Home Again, Home Again

I woke up on Day 4 of our trip at 5 am (due to Gain having turned sideways in bed and kicking me IN THE FACE) to hear the wind howling. It just sounded cold. I checked the weather app on my phone. The high was 5 degrees and it wasn't going to break into positive territory until after noon. The "feels like" temp was -24. I knew Gavin was getting worn out, and with not so favorable conditions, I was worried about making it another day on the slopes.

When Gavin woke up he complained that his tummy was hurting so I suggested we head for home. He agreed and I went upstairs to pack up. When I came back down my uncle said "I heard him say he wants to ski actually". Great! I call Chad to tell him we'll be skiing after all. He says just the right thing "you're there, you might as well ski". So we're skiing. Then Gavin wants to say bye to him, gets on the phone, yells "bye!" and hands it back to me. I say "be nice and talk to your dad for a minute". He bursts into tears.

This is not a kid that is going to hold up well to cold and windy conditions on the mountain.

I couldn't believe I was going to talk my own kid out of spending the day skiing - but I also didn't want to spend $100+ to be on the slopes for two hours, decide it's way too cold and leave, or worse yet have a complete meltdown on my hands. I got to the root of the problem, which was not so much that Gavin had his heart set on skiing, but going back early meant having to go back to school. So I promised him a fun day in DM with me to make up for the lost ski day.

Went out to my car. The battery was dead. Of course it was! Fortunately, my uncle had not left yet and had a power pack in his car and was able to get it started up. I had left the cell charger plugged in (no cell attached to it) but I guess that was enough to drain the battery in two days, assisted by some bitterly cold nights. We finally get on the road.

I got about a mile from the condo and realized I didn't know where my cell phone was. Not in my purse. Not in my coat pocket. Go back to the condo where my other uncle had opted to stay in for the day and not ski. Pound on the door til he hears me. No cell phone in the condo. So he calls my phone while I look in the car again. Where is that ringing coming from??

The breast pocket of my coat. Where I had never put it before (and will never put it again). Feeling like a moron we finally were on our way for real this time. Fortunately the rest of the drive was fairly uneventful, despite the dire DOT reports of road conditions in Iowa. It did get slick about an hour from home, and we had one scary moment when a pickup in front of us, hooked up to a trailer lost control and started swerving around. I had turned on the 4 wheel drive a few miles back and was able to slow down my car quickly enough without running off the road myself, and narrowly avoided a collision.

Sam was very excited to see us when we got home. Maybe more excited to see Gavin! Meatball was also happy to have us back, he showed his appreciation by peeing all over our clean clothes the next morning (I had washed them at the condo before leaving). So I was treated to doing three loads of laundry the next day.

Oh yes, and our special day home together to make up for the lost ski day?

To be continued....