Watery Eyes, Blood on the Comforter and the Missing Hat

Okay, so now that I have your attention with that juicy title, I'll proceed to tell you how all of those things were part of our weekend. My darling daughter has been wanting to go skiing with our church the past two years. However, my (and her) commitment to basketball have prevented that from happening. Not this year. We decided early on WE WERE GOING. I got her a great Columbia ski jacket at Nat's basement sale, found a ski bib at Target at the beginning of snow season (aka the end of summer) and paid full price. I later took it back and re-purchased it for half price (frugal mom, I know) when I saw the mark down one day--Target is one of those weekly shopping places for me, got her a cute fleece hat at Old Navy, scored some cute Snow Boots at Hyder's, and we were ready.

I used to be one of those highly organized packers who would begin getting ready for a trip days in advance. I don't do that anymore. I tend to do my best packing at the last minute. And, for this trip, we only needed the necessities. So I'm throwing everything into my handy, dandy 31 large utility tote and cosmetic bag Thursday night, thanks Melissa M., and doing loads of laundry on Friday for some of the things we need (which have been in my attic storage and are a bit musty). **One mistake I've made with skiing in the past is wearing TOO MUCH layering. I decided a base layer, an additional layer, bib and thick jacket were plenty this year. I'm usually burning up in all those layers and feel like Randy on "A Christmas Story." Just the basics this year, nothing more.

We take off for Indiana/Ohio right after school Friday afternoon. We hitched a ride with Shannon, Paul, Evan and Elizabeth. Matt and the boys had no desire to go. I'm hoping we can convince Isaac to go next year. All his church buddies had a great time. Okay, so we take off. The trip is not a quick one so we opted to leave Friday night and spend the night so we'd be fresh the next day, and it wouldn't be to tiring making an 7 hour trip in one day. The trip went smooth until about an hour out when the weather started getting bad. Our friends, the Vernon's, were a few miles ahead of us and told us of the icy conditions on one bridge and a truck wreck smack in the middle of one lane--it got crazy quickly. But, fortunately, all of us made there safely or were we??? BWAHHAHAHAHA (scary sounds)

We arrived at the Comfort Inn in Harrison, Ohio around 8:30 p.m. As Larie described it in bible class this morning, and I think it's pretty accurate, "I wouldn't let me dead dog stay there." It's probably one of the nastiest places I've ever been in. The kids were eager to swim so we got our room keys quickly and headed up to the room for a change. Our room might as well have been a meat locker. It was freezing. I turned the heat on full blast hoping it would warm it up by the time Karson finished swimming. As we all sat in the pool area, I noticed my eyes were watering constantly. I thought I was just tired, WRONG. Everyone had watering eyes. At one point, Shannon looked like someone from Islam wearing sunglasses and towel turban over her head/face. All of us had watery eyes. I couldn't take it anymore and went out into the lobby to watch from the glass out there. About that time, the kids had all had enough--the parents too. Karson had a red rash around her eyeline. The rest of the kids spent the evening coughing and congested--awful.

When we got back to the room, it was still frigid. But we'd only been gone for about 45 minutes. I filled up the bath for Karson reluctantly. The towels were yellowish looking, the wallpaper around the bath look like it had mold growing on it. I decided to survey the rest of the room--the un-vacuumed carpets, a big hair wad on my comforter and what I believe to be blood spots on my bedspread. The room never warmed up so Karson and I slept together despite two queen sized beds to preserve warmth. It was a rough night. Larie informed Perfect North the next day that they needed to remove this hotel off their lodging page. But, it wasn't going to put a damper on our day.

We made it to PERFECT NORTH!

Karson attended ski school. I think it's cool that Perfect North offers free lessons to beginners. They go through different stations trying to learn how "it's done". I think the lesson kind of helped Karson, but she never really got the wedge down. If you can master that, that's when skiing becomes safe because it's how you slow down and stop. Skiing is hard, but I sure was proud of Karson for trying. She didn't complain to much and kept trying.

GO KARSON!!!

After ski school, we took a lunch break and warmed up.

Snuggling up in the lodge.

After lunch, we did a little tubing. This is where everything went SOUTH, so to speak. After walking about 10 miles (probably 1/2 mile but it sure felt far), we made it over to the tubing area. We had made a couple of runs and were having a blast. On our final run, Karson and Elizabeth decided to go down together. On the way down, Karson's cute fleece hat flew off her head. I didn't know until Shannon and I came down. She was visibly upset, and I asked the tube POLICE monitor if I could run up there and grab her hat which wasn't far up. They, of course, said no because it was to icy. The tubing hills looked like accessory graveyards--full of hats, gloves and whatever else flies off. I didn't care that much about losing it because I think it cost $1.50 at Old Navy, but Karson was really sad about it. Shannon and I decided to head back up the track and see if we could grab it on the way down. Sometime during our transition, someone MUST HAVE snagged it because it was NO WHERE to be found when we came back down. Shannon said something to the monitor about it who seemed uninterested in hearing it. We were surprised that she didn't notice or say anything to the person who grabbed the hat, OUR HAT? Weird.

Fortunately, I had packed a hat and an ear wrap so I had two things for the head. So long cute Old Navy hat. It took a while for Karson to recover from the loss. We made our long trek back to the lodge. I told my teary eyed girl we could look for a new one in the Loft Shop. Once there and seeing that the prices were INSANE ($20+), we decided my ear wrap would work. Plus, she was not in the mood to shop. We relaxed in the lodge for a while. Did I mention Karson got up at 5 a.m. ready to go? The slopes don't open 'til 10. I knew she was tired, and quite frankly, so was I. We didn't call it a day yet but rested for while. We ventured back out with about three hours left on our session. After a couple of runs, we finished for the day. Thankfully we ALL made it safely back home to Bowling Green. Karson has already talked about wanting to go again next year. SUCCESS!