Kosciusko Summit

Our last day a the park dawned clear and perfect so we decided to tackle the tallest peak in Austalia -- Mt. Koscuisko. The hike is rather long (13 km) but not very steep because you start the hike by riding a quad chairlift up Mt. Thredbo. I must admit that I was a little reluctant after the Perisher fiasco but the boys really, really, REALLY wanted to go to the summit after a ranger told them there was still snow up there.

There was a large snow field about 1 km from the summit and we had to stop and throw some snowballs:

And have a good slide:

Nik was really funny. The whole hike up he kept talking about everything he was going to do in the snow - he was going to build a snowman, throw snowball, and go sledding. As soon as we got to the snow he ran up and grabbed a handfull. He immediately dropped it, turned to me, and with a tone of utter betrayal in his voice said, "Mom! It's wet! And cold!"
Umm... DUH. What did he expect. It's snow.

The boys reached the summit and were very excited to be standing at the tippy top of Australia.

At the summit they ate a well deserved snack.

For me this was a particularly poignant moment. I have lost so much of the past 2 years to CFS... Seeing the boys go off on adventures that I couldn't join has been hard but over the past 9 months I have slowly been getting stronger and stronger... so I felt particularly triumphant standing at the top of Australia. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. I still get days when I can barely function but those days are getting fewer and farther apart. And I am starting to have my own adventures again:

How do you like my new Aussie hat?