Jan. 22, 2007

Despite me having SARS, we all managed to have a good ski weekend. Jeremy was also suffering from a sinus infections so we held off going up to Breckenridge Friday night and went up Saturday afternoon instead. And Sunday, we skied and/or rode.

We dropped the kids off at ski school at 8:00 and then skied some Peak 8 groomers. When the hill started to get crowded, Jeremy wanted to try the t-bar. And to show him I'm game, I tried for my first time. On my first attempt, I almost got to the top. I got to the sign that said prepare to unload and I moved the t-bar an inch and next thing I knew I was off. I had to slide off the slope and we did a very crusty/icy/boring run to get off the hill. So of course I had to try again. The next time I rode up with a ski patroler and we made it to the top. I, of course, was proud of myself, but Jeremy was really proud, which says a lot (and possibly the only other people who will understand this whole t-bar/snowboard thing are Grammie and Pop-Pop). Here's Jeremy's handy work when I told him I wanted a picture to show I made it. And this is the best out of 3:



The runs off the t-bar were not worth the trouble of getting to them, so we went down to check out ski school and then had lunch.

After lunch we rode Chair 6 and saw that the Imperial lift was open. It didn't look too windy so we tried that. Our first run was a bit icy and crusty but we went up again and found my new second favorite ski condition, powder blown powder. Well, it beats ice any day at least.

So here's where the Imperial lift is:



And Jeremy and the annoying Germans who wouldn't move.



The second time I was up I took a big panoramic picture that I'm not sure is possible to view on the web. It's 6"x36" which is a crazy ass size but it's got a ton of detail. You can seen the ski area below us and then in the distance from left to right there's Dillon Res, Swan Mountain Road, French Gulch road, the town of Breckenridge and Bald Mountain and Argentine Peak to name a few. If you click on the picture you can see it better.



After that we did some more runs off of Chair 6 and had quite possible the most bizarre experience ever. While we were on the lift, we looked over at the trees and saw a porcupine 15' up a pine tree (Jeremy says they have to eat pine needles to stay pokey). I had NO idea that porcupines climbed trees. It's completely turned my world view upside down. I'll forever be worrying about a porcupine army launching an aerial attack next time I'm boarding OR hiking. The woods will NEVER be the same.

At 3:00 we headed back down to ski school to see how the boys fared.

Alex was walking and shuffling fine on his skies, but not going down the magic carpet hill on his own yet:



Here's Adam and his teacher going down:



Adam and his teacher again:



The boys were in different classes but were outside at the same time at the end:



Anyway, that was our fun weekend. I hope everyone had a good MLK day. As Adam says, "He's dead but we celebrate his birthday anyways."

7:15 Drop off.

Soon after drop off, Ariel told me she had pooped. She is SO ready for potty training.

7:30 Breakfast - hot cereal.

8:45 Left on time for once to go to stroller class

9:00 Stroller class. Last night when I tucked Alex in we talked about our upcoming day and Alex said his favorite part about Tuesdays are going to the mall and finding candy in the candy machines. At least I don't have to give him quarters and if he finds enough he'll even share with Ariel, as he did today.

10:45 After lunch I went to Starbucks and Alex and Ariel ate the lunch I packed them. I wish I had taken the picture, Ariel is always so cute when she knows she's doing big kid stuff. She ate her yogurt and sauce and nibbled on some graham crackers.

11:15 Left the mall.

11:30 Picked up Adam.

11:45 Got home, Ariel was already asleep and transfered to her bed.

While Ariel napped, Adam and I played two games of memory, which I graciously let him win. When Alex isn't distracting him, he's a pretty good memory player anyway. Then he did a few multimedia paintings.

2:30 Had to wake Ariel up to go get Alex.

2:45 Got home. Ariel wanted to play with Alex's lego spaceship, which of course Alex did not want. So I got out the spaceship tent and all three kids managed to play together nicely.





Of course the harmony didn't last for long, but it was beautiful while it lasted. Then there was an equal part of screaming.

4:30 Pick up.