The Hazard Chronicles

Closing day. These posts are always a little bittersweet- especially this year as it seems like things are changing in our family. The end of an era, perhaps? Don't get me wrong-It was a great year. But it felt a little off. Kids are getting older and more involved. We have conflicts in scheduling, we need more space, and travel can get complicated. Next year will be even more so, since teen jobs will almost certainly be in the mix. In the past we have visited, as a family, around fifteen different destinations. This year we hit 12, which is good, but some were smaller and we also missed out on a lot of our favorites. In terms of days skied, I got my normal 50ish, but for some of our kids it was only half of that. Nights spent in a hotel or eating pizza in bed were at an all-time low. I think that skiing will always a be a part of our family- a touchpoint, hopefully, even after kids have left the house. But things change, and this year highlighted this fact.

We closed the year the same as we started it- an overnight stay at our Wallace house (we love that place), an early breakfast the next morning, and a full day at Silver Mountain, our home resort. The day was a little dreary with some rain and it felt more like a funeral than the springtime celebration we had hoped for. It was almost as if we could watch the mountain melt and die in real time. Some runs that were open in the morning were reduced to mere ribbons of white surrounded with brown dirt by mid-afternoon. There weren't many people there, which is understandable given the conditions, and the vibe was one of malaise that questioned whether they should have just closed a week or two ago in order to end on a high note.

Man- what a downer of a beginning for a post. I'm sorry- it wasn't all rainclouds and mud. There were definitely some good moments in there. We kept things festive as best we could. On the evening before, we all went out to eat and then had ice cream at the house while watching a movie. During lunchtime at the resort we relived an impromptu highlight reel of some of the best moments of the year, told in stories between laughs and happysad tears. It is hard to see the season end. I feel like our family is at its best when out on the slopes and it is hard to replace the feeling of togetherness and easy comradery that comes from these trips.

*****

As for the week itself, it was one of theater for us. Rachel did her second week of interpreting for Hamilton, and did great. Earlier in the week, we both went to a show call "Boxes," a slightly over-ambitious (in my opinion) drama that was written by a local playwright and debuted at Stage Left. It was a fun night and gave us a lot of things to think and talk about during the week. Also, a few of our kids went and saw the High School's performance of "Pride and Prejudice," which they described as "long." Teenager reviews can be so delightfully concise. Go figure.

Evelyn and Addy were both away on a band trip to the University of Idaho during part of the week (a jazz festival), and tomorrow morning Ev will get on an early bus bound for Salt Lake City for the same thing. Let's see...Lindsey got a new bicycle, Maren has an upcoming vocal performance, and Jackson is playing Settlers of Catan with anyone he can rope into it. New doors are opening to the upcoming Broadway season for Rachel due to her exceptional work on Hamilton, and as a family we are currently trying to plan for an upcoming 4-day-weekend that sort of fell into our laps. 

And that's us this week. Have a good week!

Josh has come with us on a lot of our trips to Silver and Wallace. It has been fun to have him around.

Everyone switched up boots and skis/snowboards for some silly fun

This one and the next two show the state that Silver Mountain was in on the last day

There was a strange sort of fun in trying to pick our way down little strips of snow while jumping over logs and patches of dirt. We made it further than we expected on this one before the inevitable walk to the groomer beside it.