Over the holiday break from school, we embarked on our annual Haldeman ski trip. This year, we went to Cascade in Wisconsin. We rented a couple cute cabins at a campground behind the hill to accommodate our growing clan of eight. Since we pack most of our food, planning this trip has become a huge undertaking. Travis engages in extreme car jenga to pack Bert (the SUV of questionable origin). To fit all the equipment, clothing, and food around six occupants requires a roof rack (for the skis), and a rack in the tow hitch on the back. We were definitely loaded down. Fortunately, Taryn and Wolfe live by the hill, so they drove separately. Otherwise, they would have probably had to ride on the bumper. 

Our trip always includes some shenanigans and some solid wipe outs. This year, I did not wipe out, which saved me from some sort of hip injury. The best wipe out came from Tayden, who lost in a jousting match with an orange construction cone. As four of us were exiting the quad chair lift, the chair lift operator was raking the snow on the exit ramp. They need to rake the snow to prevent icy tracks from forming and causing wipeouts at the end of the lift. In this case, the poor worker misjudged our exit time. He was so caught up in his work that he was still raking right in front of Tayden when we had to stand to get off the lift. With every seat full on the lift, Tayden had few exit options. He could plow over the guy with the rake, or plow into me, since I was right next to him. Both of these options were suboptimal, since either one would cause a pile up at the lift, and block the lift operator from stopping the lift, since the operator was at the farthest point from the stop button. This would cause more and more people to pile up, since the lift would continue to add people to the malay. Tayden opted for a different option, which was to turn sharp left. 

The sharp left option was blocked by several construction cones. Of course, this seemed like a small obstruction when compared to the only other options. Since poor Tayden had no time to consider why the cones were there, it appeared to be the best option, so he turned left. Right behind him, the chair lift also turned left. As I maneuvered around the rake man, I looked behind me just in time to see Tayden get slammed in the back by the chair lift, which promptly pushed him over the tips of his skis and right onto a very frozen orange cone. The guy with the rake seemed momentarily stunned, so the people behind us had to try to maneuver around Tayden’s skis and part of his sprawled out body, and the rake guy, which caused a couple more people to wipe out. Once broken from his trance, the rake guy flew around the insanity and shut off the lift. He then went to help Tayden up, repeating, “My bad. My bad.” Tayden immediately yells, “I’m good!” which prompted most of our group to ski a little ways down the hill, to get out of the way. While we waited and waited and waited, Tayden didn’t show up. Tessa, who was a few chairs behind us on the lift,  finally skied down to us and said that Tayden needed a minute and he was going to the easier run with Nick (Tessa’s boyfriend). 

When we met up later in the day, Tayden was actually pretty banged up from the frozen cone, which hit him in the middle of his chest. Of course, there were reenactments of the injury back at the cabin. Poor Tayden took it in stride, and we all had a good laugh. Although, after watching the Bills game a couple days later, Tayden’s lost joust with the cone didn’t seem so funny. Turns out, he was lucky because he didn’t hit the cone at the millisecond of the heart cycle that could have stopped his heart. There was definitely no team of professionals with an AED standing nearby to save him. So, there’s that. And he had a pretty bruise on his chest. 

To end on a lighter note, my clan is amazing in escape rooms. At the end of the trip, the weather warmed up enough to cause us to leave the hill early. Although we got to see Travis execute a nice flat area wipe out on the mashed potato snow before we left, which was nice. We decided to do an escape room at the Dells, and managed to blow away the leader board, leaving 19 minutes on the clock. While my kids and husband worked diligently to solve the complex puzzles, I ran from group to group moving things that didn’t need to be moved, and contributed exactly nothing to the effort. I’m like a chimp, jumping around, distracted by the various props that are designed to keep us from solving the puzzle, and don’t unlock anything. So, let’s hope my kids are with me whenever I might need those skills, because I clearly lack. 

Have a great week everyone! Take the path of least resistance. Unless there are construction cones there. Then turn into the rake guy.