Oy, it's been awhile since I posted. We've had a busy busy November and there's still a week left! The high point was my girls trip to Cabo with Jenny, thoughtfully funded by her company. 4 nights and 5 days of relaxing and doing nothing at an all inclusive resort in Mexico. It just doesn't get any better than that. Daddy was home with the boys and they had a ball. He got to spend some time at each of their schools and he and Lincoln even brought Malcolm lunch one day. It was a good week for all of us.
The day after I returned from Mexico, we piled in the car and headed west to Colorado. There was a small diversion Friday morning as Malcolm stayed home sick from school. Normally that wouldn't constitute a visit to the doctor, but since we were heading to higher altitudes, we wanted to be sure his ears would be ok. Good thing we did since it turns out the child had strep festering in his throat. So we got drugs for both kids (after M's + result, the doc looked at Lincoln and determined he was working on something, so better safe than sorry, he got drugs too).
But I digress. We were spending Thanksgiving with V's brother and his family in Denver and we planned a short side trip up to Vail to try some skiing. Despite my trepidations, the 14 hour drive was not the worst thing ever. It wasn't even 14 hours. Door to door, we made it in about 12 1/2 hours drive time (extra time for dinner and gas breaks). The kids were content to watch their movies or doze (note to self...brilliant move bringing their Cubs blankets and pillows, it made sleeping a decent way to pass the time). We arrived around 3am and everyone went right to bed. On Saturday, we rose late and headed to Jr's house.
En route to Jr's house, some yahoo drove us off the road which resulted in a blown tire. Frustrating, yes, but at least he didn't actually hit the car. A little extra frustrating as we just got new tires a month ago. And just a smidge extra frustrating as we learned that there was not a single tire place in all of the western US that could get us a matching tire. But don't fear, we could pay to have one sent 2nd day from Ohio. Or was it Texas? Who cares. The point is, it would be in Denver on Wednesday. And in the meantime, Jr had an extra 4 wheel drive car that we could take up into the mountains. So frustrating, yes, but it could have been so much worse.
Sunday dawned sunny and 60 degrees, so we headed into the Mountains. This would be the first trip to Vail for Lincoln and myself. Malcolm went once when he was almost 4 and daddy took him to visit Jr and try some skiing. The drive up to Vail is absolutely gorgeous. It almost didn't bother me that we were hurtling up and down mountain roads at 80 miles and hour. Most of the ski resorts weren't open yet as there was no snow to be found. Apparently the past few years they've been really lucky and had plenty of early snowfall. This year, not so much. Some resorts were making snow and had limited runs open, but Vail itself, where we were staying, wasn't open for skiing yet. So we had to drive 20 minutes to Copper Mountain which was one of the resorts that had a few runs open. The first day we were there, the boys and I tried our hand at the magic carpet run. As I now know, the magic carpet run is even smaller than a bunny hill. It's like a moving walkway that carries you up a gentle slope and it's perfect for kids or adults who are chicken (namely, me).
Now would be a good time to remind you of my skiing experience. It's not exactly fair so say I have no experience. I mean we did go to Alpine Valley back in what? 1984? 1983 maybe? Now granted, I didn't do anything more than cross country skiing and a few trips on a tow rope. So I know the basics of skiing. And I know that I'm terrified of getting on a chair lift. Always have been, always will be. Or so was my plan. But that's the thing about Vail. It's a little different than Alpine Valley, WI. I was going to have to get over myself. Especially given the excitement that both kids were showing about skiing. It was almost impossible to get them off the little hill on Monday. V and I were both exhausted (he because he was following Lincoln up and down, me because I was doing my darnedest to not break anything). We finally got them off with the promise of hot chocolate and pizza in the village. And we signed them up for ski school the next day. Ski school for kids goes from 10am till 3:30pm and included lunch. That's a long day if you ask me, but the boys were excited. It even looked like Malcolm would get introduced to the chair lift and a green run. We were all looking forward to Tuesday. The plan was for V and I to go down some green (read: easy) runs while the boys were in ski school.
That was the plan anyway.
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