February 20, 2008

I hope everyone had a nice long weekend (I asked Adam about the President's day holiday and what it was for and he said, "It's a really useful holiday"). We had lots of family fun time. We took the boys swimming on Saturday and to the WOW museum on Monday. And on Tuesday, I took the boys skiing at A-Basin. Yep, just me and the boys, and it was even fun.

The boys went into a half day lesson, which I am liking more than a full day. They were outside the whole time, no wasted movie or snack times. They ended up in a first timers group which was probably ok for Adam but not as fun for Alex. But no matter, when I picked them up at 12:30, Alex excitedly told me that his instructor said he was ready for the lift. So, I took Alex up the bunny hill twice and he did great. Being the cautious and timid guy he is, he figured out that turning keeps his speed down and he was able to follow in my tracks down the slope. And best of all, he's really excited about skiing now. He can't wait to ride the lift with Ted!

Here's Alex and I on the lift (not so easy to take a self portrait on a lift):



As for me, my day was fine too. A-Basin is keeping it real and old skool by not having any of those new-fangled high speed lifts. So I spent most of the day on a lift, but it was beautiful so I didn't mind. I was a bit disappointed in the new Montezuma Bowl. It was mostly blue terrain and the interesting black runs required hiking. Plus, you had to watch where you were going or you would end up below the lift and have to hike some more. The snow was ok, there wasn't any new snow but it was warm enough that it was soft. Here's the view from the top of A-Basin looking back over to Breckenridge (which you can see a bit past half way on the right side). And on the right side is Lake Dillon and Frisco.



Here's the enlarged shot of Breckenridge and I marked where I took the previous (from January 22) picture from:



Of course, then I had to look at the Breckenridge panoramic to see if I could find A-Basin. Because of the angle and how I used a very wide angle, it didn't really come out, but here is the area from the old picture. A-Basin is in that, well, basin behind that ridge:



And now, back to Wednesday:

7:15 Drop off - breakfast of oatmeal and bogurt.

8:00 Took Alex to school.

Ariel spent the morning messily playing by herself while I did chores.

10:45 Ariel and I went to the cookie store for some grocery shopping. When we were done, Ariel rode the horse and for the first time (for me at least) did not scream in terror when the horse started moving.



11:30 Picked up Adam.

11:45 Got home, had lunch. Ariel had sauce and mac & cheese.

12:15 Put Ariel down for a nap. While she slept, I prepared our enchiladas for tonight and then Adam and I whipped up some chocolate chip cookies. Adam is a great little helper in the kitchen. And his random comment about the cookies, "Mom, don't put cheese in the cookies, Ted wouldn't like that." Never mind his own father is allergic to dairy or that I said nothing about giving cookies to Ted (though Ted's family is always welcome to share). Just a random little comment from my very random little Adam.



Ariel's nap was going rather loudly to be productive to I checked up on her. Look at that little devil grin she has:



She played (but for the record, didn't cry) for a very long time.

2:00 Adam watched one of the Duck Tales that Becky dropped off for us this morning. Duck Tales is one of my favorite cartoons from childhood and I sincerely hope it's not too scary for my boys.

2:30 Adam survived Duck Tales, I had to wake Ariel up.

2:40 Got Alex from school, we played for a little bit. Alex talked Ariel into carrying his backpack home, I wish I had had my camera for that one.

3:10 Got home, had a cookie snack.

3:50 Ariel left early today so I could take Alex to the doctor. He has some spots and I'll report back tomorrow what the diagnoses is.

PS - Duck Tales is too scary for Alex but Adam and Ariel enjoy it.