On January 23rd we headed off for our second annual ski trip to White Pass with the Mills. We got off around 10:30. And then we stopped for lunch and then at Cabela's to see the animals. The kids liked the break to stretch their legs, and it was fun to see all the neat animals (even though they are stuffed!).
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| All the kids! Quite the crew... |
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| This part made me miss the SD zoo! |
Then it was back on the road till we got to White Pass. Nap time!
This year we tried out a different cabin. It was on the smaller side but had two bedrooms and a loft. It worked out pretty well. This was the first nights kids watching a movie on the couch.
The first day we had gorgeous weather! It was sunny and not too warm or too cold. The kids picked up again where they had left off. I did not get very many good pictures. The little camera I brought with me had no battery power so cell phone pics it was most of the day.
And that was the end of skiing day 1. We headed back to the cabin hoping to get a little hot tub time but the tiny hot tub barely fit the big kids in. And by the time they got out of the hot tub the temp had gone way down so we didn't get to get in. I wish I would have gotten a pic as they all looked so cute in there. And the little ones who were going to get in with us were so bummed they didn't get to hot tub. It was a big bummer! But we did get to see lots of elk from our cabin.
Day 2 was not the nice weather we had day 1 and started off a bit rough. We got up there and Hunter's jacket had been left back at the cabin along with Ashia's phone. So Todd headed back for those two items while the rest of us headed up. We did get this kid pick at the top first run down (for me). I am so glad we got this!! I took two or three runs with Rae on the lower run. I was getting better and so was Rae. All the girls were doing really great skiing down the hill.
After lunch the drama and sadness began. The plan was for Ashia to get a break from training Holden and go with Hans and the big kids up on a big run. I was going to take Raelyn and Aubrey and Todd was going to take Holden. Well I had taken a few runs on the platter lift when Claire and Hudson coming barrelling down the hill looking for Todd and saying Hunter had gotten stuck in a tree well. I looked up the hill and could see Hans, Olivia and Hannah just outside the trees. I was worried as I waited for word of what had happened. Turned out that Hunter's ski had gotten stuck in the thick powder as they were skiing through the trees and didn't pop off and he had taken a bad fall. After the got him down the hill on the sled the ski patrol thought he had broken his leg. Here are a few pics from the afternoon.
We decided to take Hannah and Hudson back to the cabin with us while the rest of the Mills went to Yakima for x-rays. What a long endeavor for them with all the driving and wait. It was confirmed that he indeed had broken his leg in two places. Spiral fractures in both the tibia and fibular. OUCH!! The rest of us had dinner, played games and watched movies, till they got back.
It was really sad that our trip ended this way. And was so sad to see Hunter in so much pain. He had a rough night so did mom and dad of course and the trip home was the worst 3 hours of their lives I think. All that jostling was pretty rough and the pain meds weren't sitting well on his stomach either. All in all it was a couple weeks of pretty rough times. Fortunately he did not need surgery to set the bone or pin it. And after a couple weeks was finally able to get around on crutches on his own. The first couple weeks was a lot of sitting and a lot of pain. Definitely a tough lesson for these kids to learn. But also good to see that bad things can happen. You have to do your best to be safe, but sometimes those things just happen like they did with my torn out ACL 17 years ago. These kids will get back on skis again. But I know they will always remember this trip!
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| Hunter on Super Bowl Sunday in his cast. |
