We’re back, and Rowen and I had an amazing day!
I was a lot more fired up when I got out of bed and hit the
shower at a quarter to five this morning than Rowen was when she got my five
a.m. wake-up bounce and hug. Mandy
wasn’t impressed either, but has probably forgiven me by now. Rowen had a shower too while I finished doing
my hair and got dressed; and then we had a little hair play time for her too
before we both hurried downstairs to grab a breakfast snack and finish getting our
bags and snow gear ready to go. Mom and
Dad got up to see us off, but Ethan and Ehlana stayed sleeping; and hopefully
they all got an extra couple of hours of down time before getting up for the
day.
Dillon was early too; and we didn’t need to guess that was
because he was fired up about spending the day with Violet. He already had Cal with him, so we quickly loaded our gear
into the car, and hopped over to the Stone’s house; where we were meeting up
with the other groups before heading for the highway. Josiah Palmer was there already; and had his
brother, sister, Erica and Mitch Bassett, and Carolyn Landry with him. Jake, Michael, and Tim had their gear loaded
in their van already; Stephanie had stayed overnight, and joined us outside a
few minutes after we got there. The
fourth group was all Grade Eleven or Twelve ‘country’ teens, and they pulled up
to the curb at exactly six o’clock.
Rowen and I really only know Cody Carter very well out of that group,
and we didn’t spend any time with them today except for when we were all
getting our equipment rentals and when we met up again to head home.
Lisa and Nora were each dropped off by a sleepy-looking
parent; and we were on the road by six-oh-five.
Josiah was apparently the driver most familiar with the route, so he led
out, and Jake and Dillon were in spots three and four. Dillon, Cal, Rowen, and I talked together for
a while, but eventually, the two boys carried on their own conversation; and
left Rowen and I to entertain ourselves.
We made one stop in Crystal
Springs for a washroom
break and to pick up a fast food breakfast to go; and then pushed on the rest
of the way to the ski center. It was
just after nine when we got there, and Violet had beaten us to the parking lot
by fifteen minutes. That’s when Rowen
and I found out that Chris and Martin had come along too; and brought Ally and
Katrina with them. Five in Violet’s car
was a bit crowded, but two out of three of the back-seaters didn’t seem to have
minded the enforced cuddle time. I didn’t
expect to see much of Chris, Martin, or their girlfriends today either; and we
really only saw them a handful of times when we were in the same lines waiting
for lifts.
The lifts were already running by then, but it was nearly
ten o’clock by the time we’d picked up our lift tickets; had our rental gear;
and were either ready for our first runs or lessons. Rowen and I were part of the group taking an
introductory lesson; and our instructor started working with us as soon as we
were ready. About half of our group –
including Michael, Lisa, Tim, and Nora – were with us for the lesson, and over
the next hour; some of us did quite a bit better than others. We were set free by eleven, and Rowen and I
went out on our own so we could explore some of the other runs; and test the
limits of our fledgling snowboarding skills.
We both think that our little Magi experiment helped out a
lot, but Rowen was even more surprised than I was to find out that she’s a
natural; has more than a little dash of thrill-seeker in her; and doesn’t show
even a hint of shy or quiet when she’s flying down a hill on a snowboard. We were racing down intermediate runs by
noon, and taking some fairly impressive jumps before taking a lunch break at
one-thirty. The food was nothing to write
about, except for the Olde Bakery desserts we’d brought with us; so the only
part of lunchtime worth mentioning was the chat we had with Dillon, Violet,
Jake, and Stephanie as they were finishing their lunch. They were the only teens from our group that
we saw while we were in the dining hall, but we met up with Michael, Lisa, Tim,
and Nora when we lined up for the double chair lift closest to the main ski
center building.
Here’s where I have to admit that Rowen and I spent some
quality time showing off. We probably
shouldn’t have, but Tim started shooting his mouth off, as he occasionally
does, and we didn’t need anything more than a glance to agree that we weren’t
going to let him keep on thinking he and Michael were now Witch Falls’ greatest
gift to snowboarding in the history of the town. Tim was even nice enough to help us with the
set-up for the fall off of his self-promoted pedestal by agreeing to have the
four of them go first so he and Michael could show us how it’s done.
The two boys were actually pretty good. They each did three jumps on the way down
that, at least briefly, had them airborne.
Lisa and Nora seemed to be doing okay, but didn’t try to keep up with the
boys; and definitely didn’t try any jumps.
Nora fell once, and took Lisa out in the process; but that was more like
a messy stop than a major wipe-out.
Rowen and I waited until Michael and Tim reached the bottom; exchanged
excited grins; and then Rowen took the lead while I followed about twenty feet
behind her.
Jump number one was a warm-up with big air and one-eighty
front-to-back spins – Rowen’s choice.
Next up, about half-way down, we followed that up with a pair of
three-sixties. The last jump was
seriously unfair, and we really shouldn’t have done it, but we must’ve looked
amazing doing side-by-side, back-to-front five-forties.
Yes, it may have been wrong, but it was also so worth it! All four of our classmates were staring at us
open-mouthed, but it was Tim’s expression that was so priceless. He was taking turns looking at Rowen and me as
if he’d never really even seen us before now.
Maybe, in a way, he hadn’t.
Michael looked impressed, but not shocked, and Lisa and Nora seemed to
be trying to decide if they were impressed or annoyed with us.
The other girls made it abundantly clear that Rowen and I
should go our own way again, and we really tried to do that; but I’m sure that
Michael and Tim were trying just as hard to meet back up with us again whenever
they could nudge Lisa and Nora so they’d all end up at the same lifts we were
at – even if we started on different runs.
Maybe Rowen’s flaming red hair kept giving us away. ;^)
The boys might not have noticed, but I’m sure that the
warm-up break that Lisa and Nora took was directly related to one too many
meet-ups with Rowen and me. Staying out
on the slopes without them wasn’t a good idea, but to be honest; Rowen,
Michael, Tim, and I had a blast doing a couple of high-speed, high-flying runs
together before I advised them that they were about one run away from being in
deep girlfriend trouble. They wisely
decided to meet up with Lisa and Nora again; and we didn’t see them again until
after dinner.
I should mention that we had perfect weather all day – sunny
skies, and the temperature was right around freezing most of the day. Rowen and I stopped for dinner at six, but
only took a half-hour break before getting back out on the slopes again. Blue Ridge only has a dozen runs, and we’d been
on all of them at least several times each by then, but snowboarding at night
added a whole new dimension; and being on the slopes at night was all-new for
both of us.
So was snowboarding at night with Michael and Tim after they
tracked us down at around seven-thirty.
Lisa and Nora had hit their winter fun limit for the day; had
turned in their rentals; and were going to wander around the ski shop and then
hang out in the dining hall to wait for everyone to meet up again for the trip
home at nine o’clock. Skiing together
again was probably another really bad idea, but that last hour and change was
also the most fun we’d had all day too – and Rowen and I had been having an
awesome day already! I can also report
that there weren’t any up-close-and-personal snow moments tonight, but we did share
some really cool snowboarding runs, jumps, and tricks before it was time to
return our equipment; get changed; and meet up with the rest of our group.
I’m not sure if Michael and Tim were in trouble with their
girlfriends by then or not, but there wasn’t any doubt about that for Rowen and
me. The snowboarding was bad enough, but
apparently I shouldn’t have picked out soft, comfortable sweaters for Rowen and
I to wear for the drive home; and bouncing around excitedly while sharing some
hugs and kisses with some of my favorite teens was inappropriate when we were
more than sixteen hours into a long, busy day.
Lisa and Nora hadn’t been the only members of our group to
wrap up their snow fun early. Violet and
Dillon had spent some quality time saying goodbye to each other; probably in a
mostly non-verbal sort of way. That
helped to make it easier to part ways when we were ready to leave; and we were
all on the road for Woodvale or Witch
Falls by a quarter after
nine. We repeated the washroom break and
fast food pick-up in Crystal
Springs; staying together
in case we had any problems or break-downs.
It was smooth sailing all the way, and Dillon dropped Rowen and I off
first at her house by twenty after twelve.
Yes, the boys may have set the cruise control a bit over the speed
limit; but they were still barely keeping up with the traffic flow on the main
highways.
Hopefully Aunt Leanne won’t give me a hard time if she
watched me give Dillon a big goodnight and thank-you hug before he and Cal left
and Rowen and I went inside. I’m sure
she’ll have enough to tease me about once she hears about our trip. Rowen’s parents were waiting up for us, but
admitted that they’d napped on the living room sofa for a while until they
heard us pull into the driveway. We did
a mini-report with them before we all headed up to bed. Patrick had Scott staying overnight too, but
if they’d planned on bugging us tonight; they hadn’t been able to stay awake to
spring their pranks or jokes on us.
Rowen and I got changed and into bed, and I’ve only been on
my computer to check my email; let Violet know we’re home safely; and write up
this journal entry. We’ve been having a
little girl chat time too, since we couldn’t do that in the car with Dillon and
Cal; and while Rowen wasn’t bouncing around tonight like I was; she’s still
really fired up and wired for sound.
For her, the snowboarding talent was incredible, but she’s
as excited about having Michael, Tim, and quite a few other boys around our age
actually take serious notice of her for a change. She wants me to add that I was getting
noticed by those boys too, but since we’re not on the same side of the
crossed-over line; that doesn’t have nearly the same impact on me as it does on
her. I am really glad that she’s feeling
so great about that – it’s about time that some of the guys started noticing
just how extraordinary my best friend is.
We’re not ready to sleep yet, but I’m going to end this
here; put my computer away; and get serious about winding down. It’s going on one-thirty, and if Rowen needs
to keep talking about boys for much longer; I may need to not dream about a lot
of soft, fluffy(not cuddly) bunnies to have any hope of a peaceful few hours of
sleep.
Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging
out!
