Our annual pilgrimage to Mammoth Mountain begins today with a five-hour road trip up to the Eastern Sierras. The excitement has been mounting all week and no one is more excited than Cole. He loves vacations like this where the day is filled with a defined activity – skiing all day in this case and ends with a group evening – dinner for 24 each night qualifies! Six families coming together for a weekend of snow fun!
We’re stocked up with lots of different playlists on Spotify and a pile of programming he can watch on the DVD player in the van, which will leave him pretty content during the whole drive. Cole does really well on long drives when we prepare well! The nice thing about having him enjoying a movie or favorite show is that it gives my husband and I a chance to chat uninterrupted or censored for hours – a rarity in our daily lives.
My husband is barbeque obsessed (he spent two summers perfecting his rub and baby back ribs and is now focusing on perfecting Texas style brisket) and my mom, ever supportive of his passion, forwarded a blurb about a great barbeque joint that’s on the way to Mammoth so he’s already planning our lunch. I’m hoping we can rope one or two of the other families driving up to meet us. Road trips are definitely more fun when you bump into familiar faces!
Cole is beyond excited to ski again. This will be his third year skiing with Disabled Sports Eastern Sierra (DSES), a volunteer based sports program that accommodates needs of all kinds. We’ve been inspired by there program where blind skiers are able to confidently zoom down the mountain and kids like Cole joyfully bounce over moguls in their bucket skis. It’s amazing.
The evenings are casual but festive with all of the families dining together. It’s a great end to the day and the mood is always high. It’s not hard to understand why Cole loves this kind of vacation…
(Last year’s gaggle of happy kids)
I love your brain 
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