I brought hot water heater and canteens into the room so
I can have hot water without waking up anyone at 5 am in the morning. The
kettle in the kitchen tasted like iron melted lead. I hydrated myself with 2
cups of water. I plugged the heater in the restroom and drank it in there to
keep the noise level down as the girls slept in the room.
For breakfast I had lentil soup from a can and two slices
of bread with marinara sauce. The men shoveled snow this morning at 6am with
total determination of rolling out wheels to get to the slopes. The snow plower
for the road came last night. It created a mountain of snow on the driveway
that we had to dig out of in order to move the car.
The girls got up and marveled at their beautiful
nails. They were the last to wake up. They
had fun as sisters to pick out things to wear and how to wear it. It’s
fun to watch kids making everything fun. As
adults, sometimes we are so hung up on accomplishing a task that we don’t think
there is time or room to make it into a fun experience.
We rolled out at 8am on time. We
were at the lift ticket counter by 8:10am. The
Kimuras and O’Learys did not have season pass so they needed their day
ticket. By 8:30am we were all on lift chairs and the
parking lot was looking full on this day. All
the lifts were working on this -25 degree wind chill day. I
was cold again. The powder was abundant and fun to carve. It
was so cold my water in my hydration pack froze in the first hour. I
had to go to the restroom to defreeze my water so I can drink it. In
fact many people took refuge for warmth in the restroom too. 
The kids are super cute to watch on the slopes, all
bundled up. They are so cute, little snow bunnies. Ellie
is pretty good and Lena is good at keep up as a 5 year old. Lena
enjoyed laying on the snow and looking at the sky. I
had plans to ride with the boys but they just run through the slopes in
speed. So I did my own thing on the Mombo run, stopping to
do family thing when our paths cross.
I think this is my life and I live it. I
do my own thing and when our paths cross, I pause to join and return when we
come to the crossroad of parting.
We stopped at 11:30am at the California Lodge and made
sandwiches for lunch. Kotaro was quick in
getting back on the slopes. I ate until it was time
to go. I ended up eating 3 times more than usual for lunch
on the slopes. The rice crackers and chocolate almonds I packed
for snack to munch overlooking the view of the lake was just an awesome
enjoyable experience. Miki brought both of
those snacks and they were good quality food.
I finally found my ridding rhythm at 1pm. Yup,
I had to do the “Shut Up” mantra. When I found my rhythm,
the sun was out, I warmed up. By then
pretty much everyone was doing their own thing.
Heavenly is beautiful. I
enjoyed the sun. The cold was miserable with wind too on the
body. However for the eyes it was beautiful with dusty
snowflakes blowing in the air. With a bit of sun coming
through, the snowflakes looked like glittering gems falling from the sky, very
magical, very special, very beautiful, I feel so grateful for such moments.
I finally rolled to our street and it was an incline on ice and snow. All the vans with chains had trouble getting up back into our rental house. Wehn we arrived we noticed the chains were off track. They did not have bungy. We were not able to pull into our driveway because the street was plowed and we had another new mountain wall of snow blocking our driveway. 
The boys shovled so did the men. Our neighbor Chris with his two dogs came with his push snow removal and helped to plow our driveway flat so we can drive onto it. Chris also wanted us to know he had property for us to rent if we were interested.
Helen ran dinner tonight, hot pot. The boys jumped into the jacuzzi first, then the girls and then I did. The boys found the power jet button and it’s on high. I had a really good massage for my calf and foot. The water felt cool at 97 degrees. Making ice crystal and dropping snowballs in the pool will cool it down.
The stars came out tonight, sitting in a Jacuzzi surrounded by snow underneath starlit sky, life is good. Mars was red and bright and easy to spot with naked eyes. What a fun time. For dinner I microwaved udon and marinara sauce. I was offered a cup of water and somehow this cup of water was vodka. It’s a good thing I took a careful sip not a gulp. My face flushed, my eyes burned and swelled up. I handed my cup of special water back. I decided to see it as medicine for my body and not freak out or get upset and make a scene. I called it a night at 8pm.
