Yesterday we went skiing at Ski Liberty in Pennsylvania. It's a once-a-year treat for us.
Earlier in the week we registered the girls for lessons. Rebecca was taking the very beginner class and Katherine was going to take the learning to turn class. For 2 hours they were going to lessons, snack, etc. We paid over the phone.
Got there before noon, get lift tickets and rental tickets for Ian and me. Woman at the window says to take the girls to the learning center and they'll take care of everything. Ian takes the girls, I head over to the boot/ski place with Jerry, Julie and Jeff so we can get Jerry and Jeff over to their beginner lessons. As we're going through the lines, Ian comes panting up WITH both girls in tow, saying that it's still up to us to get them fitted out. There's like, 5 minutes before class, it takes longer than that to get everything and get to the bunny slope.
Get there and all the noon classes have gone out. We find Rebecca's class and put her in, we ask the various instructors we see where the learning to turn class is. They tell us to ask at the learning center, learning center tells us they're on the slope. It's 12:15 and at least Jerry and Jeff and Rebecca are in their classes, but Julie and I can't ski yet and Ian doesn't even have boots yet. Finally someone says they'll get another instructor. They put Katherine in a class with another kid, but that kid has never skiied before.
Finally, Ian gets set so he and Julie and I do a run down the bunny slope, then head to the top of the mountain for a longer run. We get to do several runs when we notice that the guys' classes are wearing down about the same time the girls' classes are, so we wave to Jeff and Jerry, watch Jeff wipe out, and head over to the bunny slope so we can pick everyone up.
Get Katherine, she's upset because she didn't get to go on the lift at all. The other kid in her class wouldn't go, so she was stuck at the bottom of the slope, no poles, doing stuff she did last year. She's itching to get some poles and go on the lifts. Ian goes with her to get poles. Then, we get Rebecca, who is doing great on skis (surprise surprise!) but informs us that they didn't get a snack at all. We had an early breakfast, no lunch, it's now 2 p.m. and the snack that was part of the class wasn't given to her, so she's starving. Knowing how she is though, I coax her into going down the bunny slope with Julie, Katherine and I first.
Meanwhile, the guys got out of their class, and Jerry is doing great (Jerry is/was a pretty crappy skiier :) ) but Jeff is walking down the bunny slope. Before I get on the lift with Rebecca, I meet up with him to find out that the wipeout I'd seen had either broken his arm or dislocated his shoulder. He headed for 1st Aide. Ian sent Katherine back with her poles, and met up with Jeff. I'd gotten in line for the lift with Rebecca, Julie and Jerry were with Katherine further back. They shout up that Jeff had dislocated this shoulder and Ian had just taken him to the hospital.
It's 2 p.m., half way through out flex ticket. Ian has taken the car, the cash. We ski.
I go down the slope with Rebecca, she has already decided that she wants a snack and I don't blame her, she's hungry and thirsty. So I try to coax her into one more trip down beforehand but it's a no go. She says we'll ski again after.
So, Katherine goes off to ski more with Jerry and Julie and I take Rebecca to the lodge. We find a place to stow the skis, we go into the lodge, she wants a cinnamon roll. The only place that sells them is cash only, I have none. So we go to find the ATM. The one I know of is out of order. We find the other, get cash, get in the ridiculously long line, get our snack. It's after 3:30 p.m., cause anyone who's walked in snow boots knows that you go slower than molasses. We eat our snack, and Julie comes over asking if we'll take Katherine so that she and Jerry can do the longer slopes. Katherine comes and sits down, my Flex ticket runs out. We return all our skis and poles. I finally looked at the girls passes and their lift tikets don't run out for another hour *smacks head* I assumed their 4 hour ticket would run out the same time ours did. They can't even go on the bunny slope alone. Stupid mom.
Shortly after 4, Jerry and Julie come back. The girls and I have a snowball fight. We sit for a bit then decide to try to figure out how long we're actually going to be there. None of our cell phones work as we're out of service range. We headed to the 1st Aide center where we learn that the guys are at Gettysburg hospital and it's only 8 miles away. I even get to call with their phone, get passes around, finally talk to Jeff's nurse who says that Jeff is totally groggy and not ready to be released yet, but that Ian just left to come get us.
We're still wearing our ski boots. All os us had assumed that since Ian had the locker key that he's still have it. After 5, brilliant Julie figures it's worth a check since Ian and Jeff had to get -their- shoes, they might ahve just left the locker open. Wouldn't you know....
So, she gets her shoes, Ian pulls up, the rest of us get our shoes, we leave back to Gettysburg.
Get there, Jeff isn't ready yet, we watch the miserable footage of the Columbia disintegrating, that horrible news that had me in tears on the way to the slope in the morning, this is our first chance to see anything about it.
Jeff gets released, we head home, stop for Wendy's, get back to my parents house after 9, the boys were asleep but we scooped them up and brought everyone home. Jeff stayed over with us last night and Ian brought him back to his car this afternoon (parked at my parents' house).
All in all, the 5 of us (Jeff, Ian, me, Katherine and Rebecca) spent over $400 for lessons, rental, skis and 4 hours each of lift time. We got about 1/2 what we paid for, and this was Jeff's first time ever skiing and I feel totally bad for him that this is how it was spent.
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