An ill-fated day of skiing

In mid January we decided to do a family trip to the Black Forrest for a little skiing. Sam usually goes a few times a year with a friend. Until now, I've stayed at home with Elly. It sounded nice for all of us to go this time. We were going to meet some friends there and I figured Elly would enjoy the sledding at the bottom of the hill. We thought Elly might stay with our friends while Sam and I did a run together. Well...it turned out nothing like that and by the time we left I remembered why I stay home with Elly while Sam goes skiing.

The hill Sam skis at is about 1 1/2 hours away, but I think it took us closer to 3 (or more) hours to get there this particular day. We never seem to get out of the house when we think we will since having a toddler just throws all plans out the window. We were on the road for about 10 minutes when Elly announced that she had to go potty. Ok...no big deal. We had thought ahead and packed her little potty chair in the trunk, so we pulled over and got her settled on the front seat.

Under the best of circumstances it takes her awhile to go potty. Sitting in the car on her potty chair with so many buttons within her reach was too much fun so it was taking even longer. Meanwhile, Sam was standing out in the cold because the back seat was full of snow gear and there was no room for him to sit. After 10 minutes or so we decided she must be done and got her settled back in her car seat, packed the potty chair (that had NOTHING in it) away, got settled back in the car and were on our way again.

We knew we were running late when we left the house and now we knew for sure we would be late meeting our friends, but we were on the way again and all was fine...for the next 30 minutes. At that time, Elly announced she really needed to go potty again. We thought about ignoring it, but figured that would be much worse in the long run, so Sam found a place to pull off the side of the road and we got her settled in the front seat again.

Once again it was too much fun for Elly to just get down to business and use the potty. She played and played and played while Sam and I froze outside. It got to the point where I was going to get in to warm up, but I opened the door and realized right away that she had indeed gone potty and the entire car smelled of it. I decided I could handle the cold a little longer, but encouraged Elly to finish up because we really needed to get going. This meant nothing to Elly who was having a blast bouncing on her potty chair, looking at herself in the mirror and pushing every button in sight.

At some point I thought she must be finished so I told Elly she was done and I started getting her off the potty. That's when I realized that her bouncing on the potty had smeared poop all over her bottom and her potty chair AND, wouldn't you know, I was running low on wipes. I did my best and got her cleaned up and dressed and back in her car seat then cleaned up the front seat (so thankful they are leather seats!) Sam had the delightful job of cleaning up the potty chair....bless his heart :)

So, we were on our way again. We were about 30 minutes from the ski hill when Elly decided she needed to go potty again. I didn't think she had gone much at the last stop so I was kind of expecting another stop at some point. This time we found a gas station to stop at. That was much better, but Elly decided once we were in the bathroom that she didn't really need to go. So, we got back in the car and headed out again.

We finally made it to the ski hill around the time we had planned to be heading home. It was very windy and cold and I realized right away that Elly and I were not dressed for the weather. Neither of us have good snow boots so we just put on a couple pairs of socks and wore our rain boots, thinking that would keep us warm enough. It didn't.

Once I got Elly dressed in her snowsuit, boots, coat, hat and gloves she then told me she needed to go potty again. So, off to the restaurant bathroom we went. I hate public bathroom under the best of circumstances, but this one was even worse. It was stinky and dirty. While getting Elly's gear off I did my best to keep it from touching the floor. Then she sat on the potty for e.v.e.r. By the time I got everything back on her without having her touch the floor (a real stunt I might add) I was seriously ready to head home. I felt bad for Sam, but I was so done with this trip. Elly and I were already freezing and it just seemed to continue going downhill.

Sam wanted to get at least one run in, so Elly and I headed to the car to warm up while he went on his one run with James. When he got back to the car he said he wanted to take Elly for a couple of rides on the sled, so they headed up the little hill. They got a couple of sled runs in and then we headed home. Over all, the day was kind of a bust, but at least I got a couple of pictures. (of course, I did :) ) So, here is our day of skiing in a few pictures.