A dream come true

When I say 'dream come true' I should clarify that today was Aaron's dream come true. Since we found out we were having a boy, 6 1/2 years ago, he has talked about the day he would take his son skiing. Today, it was made possible, by my friend Jayme. lets all give a big shout out to Jayme! She hooked us up with a full-day ski lesson for Noah and free passes for me and Aaron. We were very tricky and was able to put it together as a treasure hunt of sorts for the boys for Christmas. It's not an exaggeration to say that Aaron got a little emotional with the present. I won't go into details because I promised him it would not hit my blog. :)

that being said, it was really cool to see how much this meant to him.

So... we woke up this morning, my niece, Michele and Nikki, came to watch Reagan (thank you!!!!!) so we could head up to Snowbird. 20 minutes later we were parked and signing in Noah for his class. He was excited and could care less that we were leaving him. seriously - what does it take to get your kid to shed at least one tear at your departure??

before we fast forward to the end of the day with Noah, i thought I'd give you an idea of what i put Aaron through.

Aaron and i took off for the chickadee hill. yes, this hill was a challenge for me -i've skied once, 15 years ago. It's rather shocking how much your body changes from 18 to 33. good grief. needless to say, i doubt i'll be able to move much in the morning. but, it didn't matter because Aaron bought me new ski pants(90% off) and a new ski coat and hat. i must say, i looked rather fancy when i wasn't trying to actually move on the ski's.

my downfall started with the chairs. it wasn't the getting on or riding up, but more the getting off at the top.

I didn't realize, having not skied in so long, how spastically unbalanced i would be. when i stood up, to get off the ski lift, my legs moved way to quick for the rest of my body and as a result my arms went flailing, knocking Aaron pretty hard in the head. As it was early in the day, he was able to refrain from any bad words. from there, according to Aaron, we spent a painstaking 60 minutes going up and down the chickadee hill with me doing the snowplow every inch of the way. eventually, to keep his sanity, i agreed to go on the bigger hill. As far as i was concerned we might as well have been on Mount Everest. but, it didn't matter, I was going to be brave, graceful, and make it down the hill without killing anyone. (1 out of 3 isn't so bad)

this run was pretty mellow, except for 2 steep parts. the first part, i like to call my 'personal hell'. it was impossible. i gave up eventually and figured i was going to fall and it would be better to throw myself down then fall badly and brake something. the second part was going ok until 1/4 of the way down my cell phone starts ringing. Now, at this point, i'm certain Noah has fallen and broken a leg and they're calling me to come back. i'm terrified and in my effort to stop quickly and i completely lose control and go flying off the side of the run into about 4 feet of fresh powder. this is the point Aaron's bad words start because he turns to see me falling and my skis flying. once i knew i hadn't broken anything, i grabbed my phone to see it wasn't Noah, it was a friend calling to chat. when aaron made it over to help me, he was less then pleased when he found out the reason i went screaming off the mountain. i was grounded from the phone after that. We then spent the next 15 minutes trying to get me off the ground. it's not easy with 10 pound boots and 3 foot skis when you have no coordination and no sense to just unclip the boot and stand up like a normal person would. At one point aaron told me to just lift one leg really hard to get it out of the snow... i did... aaron got COVERED as snow went flying in his mouth, nose, down his jacket, etc. i would tell you what he said, but if feels as though i'm repeating myself. :)

By the time we headed back to find Noah, I had made it down the hill without falling, and true to form i raised my poles and yelled to anyone watching me "I did it!!! I didn't fall!!!" it was a triumphant moment. But, better then that - better then not taking out the 10 kids in front of me in a ski class, better then not breaking bones or running into a tree, better then any moment of the day was going to the Chickadee hill and seeing Noah...

honestly, it was the cutest thing i've ever seen. This little man skiing down the hill as though it's a perfectly natural easy thing to do. he wasn't clumsy or awkward. he was perfect.

while he went back with his class to get his report card, aaron and i did one more run down the Chickadee hill. Aaron decided to take some pictures of me actually skiing without my arms thrown out sideways and my legs practically in the splits trying to avoid any possible speed.

Here's Aaron picture of him boarding while taking pictures of me skiing.

To end the day, Aaron took his son so they could ski together down the hill. It's easy to see, watching them together, why this was a dream of Aaron's. It was the highlight of my day.

It was the perfect day.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this day possible - Jayme, for our day at Snowbird, and for Michelle, Nikki and grandma for watching Reagan. We couldn't have done it without you.