Thursday

(Continued from yesterday. . . ) Even though the power was out, Rob still had a 7:00 a.m. meeting. He got dressed by the glow of the cell phone, spent a good chunk of time scraping the newly fallen snow off of the Jeep and drove the 7 miles to the resort. He was late but so was everyone else. I waited anxiously to hear what the day would hold. There was every possibility that we would be going home. Around 9:30 a.m. the power came back on, the sun came out and shortly after that, Rob called and told me to start packing our bags. He went on to say that our accomodations were changing for the better: we were being moved into a chalet right on the mountain. Ironically, when I hung up with Rob, the front desk of our current hotel called to say they had a nice, big, non-smoking room for us complete with a kitchenette. I chose the first option and started packing our bags. We took advantage of the free continental breakfast and then moved out.


Our chalet was ready and waiting for us when we arrived so we quickly walked around, wondering at the way the day was unfolding. The A.M. meeting went well and we were obviously staying but only had to set up about half of what we brought (the only downside here is that they brought in one of our competitors to cover the half-pipe, which we easily could have done. . . ). Our new friends at the resort truly wanted to make it up to us and were more than happy to provide these lovely accomodations. We were thrilled, to say the least.








We quickly looked around and then headed up the hill to help Rob. We had plenty of help and Gloria and I even got to ride in the big snow cat that hauled the speakers up the mountain. Pictures can't do this justice, and I don't think you can really call this work.





These are the views from inside the snowcat:

It was a lovely ride.

This is where our speakers will live for the next few days:

We had plenty of help setting up the speakers.

We had so much help that all I had to do was take pictures. . .

The Super Pipe, view from the base:

The super Pipe, view from the top:

Panoramic view:

This snowmobile that we borrowed from Rob's dad has proved to be invaluable:

It didn't take long to set up and we headed back to the house where I quickly settled in to blissful domesticity.

We took a little drive in the evening to see a few snow-covered ice scultpures:







So much snow!!

Back home and into the jacuzzi!! Ahhhhh. . .

Hindsight's 20/20 and I'm thankful for all of the stress on Wednesday that led to the bliss on Thursday!!

Wednesday

When I woke up Wednesday morning, there was absolutely no way to know how the next two days would turn out or the string of emotions I would experience in such a short 48 hour period. It really started about a month ago when we bid on a show at a ski resort a couple of hours away. (I'm not mentioning the name here because I don't want it to be googled!!) To make a long story short, after several negotiations, meetings and e-mails, we signed a contract and agreed to do the show for much less than we normally would because there is always a fun-factor built into these types of shows that makes it worth it. They also agreed to pay for our lodging (4 people for 6 days) and to give us 4 VIP passes to this national snowboarding event.

We made all the arrangements for the trip, including lining up pet care (thanks, Lori!) and were planning to leave around 8:00 a.m. Wednesday morning. I had taken the Subaru in Tuesday afernoon to have our snow tires put on but the Les Schwab guy found a crack in one of them and had to take them all off. Their store across town had the tire we needed in stock but since it was almost closing time, we'd have to wait until Wednesday morning to try again. They always have great service and said they would do everything they could to put on the tires first thing in the morning.

We woke up Wednesday morning to about 6 inches of new snow which caused all kinds of delays. The driver for Les Schwab spent about 2 hours just driving across town and back so the tire didn't arrive back in Meridian until after 10:00 a.m. The tires were put on fairly quickly but then I got the first of a string of bad news: not only were the other tires cracking but the brakes were so bad they said it was undrivable. They handed me a quote for $500 + but didn't charge me a thing for all of the time they had already spent on my car. I called Rob, who heard the catch in my voice, and quickly made other arrangements. His mom and dad willingly loaned us their Jeep, gaining a little peace of mind in the process, and we gratefully took them up on their offer. We finally rolled out of town at 12:00 p.m. with Rob taking the lead in the big truck, Dale following behind him, and me bringing up the rear.

The roads weren't too bad until after Banks and then I kept having to peel my hands off the steering wheel to keep them from cramping up from gripping so tightly!! This well-traveled road was eerily deserted and eventually, I even lost sight of Rob and Dale.

We finally made it to our hotel around 3:00 and checked in. We were supposed to have one big room or two smaller rooms with kitchenettes. The two rooms they had for us were on opposite sides of the hotel and the one with the kitchenette was a smoking room. The room smelled so bad that Zach and Gloria wouldn't even go in the door. We told the front desk we just couldn't use that room so the four of us (with a week's worth of stuff) moved into the other, much smaller room with NO kitchenette. We were planning to cook all of our meals to help keep expenses down and now we were somewhat limited by the lack of space and appliances. The staff at the hotel was very helpful and they were trying to find a solution. In the meantime, we all headed up to the resort so we could quickly set up and Dale could get back home before it got too late. Rob had been in very close communication with his contact at the resort and so we were expecting everything to be ready. Unfortunately, the best planning still isn't good enough when the expectations of the people we answer to don't match the expectations of the tour manager that gets to make the call in the end. While everyone tried to get on the same page, the kids and I wandered around taking pictures. This is a huge snow cat that grooms the "super-pipe". It was pretty amazing to watch.







This area has received what must be a record breaking amount of snow.

We were definitely in hurry-up-and-wait mode.

Even after a long meeting between the staff at the resort, the tour manager and Rob, everything was still up in the air, Dale had to go home to prepare for a trip and Rob was summoned to a 7 a.m. meeting the next morning. By this time it was getting late and the final word pretty much was, "I want it my way or no way" from the tour guy. Fortunately, the people we had been working with backed us up and acknowledged that Rob had originally bid on exactly what the tour manager required and the resort didn't have it in the budget. We went back to our cramped hotel room knowing that even if we stayed and set up what we brought, Dale was gone and Rob would be setting up alone.

I know I had a real sense of dread for what the next day would hold and, while Rob knew that we had done everything we were asked to do, he still had to get up before it was light out and face whatever we had to face, alone. It was snowing hard outside, making things seem even more bleak. . .

. . . so much snow. . .

Sometime in the night, while we were tossing and turning. . . the power went out.

. . . to be continued. . .

What Zach Does For Fun

My kids often grumble that they are hungry and there is NOTHING to eat. I usually point them in the direction of the kitchen, telling them we have plenty of food and to just fix themselves a snack. Shopping and cooking, like laundry, are never-ending chores that make me weary just thinking about them. So I'm not sure if Zach was trying to prove a point or if he was just amusing himself when he "catalogued" all of the food we have in the fridge and pantry yesterday. I came home to a perfectly organized pantry with a posted, categorized list taped to the pantry door. He also took it upon himself to point out all of the inedible foods inside including a can of stewed tomatoes and a box of Malt-O-Meal. . .

My pantry has never looked better!!

Zach has also been spending much of his free time lately creating a board game. It is based loosely on the old "Rock, Paper, Scissors" battles and comes complete with an instruction manual that gives a little history of three old people groups: The Rocks, The Paper Nomads and the Castle of Scissoria. There is plenty of strategy and unpredictable twists and turns including Sudden Death in the middle ring. It's reminiscent of several of his favorite games but unique enough that it doesn't feel like any of the others. We played for about 5 hours the other night before we finally called a draw.

This is the corner with the highest frequency of scissor cards, hence the scissor factory!!

I don't know how to say this without sounding like I'm bragging, but it's my blog and bragging is not my intention so I'm going to say it anyway!! I'm really enjoying watching Zach grow into a young adult. He is a huge help to me and I find myself relying on him more and more. He rarely complains (except about stewed tomatoes!) and he is always willing to lend a hand when I need him. He has taken most of the responsibility for his schoolwork on himself and makes a list every Monday of what needs to be done each day in each of his subjects. He even still tells me he loves me and often hugs me when I walk by. He's just a really good kid and I'm thankful he's mine.

Superbowl Sunday

Most of these pictures don't need an explanation, but this is a funny story!! Alysha was picking on poor Rob after the game so, of course, he had to pick right back. This really upset Alysha's sweet little sister, Lauren! She came running in the room I was in, almost out of breath and said, "HEY ! . . . um. . . um. . . your. . . um. . . your. . . um. . . your. . . um. . . your. . . DAD. . . is gettin' 'Lysha!!" That's all the proof I need- Rob looks WAY older than me!!

Satisfied

On Saturday we stayed home ALL day! This is a rare occurence and I LOVE when it happens. The only time we left the house was a quick trip to the store to buy a couple of bins to help us organize Zach's area in the "family room". (Note: the cute red barn in this picture belongs to Gloria, not Zach!!) I accomplished a great deal around the house and looked around at the end of the day with a feeling of satisfaction.

While this picture may make some people want to throw up, I think it's pretty cute!!:

The Incredible Journey

Well, we had a little bit of excitement yesterday. OK, maybe not excitement, but, at least it was out of the ordinary. We are taking care of a dog who's owners we don't know very well. . . long story. . . and everything had been going just great. . . until the dog, Tyler, took matters into her own paws and escaped. I was at home, in the middle of a school day, talking to Rob on the phone just as he arrived back at the shop and realized that the back door was wide open. He became pretty frantic when he realized Tyler was no where to be found. The kids and I dropped what we were doing and went to help him look. Amazingly enough, Rob eventually decided to drive to the owner's home, which was a good 5 or 6 miles away, across several very busy streets, and there was Tyler, sitting on her own front porch. It was a miracle! She's a really great dog and all three of these pups are getting along fabulously:

Just to prove that I'm not trying to prove anything with my blog (!!), I'm posting these pictures of an amp rack that Rob has been working on. He recently replaced all of our amps with a different type of amp and they all have to be installed in the racks and wired up before Tuesday. This is why we have been able to stay in business without spending a ridiculous amount of money: Rob can do all of this work himself!! It's really quite impressive and, although I don't pay a lot of attention when he explains to me what each individual wire is doing, I can't help but be impressed with the finished product.

Gloria's a great helper (when it's her idea!!):