While the Kids Are Away...The Parents Will Play!

The perks of Doug's new work schedule are kicking in and we are enjoying new found time for play. We've found this fall that more frequent rounds of golf leads to playing golf a bit better...I guess practice really does make perfect??? Okay, our golf games are far from perfect, but it's just one activity we've found more time for now that Doug has abandoned the life and schedule of a medical resident/fellow!

Our latest discovery however...is SKIING! Yep--we've gotten back into skiing again. Okay, maybe Doug never really gave up skiing...he just didn't do it often. Me on the other hand...I abandoned the sport around age 12 after a youth church activity went bad. Or should I say my loving sister ruined it for me when she "accidentally" pushed me off the ski lift at Kelly Canyon. I've never been so grateful for a giant snow bank in my life! But I digress... 

  Last March we took a family trip with lots of family friends to Tahoe for spring break and introduced the kids to skiing. Everyone had a blast. And after a successful trip to the Eugene Ski Swap this fall, I was very inexpensively outfitted for the upcoming winter months. One of the docs Doug works with then tipped us off to our new found fun...HOURLY SKI PASSES at a nearby ski resort. So the new daily schedule when Doug has a weekday off that we can spare goes like this:




7:30-8:30 a.m.--kiss the kiddos goodbye and stick them on the school bus
8:45 a.m.--pack up the ski gear and hit the road
10:00 a.m.--on the slopes for 2-3 hours of kid-free skiing fun (that means only spending time on the green runs for my warm-up of the morning, the rest of the time on the steeper runs)
1:00 p.m.--lunch on the way home
2:30 p.m.--ski gear put away just in time to meet the bus at 3:00 p.m.

 We think it is pure genius!!! (The kids think it is so unfair--although last time we went, Terry had the day off from school for a trimester grading day and he opted to stay home, so it's hard to feel sorry for them).  We have promised them all their turn over winter break though to try out the slopes here near Eugene. And plans are formulating for another fun trip to Tahoe in the spring. But I guess I can say after a 20-some-odd-year hiatus, I am a skier again!