[su_heading size=”18″]Life with Freestyle Skiers in the Mountains[/su_heading]

USASA Nationals are over and the boys came home feeling a bit defeated. I don’t wish it upon them but I think it’s healthy for them to understand what it takes to win a medal, especially when the conditions are cold and snowy. They did have their fare share of fun in between training by overdosing on Hi-Chews, tramping and skiing into the foam pit at Windells and, as always, winning schwag.

Thumper did romp the rails though, medal or no medal, Axel fell going switch into 3 and Hootie-Hoo and I took laps in between comp runs, while poor injured Baddy sat in the cold with his doctored meniscus. His saving grace? Guns n Roses (hence the name Axel FYI), and Van Halen, were the music of choice throughout the weekend at Copper Mountain.

It’s fun visiting other ski towns, where the scenery and the energy is different and all of your friends are there for their kids. Majestic mountains still greeting you when you stumble out of your condo/hotel early morning to hustle said kids to the slopes.

But it is always good to come home, even if the boys need to re-adjust to the fact that, no they cannot ditch anymore school, and parents have to catch up on lost time with work.

To work, one must stay focused and not give in to the urge of skiing the mountains before they close; Buttermilk closed last Saturday, Snowmass and Aspen close this Sunday and Aspen Highlands closes on April 21st. People are getting after it with all of this DUMPING snow, except for me. No, not me, cuz I’m a full time working girl now, with my skis finally deeply grooved into the right track to success, and I’m not botching that up.

It’s good that I’m hunkered down on my ball chair in the basement, hovered over my computer like Schroeder over his piano. When I’m down here typing to the gentle ticking of our water meter, I can’t watch the big, white flakes slowly fall outside my window and get tempted to hop into my snow pants and flee to the powder.

Success can kill ya though if you’re not careful, and then what? You’ll find that all that money you are making gets dumped into lower lumbar restoration. It’s all about a happy balance. I have been getting made fun of by my witty friends, “Jilly3, once playing to work and now working to play”. But I’ll be the one laughing all the way to the bank…HA HA HA.

It’s tough though, I tell ya. Fitting it all in. And then add three boys who ignore me half the time but battle over me when it is time for bed. From some deep reservoir I strum up energy for those precious moments when stories are shared, until Baddy comes down to end it.

The thing is, living in a place like this, even if you don’t have the chance to always be outside, the beauty and the magic seeps its way in to you, usually when the weather is moody and the scenery is accentuated by a beautiful song playing in the background. Driving downvalley last night at 8:30pm, after the Aspen Valley Ski Club’s Award banquet, Aspen was encased in low lying snow clouds but as we drove West down the highway the clouds lifted and nestled between the silhouetted mountains of the canyon, giant black tufts outlined in golds and reds against the fading spring light, Rihanna and Mickky Ekko’s song, Stay, blaring through the speakers. And an undefinable rush went through my body and an understanding that this is where we belong and that I am right to keep my skis in those grooves and keep on chugging along so that we can stay here.