Summer in March

Who'd of thought it would reach 85 degrees in March!  Yep, it's been downright summery here in Vermont for the past five days.  While it's wonderful to be able to go outside without jackets or socks, it's also weird.  For those of us that live in Vermont, we expect gray or snowy days throughout March.  We assume our ski passes will be utilized through early April.  In fact, we usually plan on a spring skiing day on Easter!  I'm pretty sure we haven't seen the end of the gray and snow, but I do think the days of skiing this season are numbered.  For that reason, we seized the opportunity and made some fun turns on Saturday. While Cal and I skied the sweet corn, John and Hazey offered some great encouragement.  Mom and Dad even got to ski some turns together because of a wonderful posse of friends (Thanks Anton, Amy, Colleen, and Adam!)

 

 On Sunday, we opted from some sidewalk time on the scooter and some fun in the sun up at High Meadow. 

 Since the naps never really happened on Saturday, we decided to make that a priority on Sunday.  And while the kids snoozed, I picked up two grocery bags full of dog poop, John raked, and then we cleaned the cars.  A little friend came down to join us for the car cleaning part when he woke up:

A day in the sun is not complete without a stop at the Country store for our first Maple Cremee of the season.

Since we didn't ski on Sunday, the kids and I decided to join John and a group of Outing Club students to honor Avi on Monday afternoon at Bolton.  After loading the kids and ski gear, it turns out Bolton is closed for the season and the chairlift wasn't running.  Cal had her heart set of skiing, so being the committed ski/adventure parents that we are, we hiked up the mountain.... Hazen on John's back, Cally on my shoulders, skis in hand (I decided to forego my skis), we hiked half way up the Timberline lift.  The snow was soft and not easy to turn upon, but Cal was gung ho to go for it.  Dressed in her new favorite dress, she was off-- even skiing through grass to get to the next span of snow.  Who's going to deny a gung ho 3 year old from a skiing adventure,especially when she feels so at home with any conditions.

 But, these warm days don't come without their draw backs........ Folks who rely on sugaring (maple syrup) are finding the takings much lower than normal and the dirt roads around here are horrendous!  Below is a picture from a friends road in Lincoln, VT..........

This afternoon, I had the opportunity to take part in an absolutely beautiful event.  UVM had a memorial service for Avi Kurgonoff.  John spent the day with his family, driving them to the places that Avi loved (the Mad River in Waitsfield for kayaking and Bolton Mountain for snowboarding).  John bonded with Avi's Argentinian grandmother, aunt, and cousins.  He couldn't wait to introduce them to our children (because they have a bunch of red heads in their family).  After a truly amazing service, I felt like I got to know a truly amazing 20 year old.  A guy who was generous in so many ways, wise beyond his years, and lived life to it's absolute fullest.  After the ceremony we all gathered together in the sunshine, with amazing views of Lake Champlain, where his family played music and celebrated Avi's life.  The family truly solace in playing music together-- and Hazen seemed pretty into it too.  Below he is enthralled by Avi's dad's harmonica playing!

  

Sick

 

It's been a rough ten days.  It all started with Cal spiking a 104 degree fever the night before school started up again after our lovely winter break.  Fortunately, Hazey's godparents Tom and Cara were headed over to our house for dinner, so I was able to pop over to school and get some sub plans figured out as I knew I'd need to stay home with her on Wednesday.  She spiked another fever on Wednesday night, but this one didn't go down as easily.  Not having my better half to"talk me off the cliff" and being short on sleep because of her coughing fits throughout the previous few nights, I got pretty stressed out.  After consulting the pediatrician and supplementing the ibruprofen with tylenol, the fever came down enough for us to get a little sleep.  However, I still needed to go to school to make copies and get another day of sub plans figured out because there was no way Cal was going to to go to daycare on Thursday.  It got me wondering how the heck single parents do it-- how they manage sleepless nights, a job, etc. 

By mid-morning on Thursday, I got Cal into the doctor where she was diagnosed with pneumonia (again).  She was put on the same strong antibiotic she had taken in November and I hoped she was on the quick road to recovery.  That didn't end up being the case.  The fever persisted throughout the weekend.  Not wanting to get anyone else's kids sick we stayed in all weekend and I was starting to feel like a "shut in".  I did, however, get one of John's fantastic Outing Club gals to come over and babysit the kids so I could get out to enjoy the gorgeous weather and some fresh snow with Zephy for a few hours and that helped a lot.

 

Unfortunately, the reprieve was short lived, By Saturday night, Hazen also came down with a fever -- making the nights even tougher because one or the other kid was having a coughing attach throughout the night.  So instead of hanging out at the Base Box of Mad River and enjoying some spring skiing turns on Sunday, I made another visit to the doctor (we love that Dr. Parker will come in on his weekends to see a sick kid), only to find out that Cal's strain of pneumonia is likely viral and would take some more time to heal.

John got home just in the nick of time on Sunday afternoon.  I was at my wits end and ready to have my co-parent home again.  He was exhausted from having driven through the night to make an early morning flight out of Boise.  Unfortunately, another night of coughing, sleepless children ensued.  Having already missed two weeks of work, but wanting to be there to help, John agreed to stay home with Cal since she still had a fever on Monday.  Unfortunately, that morning, John got news that one of his favorite Outing Club students had died.  He was crushed, but forced into deal mode, organizing a gathering for sad students and planning a meeting with the parents of the student the next day.  He was able to Kayla, another fantastic Outing Club gal, to hang out with Cal on campus in the morning and came home to continue dealing from home.  I came home early from work to pick up Hazen, only to find him with a raging fever and looking pretty grim.

On Tuesdays John stays home with the kids anyway, so went ahead with that plan--minus the swimming lesson that Cal was signed up to go to (because she still had a fever-- seven days later).  Hazey, was  spirally downhill (spiking his own fever of 104.3 F), so we made our third trip to the doctor in one week (to get his ears checked and listen to his lungs for pneumonia) and found out that he doesn't have pneumonia, but does have an ear infection.  

 

By Wednesday, John and I were totally strung out.  He'd missed too much work and so had I.  Neither of us could really figure out a way to take the day off.  I only had to teach two classes, but had to be at both because students were presenting long term projects in one class and carrying out a lab in the other. Luckily, Cousin Chris came to save the day!  John stayed home with Hazey until 10am, I came home until 11:15 and then he came over for an hour and a half so I could go back to school before coming home for the rest of the afternoon.

 

Though all of this sickness has been really stressful and tiring, there have been moments that I really cherish--the one-on-one time with each of my kids, the snuggles, the projects, and the late night fever influenced conversations like this one in the middle of the night:

"Mom, why don't you wear your hair in a pony tail anymore"

"Because it's winter, Cal, and I usually wear my hair down when it's cold out"

"You look pretty when you wear your hair up..... like at your wedding with Daddy"

or this one at 3am:

"Dad, I missed you while you were in the mountains"

We are in the thick of it.  We've got two small kids who need their parents.  Sometimes sickness comes along to get you to slow down-- to take a deep breath and put everything in perspective.  John and I are lucky to both have the ability to take time off from work and be with these kids when they need us.  I know these days will seem like they flew by when we look back on the sleepless nights and missed work and we'll be thankful that we had the ability to give big hugs and be there when our kids needed us.

And in light of what happened to Avi, John's student who passed away this week, we realize how precious every moment is-- the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Here is to temperatures of 98.6 F, big smiles, sleep filled nights, continued snuggles, sunshine, and energy!

Winter Break

Every year, John teaches a backcountry ski and avalanche course in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho.  Three years ago, when I was on maternity leave and Cal was all of 10 weeks old, I was able to join him on the front end of his adventure.  My dear friend, Sara, lives in Hailey and was generous enough to provide us with the infrastructure we needed to be there with a baby and her parents offered us an amazing place to stay up in Sun Valley while we were there.  My parents ended up joining us for part of the adventure.  It was a great trip..... we had access to babysitters so John and I could ski together, got the insiders scoop on woods runs, did a lot of exploring around Galena Pass, and got to be in the big mountains as a family.

Having lived in the big mountains of Montana, I've missed them.  I've missed the blue sky days after light fluffy powder falls and I've missed the expanse of it all.  I have so few pangs of regret about having children.  John and I feel that the gifts they have given us far outweigh any of the aspects of life that we have missed.  That said, Vermont has had a grim winter.  It's been very grey, it's either rained or been freezing cold, and there has been the least amount of snow of any winter either of us have ever experienced up here.

As it so happens, UVM's spring break and my school's Feburary break abut each other this year-- which never seems to happen.  So, John had a "free" flight out to Idaho and since I'm turning 40 this year, we decided to indulge ourselves in another trip to the big mountains.  We debated about whether to take Cally or have her stay behind with friends/family (though we never went so far to actually ask anyone if they would be willing to take her).  The truth was, now that it costs full dollar to fly with her, we weren't sure if we could be so indulgent.

Drugging our daughter on Caillou

In the end, we decided to bring the whole family, and I'm so glad we did.  I can't even begin to describe what a wonderful trip it was.  Sara, again, set up everything, from having car seats delivered to the airport in Boise, to having books and toys, a feeding chair, and stroller ready for us in the condo, to arranging for a babysitter so John and I could ski....... it was all there.  So even after it took us 28 hours to get from Burlington to Sun Valley, arriving without any luggage was not a problem because they had everything we could ever need. 

Josephine, Cam, Anna, Hazey, and Cal

The Abbott's and the Gilman's had a ball together.  Josephine (6 years old) and Anna (4 years old) were already Cally's new favorite friends before she even met them.  And they all became fast friends.  Within two hours of arriving to their house, Cal was having a sleep over in their room and as happy as she could be to finally meet these girls whom we'd been talking so much about.  I, too, was thrilled to get to know these little ladies.  The two of them are as different as two sisters could be, but beautiful, witty, and hilarious in so many of the same ways their mom is.  They were so sweet to Cally and I loved seeing their friendship grow so quickly and honestly.

And that mom of theirs.  She does it all.  She juggles doctors appointments, school drop off, swim, ski and dance lessons, some contract work and her own physical therapy.  She does it with such grace, poise and organization.

 

And then there are the Gilman men.  Cam is nine months old and he is deliciously cute and sweet.  I can tell that he and Hazen are going to be good buddies once they can get a few words under their belts.  And Mike, he is one of those dad's you wish every kid could have.  He is hands on with all the kids, will bug out of work early to see a dance performance by his daughter, and just one of the chillest dudes you'll meet.

While we were missing the skiing of the year in Vermont (hence the delay getting out of Burlington and missing our connection in Chicago to Boise, spending the night in Chicago, getting rerouted to Phoenix, and arriving a day later than expected), we did have fantastic skiing while we were there.  We put in some family time at Dollar Mountain with Cally:

On a few of the days, John and I shared a ticket and split our time on the mountains.  But on two of the days, we actually got to do what we love to do-- ski together.

 

 And it dumped while we were there-- two inches an hour, so the skiing on the last two days was fantastic!

And when we weren't skiing, we were spending some quality time at the various pools up in the Sun Valley Resort.  The kids loved it and so did we:

 

After five full days in Sun Valley, we headed down to Boise for a night with the Webbs.  We'd already connected with Brady at the airport upon our arrival-- getting those car seats to us and entertaining us while we waited for baggage.  The Webbs recently moved to Boise from Sun Valley so that Brady could begin a new career as an elementary educator.  When I think of how crazed my first year of teaching was and think about how much that can get exaggerated when you have a two year old and four year old, like she does, it makes me dizzy.  Brady is doing a great job and I'm amazed by how she, too, is doing it all.  Mae (age 4) and Cally became fast friends, but the visit was too short.  Way too short.

And so, as all good times must come to an end, so did this vacation.  John dropped Cally, Hazen and me off at the airport on Friday morning so we could make our way back to Vermont.  I have to admit, I was dreading this part of the journey since the day I booked the tickets.  Flying home alone with a 1 and 3 year old is nothing short of insane.  When you look around the airport, most people don't do it.  You don't see many singletons with two small children.  There are usually a few parents or a grandparent or the children are older.  But here I was.  Fortunately, the kids were fantastic and there was only one delay.  Cally was easy with her chosen drug (iPad loaded with Caillou), but Hazen was a little more of an effort to entertain.  I was exhausted when we finally landed, but everything went really well.  I'm lucky, but I won't be getting on a plane by myself for some time.

Love

I dedicate this entry to LOVE.  The following is what comes to mind when I think of "love":

•  Love is my husband giving me the green light to get out of the house early to get fresh tracks and enjoy a few rare hours to myself.

• Or better yet, Love is being able to sneak out for a Friday afternoon backcountry "adventure" with my sweetheart.  Even with conditions marginal, just being able to skin up and chat with my favorite playmate reminds me of why we got into this "mess" in the first place.

• Love is being able to get the whole family out enjoying a sunny Sunday ski tour to Underhill State Park and watching Cally ski down on her own (note the tiny skis in the back of the Chariot).  Reminding me that outdoor adventures certainly don't have to end when you have kids!

• Love is planning to move wood while the kids sleep, but when its clear we have a "No Nap Nelly and Ned", having them join us and really seem to have fun participating!

• Love is seeing a little kid jump at the opportunity to learn to do yet another winter sport and hearing her say she "loves" it.  

• Love is having a helper in the kitchen.  Who clearly feels so happy being able to help.

• Love is seeing this little spirit light up a room.  He's hardly thwarted by a broken leg........ crawling fast, climbing stairs, and showing us more and more personality everyday. 

 

• Love is seeing the kids that have more and more fun together every day that they are on this planet. 

 

When Cal was sick with the stomach bug last week, we tried to keep the kids apart and realized how close they have become.  He wants to be with her as much as she wants to be with him.

• Love is hearing Cally say, "we want pancakes for breakfast or we want to go for a walk at Mills Riverside Park" and when asked who the we is that she's referring to, she says, "me and Hazen, of course".  

• Love is what has developed between the kids and the animals.  Cally tells Zephy she loves her all the time and calls Lobby "sweetie".  She puts blankets on Lobby and she just sits back and lets it happen. Hazey lights up when either come into the room.

• But the real love is in our bedroom every morning when both kids are in bed with us-- snuggling, laughing, playing, and just feeling love all around us.  Hazey usually joins us around 6am, but nurses and sleeps until we hear the pitter patter of two little feet, a bright "Hi Mom" and a climb into bed by Cally anywhere between 6:30 and 7am.  Whatever time it is, we always have time to hang out in our lovely bedroom, talk about what we'll be having for breakfast and what things the kids want to do that day.  Then Cally takes off and dresses herself..... with intense independence, she insists on putting everything on herself.  It's my favorite part of the day and can make even a tired mom feel ready to take on the world.