Dylan Stafford

We took our boys for their first time snow skiing today. Two hours into the mountains. Seven hours of skiing. Two hours back to the house. Sitting here now to write. Tired.

Why write?

Because it was a beautiful day, created by my wife, full of magical moments with my boys.

Because I love the mountains and nature and weather.

Because I will forget. If I don’t take these moments to write, the majesty of today will fade. So this time at the keyboard, to say thank you for a day in my life like today.

The top 10 moments:

10. That today even happened at all.

My wife Marisa came up with this idea on Friday of skiing on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday.

9. Getting to do this.

We’ve lived in California 20 years. Yet this is the first time we’ve taken advantage of the ability to ski, 91 miles from our driveway.

8. My son Jackson voting for “no lessons”.

This weekend, when Marisa told the boys about our plan to go ski, and suggested they take lessons, Jackson (14) was quick with a counter-offer: “We’ll watch YouTube videos and you all can teach us. And besides, I have physics on my side. I can calculate the coefficient of gravity…” [Jackson’s taking freshman physics, but his real major is Tik Tok. That’s his information channel.]

Christian (9) was more ambiguous, but when we learned the lessons were sold out, he went along with “mom and dad school”.

7. The energy of going on a trip.

We all woke with the excitement of going on a trip. We fed the dogs and loaded the car and were out the door by 8:22am.

6. No traffic.

5. The fun of getting the boots and the skis and the poles.

The clunky clompy walking and the swishy swishy sounds. Zippers everywhere and too many pockets. Seeing my boys experience it all for the first time.

4. The morning of “lessons” from mom and dad.

Over in the almost-flat practice area. Riding up the moving sidewalk. Gotta start somewhere. Falling. Frustrated. At one point, as I attempted to help Christian up, he ended up pulling me over. Really frustrated. “I don’t like skiing!” “That’s ok. Nobody likes skiing the first day. This is the hardest day you’ll ever have skiing.” How being a parent turns you into a coach.

3. Hamburgers for lunch.

2. The afternoon, the second go at the slopes.

After the hamburgers. The second wind. “Let’s go on the chairlift.” Sitting next to Christian on his first-ever chairlift ride, his body electric as he took it in. Then the quiet as the chair floats up and away. The views. The heights. Seeing it all through his eyes. Then looking behind me at the next chair with Jackson next to Marisa.

1. They skied!

They did it. Each in their capacity, a nine-year old and a fourteen-year old each threw their body down the mountain and into the arms of gravity. For the rest of their life, they may ski a lot, a little, or none at all, but they will never have another first day of skiing.

They were in nature. They were with their parents and each other. They were learning to use their bodies to do something totally new. They were challenged and they fell and they got up. It was raining lightly in the morning. We were all slightly wet in various places with cold spots in our clothes. It was foggy in the afternoon but we made it a day. We had a glorious day and we did it as a family.

Singing in the rain, I’m singing in the rain, What a glorious feeling, I’m happy again.

My good night prayer, Après-ski:

Thank You God for today. Thanks for the chance to be a husband. Thanks for the chance to be a father. Thanks for the snow, for the trees, for the highways that took us there and back again. Thanks for the deepness of my sleep that I anticipate tonight from my tired legs and thankful heart. Thanks for this day we remember Dr. King and his message to dream, to dream of the better world that we can make together.