Three Bethany families received their referrals yesterday on April Fool’s Day.
Two one-month old infants – a boy and a girl, and a 5 year old girl will soon make the huge transition to their new families who have been eagerly waiting.
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Hannah was the prankster yesterday – setting the dinner table with plastic kiddie plates and cups for the whole family. She switched around the bags of cereal so Mommy would get Cheerios instead of Honey Bunches of Oats…
Her face beamed as she was waiting for the prank to play itself out. What a cutie!
We were driving home a couple of days ago. Ellie said, “Hey, Mama!”
She sounded really excited as if something had just occurred to her.
“I’m still 3!”
Now, I’ve been surprised by my age lately…but she doesn’t have anything to worry about!
This is a new term to me. Well not now, now that I have experienced one…
Today it dumped about 3 inches on the ground in the 30 minutes I was in the grocery store. I had to load up kids and groceries into my van in “white out” conditions while hearing the rumble of thunder and seeing flashes of lightning. It was surreal to us – the snow was tiny pellets and very dry. Not anything like the slushy, icy stuff I am used to. The temperature wasn’t even that fierce but the wind was crazy.
My great solace was that I was less than 5 minutes from home!
He might be turning 35 next week…
He might work his tail off all week in a job he loves (generally) in order to provide for his family…
But my husband is the biggest kid when it comes to living here near the mountains. He is a kid and the mountains are his playground.
He took us skiing in Keystone on Sunday. Hannah and Ellie attended ski school for the day. Ryan took me down a green – my very first run except for the couple of times I’ve been down the bunny slopes. I am the first to admit that there were several factors working against me. I’m pretty old to be learning a new skill such as this and I am the first to admit that “great athlete” – or even “meager athlete” – has never been synonomous with the name Gina Hale. But, I love everything about skiing. The crisp, clear air, the powdery snow, the relaxed look on everyone’s face just to be in a place where God’s glory is glowing. I love riding the lifts and the gondola taking in the scenery for miles around and watching the skiers below. I just hope that I will learn to love the actual sport of skiing…
I gave the meaning to the term “snail’s pace” as I made my way down the mountain. I was very inefficient and wore myself out completely because I insisted on keeping my skis in the “pizza wedge” position instead of relaxing a bit. Ryan was very encouraging and patient – moreso than I think I would have been. He would turn around and smile and encourage me and resisted every temptation to laugh when I fell, ran into a pine tree, or just stood there trying catch my breath (literally, we were at 11, 000 feet) or gain my composure. I wore out early and he took off and went on several more trails and lifts actually making his way around most of the mountain.
The other highlight was how well Hannah did in ski school. I showed up about an hour early to watch how the girls were doing. Hannah was going up the lift by herself and coming down a “gentle green” with a huge smile on her face as she swished through the snow. The couple of times I saw her fall, she popped right back up on her skis and continued. Her instructor was very encouraging about her day. When she was dismissed from class, she immediately asked her Dad to go up with her – and then asked again and again until the lift closed. He was as pleased as punch – but pretty darn worn out at this point!
Finally, we took the girls up on a gondola to about 12,000 to see the view. We enjoyed a snack in the lodge and by the time we were ready to head back down, the gondolas were closed due to high winds and we had to ride back down in a regular lift. I was pretty wide eyed at this point, but everyone settled in – Ryan had a tight hold on Ellie – and we enjoyed a glorious ride down the mountain…it was way more fun than the gondola!
