HI-BER-NATE

While reading a "Highlights for Kids" magazine this morning....

Me: Buddy, did you know that bears sleep all winter?

James: That's called hibernate. Did you know that Mommy?

This from the kid who puts on his underwear inside out.

Picky Eater No Longer

On the last day of our trip to Snowmass (last mention of it, I swear!), we went out to lunch and found ourselves begging, cajoling, and negotiating with James to get him to eat some chicken nuggets. CHICKEN. NUGGETS. Oh, what horrible parents - asking him to eat such gruel!

I decided right there (and said aloud), "we are done with James' special meals." The day we got home, I started making one dinner - for all of us. I figured we'd likely spend just as much time getting him to eat a crab cake or pork tenderloin as we would anything else...

And so this brings us to night #2:

James: (referring to a piece of rotini pasta with a bit of spinach and broccoli on it):

"Can someone please get this vitamin off my noodle?"

Lifesavers

I am a liar. You didn't think we could spend 13 (!) days in Snowmass and not have a couple of stories, right?

How did we do it? How did we get stuck in a luxurious slope-side condo at JUST THE RIGHT TIME? How did we basically extend a 9 (!) day vacation to 13 at little to no cost to us PLUS we didn't have to shovel snow back home, dig out a parking spot, or get stuck in an airport? Probably not clean livin' - I have just established that I am a liar.

I'll tell you...we saved lives.

There was, of course, some everyday lifesaving: the mere fact that we didn't run over ONE person the whole time we were there despite our lack of recent ski experience or proper headwear (probably should have worn helmets) = LIVES. SAVED.

The real deal, though - the moment that probably clinched our first TWO delayed flights - was the moment we were CRUISING down a blue and a VERY, VERY old lady (like 1,000) was laying on her side, one ski on, one about six feet downhill, waving her ski pole, saying "Can you help me? Can you please help me?" Of course we stopped (I like to think that Delta simultaneously cancelled our flight in that moment) and assessed the situation. She had just had a hip replacement, she hadn't skied in a long time and blah blah blah. We took our skis off, retrieved her wayward ski and tried to help her get back in business. At one point, she couldn't get her boot in the binding because she wouldn't put all of her weight on me. I was standing downhill and she thought it would be too much. Brian says, "Ma'am, we have two kids that total 50 pounds and my wife can carry them up three flights of stairs....at the same time. Go ahead and lean on her." She then puts ALL of her weight on me and says, "Oh, good for you!" So we get her back on track, she skies off, blessing us and thanking us profusely, and we get back in our gear and get on our way. NOT 50 feet later, she is stopped again, waving us down and asking us to call ski patrol. She cannot go on. Which we did (second flight cancelled) and they came and I hope she spent the rest of her trip by the fire with a good book and a hot toddy.

And then there was the lady getting off the "goose lift"...after Brian fell off his disc...basically blocking the entire dismount area. He yelled, "Whoa! Sorry! Look out!" and she DIDN'T fall over him and kill herself. See? LIFE. SAVED.

Atlanta (?!) gets snow and our third flight is cancelled.

Saving lives, people. Saving lives.

ps. Still waiting on our Honorary Ski Patrol/Sainthood Induction certificates....

The Lift to Nowhere

Ok, one last post about our ski trip. I promise.

Let's keep in mind that including this trip, Brian has skied TWICE in his whole life. I learned to ski when I was seven, we both snowboarded in college and the last time we skied (and the first time for Brian) was seven years ago - IN OUR TWENTIES.

We started the week eeking our way down some blue runs, Brian pausing at the top of each crest to survey what was below before taking on the terrain in long sweeping turns. It didn't take long for him to remember that he is, in fact, athletic, he does enjoy things that go FAST, and he would not be out-skied by his wife.

Flash forward to day two, with some confidence in his bindings (thanks to me!) - he suggests we ride on this:

for what seemed like 1,000 miles:

to get to this:

I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but that LITTLE disc (maybe 4" in diameter) goes BETWEEN your legs and you hold the pole in one hand and your own poles in the other. You are basically goosed all the way up the mountain.

Once you "exit the lift" (read: extricate the disc from your nether regions), you can go straight forward and fall off the back side of the mountain, you can take off your skis and take a little hike to some double black diamond runs, or you can turn left and take the longest, most peaceful blue run back down. Guess which one we chose? I am still alive to write this so that should be a hint.

Here's Brian, killin' it on day three:

I taught him that.

Headed Home Today...

... and not a moment too soon.

Snowmass Squatters

I think we just became Colorado residents... going on day 13 (!) here - our flight was cancelled AGAIN! We are now booked on tomorrow's flight (Saturday) through Salt Lake City to avoid the "record snowfall" in Atlanta (?!).

Oh, it's a rough life here. Trying to fill the days of our extended vacation... How do we do it, you ask? Well, Ski School is a big part of it. James loved it and ended up going for five days! Snowmass has a brand new state-of-the-art Treehouse Adventure Center (it is worth going to the link to see the virtual tour) just built last year. It's 25,000 square feet and they take kids as young as 8 weeks.

James was in the Big Burn Bears and they skied all day long with little breaks for hot chocolate and lunch. They learned to ski on a little hill just outside the Treehouse center.

Here's James taking the "magic carpet ride" to the top. (We are spying on him from far away - it's a no parents allowed situation).

We did take James skiing with us a couple times. He rode on his first chair lift and giggled himself down every hill.

Uh, next year he'll be working on "control."

Molly went to the "Butterfly" room with six other kids all her age and walking. They have a nap room, they take them on buggy rides and bundle them up to play in the snow.

She even did a little artwork on her first day.

Inside the Treehouse, there's a climbing room that James enjoyed every day before AND after ski school.

If that wasn't enough for one day, we would take the kids to the "Treat Barn" (a store called the Sweet Life housed in a literal red barn).

What did we do on our off days? There's a free gondola that takes you to the Village Mall for lunch...

We swam in the heated pool...

James made an "office" behind a chair in the living room...

This disconnected phone was a real hit...

James also had a "spaceship" in the bathtub. He spent a lot of time collecting supplies for his missions... (please note the phone)

Molly and James did this...

and James tried to teach Molly how to do a somersault.

Of course, there was plenty of time to let it all hang out...

I think the kids think we moved and we live here now.

Hmmmmm...

Overstaying Our Welcome....

Have you seen the news? Are you one of the many calling/emailing us to see if we "have everything we need? are we going stir crazy?" Well, we do have everything we need and we are not, in fact, going stir crazy..... because WE'RE NOT HOME!!!

We SHOULD be in DC right now. Our original flight home was yesterday (Tuesday). I would be blogging about all the fun adventures we HAD during our big trip to Snowmass, CO, but DC won't let us come home. We're snowed OUT. Delta will not bring us home until Friday!

Instead, we are still in Snowmass (a location where folks are usually snowed IN), skiing, playing in the snow, and acting like locals since we've been here for like, a month.

Our trip started Feb 1 and thanks to the ever-generous, most obliging Big Uncle Kevin, we are staying across from the Elk Camp Gondola adjacent to the Assay Hill run in his very luxurious slope-side condo. It is, no joke, SKI-IN, SKI-OUT and please allow me to mention that the "ski-in" portion is like ski into the HOT TUB. Poor us.

View from the dining room:

I will blog more later, but here's the "extended stay" portion of our trip:

Here's us Monday night, packing up and calling Delta.

Oh? Flight canceled?

Tuesday - we threw the kids back in ski school and hit the slopes:

James has been LOVING ski school. He is a BIG fan of going "fast with french fries (straight skis)," but has finally mastered the pizza (snowplow) to stop and he looks like this ALL THE TIME:

We took him out one day, on our own and after the second little run, he said, "OK, stop telling me what to do. I will pizza when I need to!" Here's the little daredevil in action:

On what we thought was our last night, we ventured out to 8K, a super-fancy-dancy hotel restaurant and I must say, the kids were treated far better than us! Molly sat in a $200 high chair (I looked it up):

and James got his own placemat to unroll and inside.... BENDAROOS! (see the commercial, people). He immediately made a necklace for our waitress which garnered him a chocolate milk with a light up ice cube!

and then... to make a point about us not taking him to enough nice restaurants, he picked up the table candle BY THE FLAME.

after two small heart attacks (one for Brian and one for me), we realized that the candle was FAKE. Just a little battery operated light....

But still, here is the family at one of the nicest restaurants in Snowmass. Can you imagine? Molly is whining for more food, James is doing ???? with the fake candle, Brian is adjusting his "Bendaroos bow tie" and I am filming the whole thing. We should be embarrassed...

So we ordered - grilled cheese for James, sliders (mini cheeseburgers) for Molly, decadent pork chops for Brian, and trout with mushroom sauce for me. GUESS WHAT MOLLY ATE???!!!

Yeah, that's right... all my trout!

And so I was left with the sliders....

whatever.

Snowed OUT and loving it....

January Picnics

January 25 brought balmy weather to the DC area. OK, like in the 50s, but it felt WARM. So, after I picked up James from school, we had a little picnic out in the Mews.

The very next day was back in the 20s and COLD. But, James still had the picnic bug so several of our meals were eaten like this for the next week.

Ice Skating with James, aka The Back Breaker

Usually known for his unusual amount of energy, James is one lazy bag of bones on the ice rink. He only wants to be carried in between your legs so he can just "glide." Uncle Kevin learned this quick lesson a couple of weeks ago.

5 minutes in - all smiles:

10 minutes in - starting to feel it in the lower back:

I mean, look at this kid.

We're basically just dragging him along, hoping his arms stay in the sockets:

Finally trying it on his own:

Thanks, Uncle Kevin, for a fun "day" of ice skating!

(Total time: 20 minutes)

Motley Crew

What if you saw this coming at you at the grocery store? Missing from this pic is the audio of James honking at everyone in front of us in every aisle and Molly trying to steal his snack while he does it.

Baby Gets a New Pair of Shoes....

Molly started walking at ten months (!), but now that she is doing it in earnest, I felt like she needed some real shoes so she can run after her brother on ANY surface.

I think she likes them.