We sauntered into the kitchen, and I asked what we should make. Desi suggested scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon. Simple, just like her mom. I gathered all the ingredients from the fridge and showed her how to crack and scramble the eggs, but she seemed more keen on being my cheerleader rather than actually helping. It’s all good, though. I’ll get her cooking one of these days.
When I finished, she started to run out of the room, saying she was going to wake Sophia, but I caught her before she got too far. Her mommy had quite the night and needs the rest, heh. We ate pretty quickly but lingered at the table in hopes Sophia would join us. I hadn’t talked to Dub in a while, so I called for a quick chat and to wish him an early Merry Winterfest.
Life has been kinda crazy for him, too. Tami started school, his father-in-law moved in next door, and now their cat died. Tami is taking it pretty hard. Maia too, since it was hers. I gave our pets age-down treats a while ago to avoid that pain, but I know we can’t escape it forever. I can only hope, when the time comes, my Desi will be strong. When things calm down, I’ll have to ask him how he handled it with Tami.
Sophia finally got up and joined us just as I wrapped up my phone call. Desiree bolted out of her chair and lunged toward Sophia.
“Mommy, I made breakfast!!”
Sophia gasped.
“You did? That’s wonderful, sweetie! It looks soooo good.”
“Thank yoooou!”
I side eyed her so hard.
“Are you for real?”
She was overcome with a fit of giggles, and I could do nothing but laugh and shake my head at her.
She may not have helped me cook, but she washed the dishes, which I thoroughly thanked her for.
I checked the weather forecast for the day, and the temperature concerned me. It was much too cold to go hiking, and who knows how much colder it’ll be on the mountain, so I decided we’d stay inside and enjoy the house today. Sophia was definitely onto something with all her luxury rental choices. I always said she was smarter than me.
Desiree ran off to the living room to watch cartoons, and Sophia hopped in the shower, so I went upstairs to see if my non-existent art skills had improved at all. I tried painting for the first time with Maira at the romance festival and quickly realized I did not inherit gammy’s skills. But I had nowhere to go and not much else to do, so I gave it a shot. Who knows… I could have inherited her skills and they’ve just been dormant until now, heh.
My painting was looking pretty damn good, if I may say so. Maybe there was something to these alleged dormant skills. Even if it’s not true, I really enjoyed doing it. Something about starting with an empty canvas and watching something come together was really nice. I even enjoyed the sound of the brush strokes sweeping across the tarp. The whole situation was rather soothing. No wonder gammy loved it so much. I might continue doing this for my own well being.
Desi’s hurried footsteps echoed in the stairwell, and I knew my relaxation was about to come to an end.
“Are we going to the mountain today?”
“I don’t think so, hon. It’s super cold out there.”
“But-“
Sophia’s presence interrupted us.
“Oh…you paint now?”
“No? I have no clue. I’m just trying it.”
“It looks good.”
“Yeah, it surprised me, too.”
“Why can’t we go to the mountain?” Desiree asked.
“I told you,” I said. “It’s too cold.”
“But it was cold when we went to the park, too!”
“What park?” Sophia asked.
“When I took them to the football thing in Copperdale.”
“I mean, you had to know it was gonna be cold when you visit Mt. Komorebi in winter,” Sophia said.
Of course I knew that. I’m not a dunce. I just… Frankly, I wasn’t even thinking about the weather. I had hiking and snowboarding and sledding with my child on the brain.
“We can get snowsuits,” she added. “If we don’t go today, we’re gonna be forced to forgo one of our activities on the last day.”
They both made good points, and we all know my rationale was rubbish, so I agreed to a day of snow fun. We all got dressed and stopped by the vacation gear kiosk in Senbamachi on the way. Sophia and Desiree got matching purple snow suits, and they were so adorable. If I had a son, would he want to dress like me? Or is that a girl thing? Neither I nor Desiree wanted to wear helmets, but Sophia insisted we be safe. I told her we were going to stay on the bunny slope where the babies go sledding. Still, she insisted. Since nothing would change her mind, I made sure my outfit was on point even though I’d still look like goober in a helmet on the bunny slope.
Sophia wasn’t keen on sledding, so Desi and I trekked up the hill to get in line. When it was our turn, we walked toward a lane. Desi tugged on my coat.
“Daddy, I wanna go fast!”
Sophia will have our heads if we tried anything dangerous. But what’s the point of coming all the way to Mt. Komorebi without having a little adventure? We’ve got the helmets. Let’s live a little!
“I got you,” I said to her.
I skipped over the lane we were about to go down and opted for one with obvious bumps in it. Nothing too crazy, but it would definitely spice things up a bit.
“Hold on very tight,” I said.
“Let’s go, Daddy! I wanna go!”
I kicked us off slowly so we wouldn’t have crazy momentum when we hit the bump. When we got there, we hit it ever so slightly, and our sled went flying. Desiree’s exhilarated screams filled the air. Unfortunately, it also got Sophia’s attention, and I saw her panicking at the bottom of the hill.
Our flight lasted a little longer than we anticipated, however, and gravity caught up with us. The sled fell from under us, and Desi wasn’t holding on. She screamed, and I panicked. I thought for sure we’d end up crashing.
But, as gravity does, we eventually dropped back down onto the sled as it made its final descent before it made contact again. We recovered and realized it wasn’t scary at all.
We continued barreling down the hill without anymore incidents and got off the sled.
“You okay?” I asked.
“That was awesome!”
