D is 10!

D is 10. We cannot believe it. Double digits! This boy of ours is a force. He is energetic, engaged, focused, and determined. He desperately wants to be the best at everything and frequently he is. He loves to bake. His specialty is dessert breads. He loves waffles and pancakes and makes them every Sunday. He is our best finder. If anything is lost, he will find it. He still loves snuggling with Mom while watching TV and he loves Dad with all his heart. If Dad is doing it, D wants to do it.

To celebrate his birthday we went skiing and snowboarding. The boy is a natural. He and Dad rode Snake Creek and Dad reported D was awesome. That boy feels the snow, feels the board, really gets into it. It is very likely I will never see him rock it on the slopes because I am bunny hill level and will be for a loooong time.

 

Steve took this while riding with C.

 

Steve took this of me riding with M. 

 

 

 

I will interrupt D's B-day to tell two stories:

 

Number one: What you can't see in the previous picture is that I am starting to panic. It is my second time riding Majestic. The first time was an epic fail due to an impatient ski instructor and unfortunately the experience set me back. I finally felt like I could try again today if Steve could worry about the kids and I only had to worry about myself.  

 

M could sense my rising concern and offered to ride the lift with me and talk me through the trail. By the time I got to the top I was really struggling. Steve took off with the boys and M stayed with me. We made it down the first and second hills okay. I tumbled on the next curve and then M went down and didn't get up. 

 

It was a bad enough fall that some people offered to help her. When she didn't respond I snapped out of "anxious-Allyson" mode and went "full-mom". I hollered at her while I tried to sidestep my way up to her. She raised her head and I told her she had to pull herself to the side because she was in the middle of the run. I watched her pull herself together and limp to the side where I was able to finally reach her. I asked if she was okay and she gritted out that her knee cap had popped off. I asked, "WHAT???", she repeated herself, and then reached down to her knee and slammed her knee cap back on. I yelled "WHAT WAS THAT????"  and she calmly said, "I put my knee cap back on" while I got super lightheaded because...that's nasty. 

 

Then as we headed slowly down the hill we ran into J who was limping and crying. It turned out he took a tumble and Dad hadn't noticed and kept skiing and was now out of sight and he thought he was all alone and hurt on the side of the mountain. Sooooo......Majestic is still rough. It will be awhile before some of us try that again.

Number 2: Dad and D invited M and J to ride Snake Creek. M took a rain check. J went with them after Dad promised it was not scary/steep/had drop offs, etc. On the very first hill J started yelling at Dad, "You lie 65% of the time!!!!" because the hill was way more intense than Steve had indicated. Steve got J safely down the mountain, but he spent the rest of the day chuckling at J's line. 65%? Where does he come up with this stuff? 

We came home to meat pies and watched Good Mythical Morning while we ate.

Love you sweet D! Happy birthday!