Memories Of The Ski Slave

Bonnie, John, Bob, and Joe














Joe making pizza!















Look at how well Bonnie makes pizza! Practice makes perfect!


Now that the choir tour is over and I got a good 6 hours of sleep in my own bed, I am feeling great. Bonnie and some of her family are here for their spring break. I have always thought that it was funny that they would want to come to Utah where there is snow during their spring break. I always want to go some place warm.

We are at The Brighton Ski Resort today. I decided to just drive up, hang out in the lodge, eat lunch with everyone, go back home to start dinner, and then get caught up from my 5 days of being gone. I am planning on going skiing on Thursday with my children and Sarah D.

As Bonnie and her family were getting all of their gear on by the car today, I remembered the days when I would take all four of my children and head up to the ski resort. My "Ski Slave" days.

It was a major ordeal to take four children skiing. I would start a few days before the cousins arrived. I would track down as many ski pants, coats, gloves, sunglasses and hats that I could. This wasn't an easy task, someone always would move things around. Maybe my children would go through the pile and hide a few of the things like I used to hide my bathing suit from my dad so that I wouldn't be able to have him teach me how to swim.

After locating and relocating all of the ski gear, both families would head to the ski rental shop. Even though we brought the rental shop a lot of business, I don't think they appreciated it. We would enter first thing in the morning and Bonnie's four children and my four children would pile out of the cars. The children were always so excited to see each other and they would start to get bored while waiting They would start to play around the ski rental shop as they waited their turn for their gear. I seem to remember a money saving deal like free children's skies with an adult rental. We saved money but it was at a price. After a few years of renting 11 pairs of skies all at the same time, we could kind of tell that the workers at the ski rental shop didn't really appreciate our business.

The parking lot of the ski resort was another adventure. We would get out of the car, put on all of our ski pants, coats, hats, and gloves and make our way to the ticket counter. The problem here was that the skies were heavy and awkward. The kids would drop gloves, hats, skies and I would end up carrying a good deal of skis and poles for unhappy children. We ended up making several trips to and from the car as we dropped things along the way.

After we traded our discount passes for our ski lift tickets my kids were all set and I was exhausted. I think my children learned to ski quicker than I did because they were always passing me up.

I remember the year when Bonnie taught me how to ski. She did a really good job. I learned how to make French fries and pizza with my skies. She helped me graduate from the bunny slope to the blue runs. A day or so after she taught me how to ski, I was out skiing with one or two of my children. She didn't know that I was standing behind her and she saw the ski patrol carrying an injured skier on a body board. I heard her say to John, "Hey, go over there and see if that is your Aunt Deanna on that body board." Either she didn't have too much confidence in her teaching skills or she didn't have too much confidence in me.

Lunch at the ski resort was always fun, except for hauling all of the food from the car to the picnic area. Bonnie and I would make sure that we had plenty of bagels, cream cheese, ham, lunch meat, and condiments to make everyone happy. The fun part of lunch was when everyone would share their ski adventures.

It was usually hard to get my kids back on the ski lift after lunch. They seemed to enjoy the rest and relaxation that the lodge offered. Sometimes I could talk them into going up to the top one last time, but I know they would have rather just stayed in the lodge to sit around and talk.

A successful end of the ski day was when we made it on the lift right before they closed it down. The last run of the day was always a fun one for me.

It seemed that getting all of the ski gear to the car wasn't as stressful as getting it to the ticket booth. Everyone seemed capable of carrying their own things at the end of the day and if they couldn't I would just drive the car to the front and meet them by the front.

I think the best part of the ski day for my children was when it was all over and we headed to 7-11 for the traditional Slurpee treat. Whenever I hear them talk about our ski days they always mention how good those Slurpees were.

Once home, Bonnie and I would get dinner started. We always tried to have a plan for dinner so that when we got home and the altitude sickness would start, we would at least be able to feed everyone before we would crash. I remember Bonnie looking feverish and exhausted while shivering in front of the oven or huddling by the steam that was coming out of the dishwasher. I think I was the only one who believed her when she said she was suffering from "altitude sickness" everyone else thought it was a made up disease.

Now that my children are older, and capable of doing things for themselves, we don't seem to get out to the slopes very often. I will have to see how they do on Thursday to really see if they have made progress. Hopefully, I will be able to ditch the role of Ski Slave!