unpredictable.

It was simply amazing.

The whole time was such a giant celebration.  We had dinner in a private upstairs room at a local brewery that my dad has supported in over the years.  Such great food and house made beer and a big space for the kids to play and dance in.  There was so much dancing!

Valentine's Day found the kids noshing on Valentine's treats my mom brought (wrapped in individual festive bags for all, of course!) and a delicious steak and potato dinner with the most giant delicious four layer costco chocolate cake.

My dad's birthday celebration day found us eating delicious barbeque take out, opening gifts and 50+ envelopes of letters collected from family and friends and students and coaches and colleagues.  What a testament to the amazing man my father is! Here I need to diverge for a minute...

I am the ONLY one who forgot my letter in the flurry of packing madness.  I still wanted something in my envelope and decided to capitalize on an inside joke of my dad's and mine.  Throughout my whole life my dad has taken advantage of my extremely gullible nature by casually walking by and saying "here Becky hold this" and dumping something odd and usually disgusting in my hand.  Often it was toenail clippings or some flake of skin.  The best was when we were at the cabin swimming off the pontoon and I was in the water.  He yelled "Becky!  Catch this!" and threw what appeared to be a splash ball right at me.  Of course I caught it and the mass immediately began to dissolve and I screamed "EWWW!" as I realized it was in fact a wad of chewed up and spit out pretzels. HILARIOUS!

So! of course the appropriate response to forgetting his 60th birthday letter at home was to fill a ziploc with my sister's heel shavings and slap a post it on it "a sentimental placeholder for a fun-loving dad".  I was rather proud of myself.  I hope my letter lives up to the anticipation! Ha!

My dad has been wanting to get us all out to Big Sky for years.  It's where Ian and I had our honeymoon and our last trip was 5 years ago, when Ainsley was a toddler and I was newly pregnant with Louise.  It is such a magnificent place to travel and in the darker days of Ian's job search we thought "we'll just move to Montana house and wash dishes at the resort".  I'd actually be pretty ok with that life plan.

This time I enjoyed the skiing more than I had the last few times I'd gone.  I skiied confidently and joyously for two days while my big girls took lessons.

I'd forgotten how much I love ski culture.  Meeting friendly people on chair lifts, beers in hot tubs after a day on the slopes, outdoor swimming and sledding and fires crackling all the live long day.  Amazing.

And the kids?  They did SO well.  All 5, ages 4 and up took lessons for two full mornings.  It was so fun to pick them up and see their confidence as they showed us their skills on the bunny hill.  Louise seemed reticent off and on but never wanted to leave the hill and by the second day wanted nothing to do with me skiing next to her.  "Let me go first mom!".

I need a separate paragraph for my Ainsley girl.  Excuse me while I tear up before I even start to type.  Ainsley BLEW us away.  The first day she advanced a level halfway through the two hour lesson.  The second day she advanced again, this time away from the bunny hill and onto the beginner lift.  I took her on her first lift ride with my sister (the best skiier in the family!) in tow for support and she skied her first big mountain green run with complete confidence and a bit too much speed for her mom's comfort.

She went twice more up and down with different adults each time to film her and encourage and support her.  It was simply magical.  After dragging her off the mountain at the end of the day we signed up her for a third morning of lessons.  I took her the next morning and spent the time sipping on a bad cafeteria machine cappucino and knitting while my girl spent the entire morning up on the mountain.  By class' end she'd advanced again, now ready for the high speed quad chair that takes you all the way up the main part of the mountain to the more challenging green and blue runs.

I was honestly sad to go.  I wanted another day or two to keep my girl in lessons and watch her soar.  I'm having this parenting moment where I'm seeing my kid thrive and explode and be so damn good at something and it just feels incredible.  My rambunctious energetic conniving girl was a leader and followed directions and reigned it in and learned so much.  She bought a big sky shirt with a map of the mountain runs on the back and a ski keychain as souvenirs and brought them to school today along with her trip journal to share with her class.

In a moment of complete seredipity I went to pack my skit boots to take home and found my old ski bag that I used for ski school.  On the side were 8 hash marks, marking my age and distinguishing my bag from my sister's.  Next year Ainsley will be 8 and she can use that bag if she chooses, perhaps for her own boots as she continues her jounrey in this new sport she's found a tremendous love for.

So yeah, the trip was amazing.  We're already putting pennies in a jar for next year.