Fun, redefined

We're back from Vermont. Requisite complaint about the trip home: It took us ten hours, and the kids fought for approximately one-third of the way. They took turns hitting, poking and otherwise maiming each other. Good times. I told them that I was going to call The Kid Police. Then I pretended to do so on my cell phone. "If they don't stop fighting, you're going to need to come get them," I said, which only made the kids giggle. Except then we stopped at a pizza store and a cop walked in. You should have seen the OMG look on Sabrina's face.

Other than the car drama, our trip to Stowe was amazing. I got a lot of alone time with Max because Dave hit the slopes, Sabrina begged to go to ski school three days in a row, Max bailed on the adaptive skiing and me and my partially-torn ACL decided to not ski. So Max and I perfected our skills at being ski lodge bunnies and I must say, we were exceptionally good at it. Like, gold-medal good.

At first, I was bummed that Max wasn't into the adaptive skiing. He kinda-sorta liked the lesson he took last year through Vermont Adaptive Skiing when we were at Sugarbush, but this year, he wasn't having any of it. He wailed when we left him with the instructor at Stowe Mountain Resort. Cynthia was lovely; she'd been trained in working with disabled people. "Give him time! Go get yourselves a cup of coffee," she told us. So Dave and I reluctantly trudged away. A half hour later, a ski school person came to get us. "He's not into it," she said. We found a sniveling Max with Cynthia in the locker area. We took him to get hot chocolate, and then he was back to his usually happy self.

The truth was, having hot chocolate with us was Max's idea of fun. So was exploring the two hotels we stayed at, hitting the game room, eating spaghetti (and more spaghetti)...

...checking out purple snowboards...

...observing a hotel piano player...

...running back and forth across a covered bridge, and wearing the scarf 24/7 that he picked up on his purple shopping spree. We did some other activities he totally got a kick out of, more on them tomorrow; it's amazing how zonked I am from doing nothing but sitting in a car all day long.

When we headed to Vermont, I couldn't wait for Max to try adaptive skiing again. I thought he might really enjoy it this year, and I also wanted him to experience the same thrills kids have on the slopes. Then again, I've realized, lots of so-called typical kids don't particularly like to ski, and neither does Max—for now, anyway. "Adaptive" activities are an opportunity for kids with disabilities, not a requisite for trying to experience life like other kids do.

Max's idea of fun is Max's idea of fun.