We are now in Colorado. It is one of my husband’s favorite places on Earth. Now that I have come here I can understand why. It is breathtakingly beautiful. However the other, probably greater reason that he loves Colorado is the skiing. He loves to ski. Understandably so as he is really really good at it. He is a thing to see when he skis. Really beautiful to watch.

I had not skied in over 10 years and I wasn’t sure how it would go, but I did just fine.

My first day out I did not have a helmet so I was quite careful. After finding out how much an adult lesson would cost I asked my husband for pointers. He was patient with me & I was patient with him and I will admit here that I learned a thing or two that first day.

The pictures make our day look much darker than it really was. There must be something about taking pictures on a snowy mountain that causes the camera to overcompensate for the brightness and hence results in a darkened photo. But I assure you, I needed the tinted goggles.

While we were out on the slopes our kids were in ski school. I can teach my kids to read, but I have no idea what to do on on ski hill. My husband may know what to do, but would lose his mind teaching our children. It would not be pleasant for anyone.

So we gave them a hug and a kiss and dropped them both off. Day 1 was great, Day 2 even better. To tell you the truth at this point I was thinking how lucky my children are. I was thinking what a gift we are giving them. Not only do they get to visit another state. But they get to spend our time here with family (visiting from NZ) and friends (our mates our heading over from Cali), but they get to have professional ski instruction on a top mountain at a young age. At a place that looks like this..

So on Day 3 I was a little surprised when Nuno told me he did not want to attend class. He said he wasn’t feeling well and wanted to stay home. People, my kids know me well enough to know that a day home with mom means NO technology or treats. And that is how we spent our day. Lana on the other hand went happily off to ski school. At one point in the day I remember thinking how far along she has come. 1) she was skiing. This in itself is a big deal. She is a child that would prefer to read than play with other kids on the playground for the one reason that  that play involves running around. 2) She wanted to go ski. Yep, that one leaves me speechless. 3) She willingly stayed knowing that her brother would not be with her. Not that they’d be in the same class, but this is a child that used to never want to be left anywhere without the ‘backup’ of family.

SOOOOOO you can imagine my surprise when I got to the pick-up area and was approached by Sophia’s instructor who was alone. He started by telling me that Sophia was doing a great job skiing. And then he said something about her taking a challenge to get to level 4 and deciding on her own volition to do a blue square and then hitting ice. I don’t mean to be flip, but this is not characteristic of my kid. My child is the one on day 1 who before lunch was feigning altitude sickness, not the one who challenges herself.

Nuno and I hopped on a gondola and made it up to the clinic where she had been transported to by ski patrol. When I walked in I was greeted by this gorgeous face.

Let me tell you. She was so cute. She started by recounting how she has been wanting to take gymnastics and that today she got to do a tumble turn. But unlike her desire to try in the safety of a gymnastics class on a mat, that she did one on the mountain, after hitting ice. She told me how she hit her head then banged and/or twisted her knee. She couldn’t remember exactly as it happened all so fast. But whatever happened it hurt and my baby cried for 10 minutes straight. Two seats over, at the clinic sat her buddy Will who fell on the same patch of ice. Possibly distracted by watching Lana fall. Poor kid, his shoulder looked more messed up than Lana’s knee. He was sweet and I thought how lucky that Sophia got to meet another wonderful person on this little adventure we call life.

Then we sat, we waited, the clinic was hopping. We were joined by my husband. He was stressed. It as funny to me as he seemed shocked that Lana could get hurt skiing. I mean really, did he think we had signed her up for chess lessons?

Finally she was seen by the doctor and the news was not horrible, but not good either. No broken bones, but she believed it was a torn ligament. That involves MRIs and possibly surgery. I was just happy my kid had a helmet on. Really happy. I am pretty sure his stress was about 1) his baby getting hurt doing something he encouraged her to do 2) his bewilderment at the thought of his bibliophile getting hurt doing a sport 3) the fact that this could be a reason for her to have surgery and 4) the cost, the insurance, the pain in the neck of it all. But whatever it is, he was not a pleasant person to be around.

Well, Lana was totally aware of her stressed out father. So much so, that when we were on the bus heading home she insisted that she was going to use her Christmas/Birthday money on her MRI. Wrong. I hugged her, loved her and told her, “No, we have insurance and daddy is just stressed, but it’s okay. We are okay.” But really, isn’t that sweet?

So we came home and went to bed with a knee brace on our Lana. I was still positive, but when I awoke at 1am I was feeling guilt. Horrible guilt. Here I though we were giving her a gift, but instead she got an injury. A possibly pretty bad injury. Did we push her too far? Did we make her feel like she had to do it to meet our approval? As I thought all these things, I looked over to my daugher who was asleep in bed next to me and in her sleep she mumbles, “I love you mom.” My heart sang. And my brain thanked her. I do not deserve this child. I know that, but I am still grateful for her.

We are at Friday and we somehow got an appointment with the Orthopedic Doctor. More for dad ‘s peace of mind truth be told,but I will be honest we are all happy with the news. It looks like this little monster may only have a bruised muscle and possibly a bruised growth plate. Fingers crossed she does not have a torn meniscus. If so she will be operated on next Thursday. But right now we are positive that she will be better. That we will walk away, without crutches, from Colorado, with smiles on our faces with only good memories of our time here.