2 Little Pros

It was a big day yesterday for the gentlemen in the Haddad household! Jake and Tye have now conquered the mountain without daddy controling their speed with the harness!! Tye did excellent for his first time without Nick's help down the green runs. He was able to get in 5 runs in his 1 1/2 hr stretch. Nick said that they nearly wiped out loading the chairlift but they did it!! :)

And Jake went down 4 times yesterday and even went over a jump 2 of the 4 times! Unbelievable...

It was a very snowy day yesterday. The kids are trying, as I did, to get used to their goggles being blurred with the white stuff. Here is how we gear them up for their snowboarding adventures every day: Wool socks, thermal long sleeved shirt, thermal long undies, sweatpants, sweatshirt, vest, snow pants, snowboard boots, snow jacket, mittens, face mask, neck warmer, hat, goggles and finally the helmet and harness. Whew...now that takes a while!

Thankfully, the kids have gotten used to the drill and can the boys at least, can put most everything on themselves. They can even fasten their bindings and set their goggles and helmets. It's quite an emsemble but it's worth every moment of the trouble since they stay perfectly warm and in the end, we don't have to hear any whining!! Big +!

An Answer to the Questions

Well, it has been over a month here in CO and the comments we hear most are, "You guys are crazy" and "I can't understand why you'd make such a big move." The funny thing is, everyone we have met here in CO either says, "I totally get it...it'll be the best move you ever made for your family" or "We did the same thing ___ years ago, and we're never going back."

So, here it is in the smallest nutshell I can fit it into...

From when we first met, Nick and I dreamed, a far off dream, of living in a home where our children could throw a ball as far as they possibly could and be safe from breaking a neighbor's window and we saw our life full of time. Time with each other, time with our pack of children, time focused on loving each other and time for all else in the distant background, never clouding our time with on another. We thought, that if Nick worked and worked and worked some more, that we would make enough money to have Nick retire in 10 years or less and THEN, we could have our dream. THEN, we'd move to place where the schools are better, the town is more open minded, the houses are sparcely placed and we'd be able to afford mountain living with availablility to snowboarding and time to just be together.

The problem is, we figured out...that that day may never come. Maybe in 10 years, Nick and I would grow so far apart from him working 100hrs a week that we'd find ourselves out of love of one another. Or Nick's body would be so physically worn that he'd have health problems. Or the kids would be so grown up that they might not want to spend time with their parents anymore. Or mabye even (and everyone hates to imagine) something could happen to one of us...even one of the kids. And we would go on with the rest of our life feeling like we could have spent it better...we could have been together more and we could have SHOWN our love to each other better and said the words less.

So, we took our lives into our hands and decided we were done saying that SOMEDAY we would have the life of our dreams. We sat down together for months and planned out just how we could have it all right now. And today...about 10 months after laying out the plan...we are truly living our dream. Some people go their entire lifetime without seeing their dreams actualized. We did not want that to happen to us.

And, although we are all healthy and everything turned out to be okay with me and my Cancer scare, we did not take that lightly. A lesson was learned and we are most thankful.

Jacob is thrilled with his new teacher, classmates and school. Nick has taken a huge step back from Sautee. He and I are still running the financing end of Sautee including daily ordering, scheduling, etc. And if the worst comes and Sautee doesn't make it, we will be just fine. We will continue to live out our dream with our focus finally and forevermore on what really, truly matters in life. However, it may be, we will never lose sight of that again.

So, call us crazy...we call it "enlightened".

We've already got 6 visitors lined up...if you'd like to come out and relax or ski or snowboard or fish or camp or hike...you are welcome anytime!

Blue Runs!

I did it! I conquered BLUE runs at Breckenridge for the first time but it wasn't as smooth as I'd have hoped!!

I nearly lost it when I realized I went up the wrong chairlift taking me to a peak with mostly black runs and a just few blues. And, to make matters more difficult...for my first time down blues (the runs for intermediate snowboarders/skiers: for those of you who don't know), it was blizzarding by the time I got off the lift at the top of the mountain. I sat down in the foot deep snow to set the bindings and my goggles, which had seemed useless until today, were completely coated with snow. What should I do? I figured windshield wiping them with my gloves would do the trick: it didn't. The snow was off the goggles but now they were blurry from being wet and quickly covering with a coat of snow again. I felt closterphobic and disoriented. Should I call Nick and ask him what to do? No...I looked around quick at the people flying past me on their boards or skis and none of them seemed to be bothered by the blizzardous conditions. It must be in my head. Yes, it's in my head.

I set the bindings for my left foot, stood up and started down the mountain, forgetting to check the signs to be sure the route I took was blue and not BLACK. Behold, I accidentally took a Blue/Black run (for advanced intermediates) Between prayers I repeated "Lean back, lean back, lean back" in my head since the last words from Nick as I left for the chairlift were "Don't forget, lean back in pow-pow (powder snow)!" This was not only my first time on steeper Blue runs but also my first time on non-groomed, deep powder terrain. Quite a combination. If I caught the nose of the board in the deep snow, I'd do a quick hard faceplant into the snow. So, I leaned back!!

For the first time, I found my legs to be less for stearing and controling the speed and more for shock absorbers from the constant change from powder to packed snow. I was like a rag doll yet somehow, I managed to stay up on my feet the entire way down! I gained confidence after I made it down and went up the correct chairlift to the mostly blue runs. I went down and back up 3 more times until my legs were like rubber bands. I never fell one time! Not once! And each time, I got better and better at controlling the speed and directing myself to where I wanted to go. It was SO much fun.

There is something about being in the mountains, riding the chairlift, learning to snowboard without any teacher or anyone riding with me. It's quite peaceful. Gives me a sense of pride that I am doing it just for me. And getting better and better each day. It's quiet...only the sound of the board cutting the snow and me controlling it all. It's even spiritual.

I can't wait to have Jake and Tye by my side as we tackle the mountain together. And they ARE getting close. Jake can go down the mountain without the harness and Tye is getting very close. Soon, I will brave taking Jake up the chairlift. Perhaps he will be the first person I know to ever see me ride. So far, its been only me. And that has proven to be quite nice...