What I like the most about traveling is to come back home with a new set of life lessons that I’ve put inside my life's toolbox. I always carry that toolbox with me, since it has saved me in several important moments in my life.

Each trip I’ve made, has given me different life lessons; from knowing and understanding new cultures and ways of thinking, discovering new attributes in my children that I would never have done during our daily routine, to simply having patience at massive events or waiting several hours at an airport.

However during this Spring Break vacation, things were different, during this trip I learned a new lesson that I thought I had mastered, in addition to being very hackneyed: to enjoy the moment. Something so simple, but so difficult to remember and execute at the same time. Let me go back a little and tell you why.

After several months of planning, we were set to go on a family ski trip to Deer Valley in Utah. Deer Valley is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful mountains to ski in the United States, as it is an incredible ski resort with breathtaking slopes, so we were super excited. Also, we were very lucky to be leaving just before this Coronavirus craze broke out in the United States.

The first day of our ski trip was very intense since my children had Ski School all day and I took a three-hour ski class that helped me correct my technique but left me exhausted afterwards.

On the second day, we all went skiing together since early morning until we were the last ones to ski down that beautiful mountain. For those of you that have gone skiing before, you know how physically strenuous this sport can be and since we were all so tired, that evening we decided to give ourselves a day off the next day to start with more strength and energy on the fourth day.

However, that night, the news began to bombard us with more and more information about the COVID-19 virus and all the measures that were being taken nationally and internationally. My chats were saturated with panic messages about how cleaning products were sold out in supermarkets and for some strange reason, toilet paper too.

It was then when my husband suggested that we did not take the next day off, he thought it was very probable that Deer Valley was going to close the mountain very soon and that we should make the most out of it before that happened.

With a lot of skepticism that they would close the mountain since all the coronavirus chaos was just beginning, we decided to go skiing for a third consecutive day.

Despite not being the best day weather wise, it was a wonderful day we'll never forget.

I discovered that my ten-year-old son can still be amazed by adventures as incredible as skiing while it’s snowing and also how intense it is to ride the top of the mountain in a lift during a snowstorm since you can feel how each and every snowflake hits that little space of your face that you did not covered properly. To ski down the mountain with all my family beside me with snowflakes showering our faces, knowing that maybe that was our last day of skiing, made it super special.

Now that two of my children are teenagers, on this trip we also discovered that we no longer have to always be together as when they were younger. We discovered that each of us has different needs and that we can satisfy them without hurting anyone’s feelings. While one part of the family went skiing on some slopes with bumps, another went to enjoy a delicious hot chocolate in the cafeteria.

When we finished skiing, for dinner we had a delicious and well-deserved pizza at a small restaurant in Park City. While we were in the restaurant, we found out that the mountain had decided that evening to close indefinitely and that news fell on our shoulders like a bucket of cold water. The next day we went back to return our equipment and to see the empty slopes and lifts made everything so real and sad.

From one moment to the next, our vacation was over. It was then and there that I understood how no one has their future guaranteed, how we were very lucky to have been able to enjoy three days skiing together and how important it had been to have enjoyed it to the fullest since the fun had ended earlier than expected.

We never know for sure when an incredible experience will end. It’s impossible to know what the future will hold for us and returning to revisit the past is a waste of time. That is why today, I put in my toolbox the importance of truly living in the present and enjoying every second of our existence since we never know when this moment in which we are now, will change, end or simply transform.

Carpe Diem!

Once everything goes back to normal, I highly recommend visiting the Sun and Ski Sports store on Westheimer. There you’ll be able to find the NILS ski clothing line which is made for women by women. I loved the brand because besides having very cool designs, all the clothes are very comfortable and sporty.

Visit Sun & Ski Sports online where you’ll find an incredible end of the season sale on many brands including NILS apparel.

Hopefully life goes back to normal soon and we can all plan our next ski trip.

Many thanks to Sun & Ski Sports for this incredible collaboration.

Outfit provided by NILS and Sun & Ski Sports