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Monday, January 20, 2014

16 years has gone quickly....

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  We did!  Our soon to be 16 year old had requested that for his birthday we take him and some buddies up skiing.  Now for some background.  Every year around the time of our sons birthday, Jeff has a conference to go to.  Now this conference usually takes place in a warm, amazing location.  I don't know about you, but by the end of January, I am ready for a visit to a warm location.  We always give Keagan the choice to go with us or not.  This year, he chose to stay home (his grandparents are coming in to stay with him) because he didn't want to have to deal with all the homework this generates.  Which is fine, we can celebrate his birthday before we go (which we did this weekend).  However, this year, I'm kind of hating to leave him behind.  Not enough that I'm not going to go on the trip, mind you.  But, I'm still feeling bad about leaving him.  Maybe it's because it is his 16th birthday.  Maybe it's because I know that he'll be off at college soon and our time together is short.  But, I'm feeling a wee bit of guilt.  Just a wee bit.

Anyway, back to this weekend.  We told him he could invite 3 friends to join us.  Now, there's something you have to realize about his friends, they are HUGE!  I mean it. The shortest of the three is 5'10" with the tallest being 6'4".  And, they are eating machines!  They can make food disappear at an alarming rate.  But this is how Keagan wanted to celebrate, so we started planning out the details.  We arranged to stay at a cottage at a resort that is about an hour and a half away from the ski resort because of some connections my husband has (translation-- the stay is almost free and this cottage has 6 bedrooms and bathrooms).  My wonderful husband jumped online and handled the ski passes and renting of equipment for those who did not have their own.

I pick up the huge boys on Friday and proceed to try and stuff 4 BIG teenagers, plus two adults, plus ski equipment, plus luggage, plus food into my medium sized SUV.  We made it, but needless to say I couldn't see the boys that were stuffed into the 3rd row.  I kept yelling back to them to make sure they were still alive. And we were off.  My lovely husband had also arranged dinner reservations for us on the way up at one of my favorite little farm to table restaurants.

The boys wolfed down large quantities of food (even eating what I could not finish).  No food was wasted with this crew!  We enjoyed dinner and then drove to our destination for the evening.  The thing that made me giggle the most was how thrilled they were over the complementary robes that were provided in each room.  These big teenage boys quickly put them on and settled down to play the xbox.  I wish you could have seen their faces and heard their joy.

They had a great time skiing the next couple of days!  Even though it was cold (the high on Saturday was a balmy 10 degrees), there was fresh snow.  Every evening we sat around a table for dinner and they shared their funny stories of everything that had happened to them that day on the slopes.  We laughed and teased each other and had a great time.  We giggled at one of the boys who went to go off of a jump and instead did a face plant (he was fine).  We laughed as they told the story of how one of them hit a barrier beside one jump and ended up planting his ski through the barrier (he was also fine).   And a great time was had by all.  Even me, who opted to spare my  45 year old body some pain, and sit inside the lodge and read a book.

And, I have to tell you.  These young men impressed me!  They made sure no one was left behind.  They looked out for each other and for others on the slopes who were having a hard time.  They all got along, even at the end of the day when they were tired beyond belief.  They were very appreciative of the trip and expressed their appreciation.

I know that we often hear of all the things that this generation is doing wrong.  But let me tell you, there are many amazing, gifted, talented, kind, smart, imaginative, funny, and flat out fun young people out there.  I enjoyed observing these fantastic young guys who are well on their way to becoming amazing young men!

So the next time you hear about how bad this generation is,  take a look at those  around you and observe for yourself.  My guess is that if you take the time to spend some time with them, you too will see some young people with very bright futures ahead of them!

I'll leave you with a few throw back photos of my kiddo and a couple more recent ones.  Where did the time go?
































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