Terren and Koda. Sistahs.

ending February

we were headed to snowmass, colorado and it could not have been better timed. justin and lynn decide we're doing a family trek to BART for our 8 am flight out of SFO. we wake up at 5 am (getting 3 hours of sleep after late-night packing), put together all our bags, get our 5-year old and 2-year old ready to travel, and head out the door. we have 8 minutes to speed walk the 4 blocks to the BART station. terren is pushing tank in the stroller because tank is in a leg cast having broken her leg the previous week. dad has skis, a huge duffel (with 2 pairs of ski boots and terren's skis), and a big computer commuter bike bag. and mom has 2 roller bags and a backpack. for a family of four ski trip, we traveled light.

it's pitch black outside, no cars to be seen anywhere, we haul ass and make it to the station blazing hot and sweating with 30 seconds to spare as the fremont train arrives. once on, justin and i tear off multiple layers of clothing and get out the 2 bowls of porridge we had prepared for the kids' breakfast. less than ten stops later, we have to transfer cars. that's easy and it's smooth sailing to SFO. as we near the bart exit to pay, lynn feels around and asks justin, "where is my purse?" she knows that it's missing. panic arises. we can barely pay attention to our kids and what they're doing, and start problem solving right away. although lynn is certain it's not back on the car we just walked off, justin goes to doublecheck and lynn heads to the BART attendants. upon sharing her story, they call the fremont BART station. fortunately (and unbelievably), a good samaritan has turned in her purse. unforuntately, the attendant informs us that there is no way to get the purse at the fremont station and make it back in time for the flight. we're trying to think through every possibility of getting the purse (via friends in fremont, etc.). justin finally says, "here are our options: 1) try to get us all on the flight, 2) if you can't get on, i'll go with the 2 kids and you can catch a later flight…" sounds like a plan. we head to united and talk to the lady standing around the check in area. she tells us that united won't care; it's about getting past TSA. we roll our dice. 

we arrive to the TSA podium, tell them our situation and the TSA manager asks us whether we have any 2 pieces of documentation that have my name on it: a bill, a checkbook, a credit card, anything. justin pulls up the scans on his computer of lynn's passport but they won't take anything electronic. everything is in lynn's purse and we can't come up with anything. he tells us that he'll have to do a check on me and it'll take about 20 minutes, which we calculate makes us that much closer to missing the flight. in the meantime, justin is looking for anything else that might have my name on it. frantically searching, he happens upon lynn's macbook air, which he had put into a used bubble-lined envelope that was originally addressed to lynn. he has found one. a couple minutes later, justin realizes he has tank's birth certificate (for proof of birth) which also has lynn's name on it. it also happens to be the one that justin stayed up until 1 am pulling an argo. 

tank was turning 2 years old during the course of our trip. we bought the tickets with her as a lap infant assuming that it would be fine as long as she wasn't 2 before starting the trip….but then we got to wondering. lynn didn't want to check into it and wanted to just play dumb on the return flight and/or hope nobody would check; justin went to read the small print and learned that the rules are clear. if a child turns 2 during a trip, you must buy a ticket for the return flight. so the night before we left, justin took tank's birth certificate and changed her birthdate to five days later. the forgery was impeccable. as we're standing in front of TSA security, he pulls out the forged birth certificate as another proof of lynn's name. we yell towards the TSA manager that we have 2 items. a few minutes later, a TSA person comes by, looking at both items. as she scrutinizes the birth certificate by waving it under the black light, we hold our breath. she lets Lynn through, does a full body pat down, and we make it to our gate right after they finished pre-boarding. we couldn't believe we made it.

for all the stress of arriving, it was counterbalanced with a splendid trip with friends, family, and so much fun. lynn has not felt so refreshed in at least a few years. why? we got to enjoy beautiful views of the mountains, swim and hottub in the snow and snowfall, ski in 9 inches of fresh powder, watch olympics, tell stories in the race for the gold medal of dysfunctional family olympics, play hilarious games, snow bike and sled and watch fire dancers at ULLR nights, take workout classes, read trashy magazines, stay away from planning and working, eat yummy food, walk and shuttle bus instead of drive, and celebrate the birthday buddies, Opa and Tank. Kids built snow forts and played their own giggling game of mad libs at dinner and ducked in the loft. 

terren managed to ski through 2 full yard sales - once sticking her skis straight into powder, ejecting herself out of both skis, head over heels into the powder and landing with a helmet face full of powder; and another tumbling head over heels down the slope. she also managed to stay alive while skiing full speed out of control within 2 feet of a tree trunk and swiping off the lower branches with her helmet. even Justin was freaked out. thanks to Oma and Opa for sharing their beautiful condo with our friends and also being there to cheer Terren on in her first day of black diamond runs (plus those moguls she loves)! yaaah!

Oma and Opa cheer Terren on for her first runs on black diamonds.