“Uh oh”, I said, “I see medics over there.”


“Yeah”, Dad yelled over the sound of the snow makers, “We should ski down that hill and check it out” My family and I were all on a mountain in the bitterly cold New York winter for vacation.


Just two days before we had been sitting in the van, so exited to get to New York to go skiing on the bigger mountains (to us). The family had left the day after school got out for Christmas break. All of us piled in the van packed with warm clothes, and clothes to walk around the town of Lake Placid in. That same night we arrived in New York. First, we went to our hotel and dropped of our stuff. Then, as a family, we walked around the town to find something to eat.


Upon awaking the next morning, we decided to go to different Olympic areas. First, we went to the ice skating rink, then the ski jump hill, and after that, the luge and bobsled hill. Then we walked around town shopping for souvenirs. After shopping for souvenirs, we all went back to the hotel and then left again to go out to eat. I was much exited because we were going to eat Chinese, which I love. That night my oldest brother got sick. He was pretty upset because he knew we were skiing the next three days and he was going to miss at least the first day.


“Finally!” I thought. We were headed to the mountain to go skiing. I was kind of upset because Spencer wasn’t with us. After we drove to the mountain, we all got out and quickly slopped on our snow gear and grabbed our ski goggles. We purchased lift passes for three days. I had barely noticed the sign that said “No Refunds”. After getting our ski boots on, and skis and poles, we trudged our way to the first ski lift we decided to go up. We all went down that hill a few times for a few warm up runs, then we split up, so we could try different hills. Dad, my brother , and I all were doing a medium level family hill. We went down once, and me being in second grade, decided immediately that we should go down again. Deciding quickly, Dad agreed.


The three of us got on the lift to go up the hill a second time. We were halfway up when I saw medics on the hill we were repeating. Finally, our chair got to the top. Anxious to see what the medics were there for, we all dismounted and headed for the hill that had the medics halfway down. Carefully, we skied down the hill, incase there were people down on the other side of the turns. Cutting left and right, feeling the breeze, that’s why we went. When we got to the medics, we all gasped. We could see my sister sitting there, just staring, and then, we looked on the stretcher, and saw my mom. I was so scared. Being professionals, the medics wanted everybody away. More carefully than before, we skied to the bottom. I was petrified the rest of the way down from what I had seen.


Rushing, we went to the hospital. We beat the ambulance there, so we played cards. While we were there my sister, told us what happened. “The hill was a little icy”, she said, “So mom was going down carefully and slowly. Then this lady came down and ran over her on her skis.” We all got the story and waited until we could visit mom. When we could finally visit her, we found out that she had a broken rib, a hole in her lung, and messed up vertebrae.


The next day, we all went back to the ski place (but mom, of course, who was in the hospital still) to get a refund. The guys at the ski place were actually pleasant and quickly gave us a refund, even though there was a sign that said no refunds. After that, we hurried back to the hospital to visit her. After visiting hours, we went out to eat. The day after, dad decided to take us kids out so we didn’t worry too much. My oldest brother, my sister, and Dad all went bobsledding. Then we all ate lunch. After lunch, we visited mom. Mom said we didn’t have to spend all our time with her, so that night we went Ice skating.


After that, all of us packed quickly to get out of the hotel before checkout. We had only booked the room for the time we expected to stay, and we exceeded that, so we moved to a different hotel. The next few days was the same routine visit mom, eat out, and do something fun. Finally, on Christmas Eve, she was released from the hospital. Quickly, we drove to the hotel, packed and left for home.


On the way home, we stopped often for mom. There was a zero percent chance of snow in Indiana so we hightailed it home stopping only for her, trying to make it in time for Christmas. We made it home at about one a.m. on the morning of Christmas. I was upset due to not having bought anyone gifts yet, but excited that the whether men were wrong and we got the most snow since I could ever remember.


Late Christmas morning, I was exited for all the gifts, the snow, and being home, but sad for my mom, who you could tell was in pain.