Skiing on Mount Olympia

Ethan and I had a wonderful boy’s day today. Jenny took Quin up to meet his aunts in the Dells while celebrating their mom’s birthday. Since it was a rare beautiful day, Ethan and I decided to go skiing at our local “mountain.” Really it’s a recovered garbage dump, I think… It’s definitely not a mountain, but it’s close. The last time Ethan skied was last year in the U.P. and he did really well. Today was no different. He hasn’t forgotten much from his time in ski school. The early going was a little rough. He had some control problems and was a little timid of the rope tow. But after two times down the hill, he was going up the rope himself and starting to be a bit of a daredevil. He was doing a little more “french fries” and less “pizza” than I’m comfortable with. We were there for two hours, each time Ethan would say, “one more time down,” or “five more times down.”

We finally left the hill and went to Burger King, a place Ethan has wanted to go to eat for two weeks. There is a special toy in the happy meals that he really wanted. Unfortunately, they were out of them. We ate there anyway, and while we were there I saw two white families with adoptive black children. It’s amazing how you start seeing these things once you become acutely aware of them.

After eating, we went to Target and picked up a new action figure, did a few more errands, then caught a movie, The Spiderwick Chronicles. This rated PG movie was a lot of fun, though perhaps a little on the scary side for six-year-olds. Even though he closed his eyes for parts, Ethan enjoyed the movie.

It was quite a day for the two of us. Apparently Jenny and Quin had a good time visiting with her family as well. It’s rare that you have a nice day like today in February. Hopefully more are coming our way as spring slowly approaches.