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Vail. Weekend. Snow.

We had a lovely time away from home. It was great to have such a nice break after a crazy-busy month and a half (or so). We never did get a good “adult” ski day in, but the kids both got days on the mountain and in the case of Tabby we can actually ski with her.

So for two days, Tabby went skiing all day on the big mountain. She also spent time on the bunny hill whenever Ben was there. She’s really a bit beyond it, but she still had fun. It’s a good time for her b/c she can get on and off the magic carpet on her own and the first day we were there, they had CONES! She took it as her personal mission to ski around them as well as she could and she did awesome. I’m not talking about generally around the cone, I mean RIGHT AROUND the cone. Less than a foot between her and the cone.

Ben shows signs of having pretty great ability and was always gung-ho to “go skiing!” But once he got there he was quite a bit more apathetic about the whole situation, telling us sometimes even that he didn’t want to ski. Since we schlepped him all the way over there, he didn’t really get a choice but to make a run or two and when he did it, he enjoyed it. His balance is good and he seems to have some ability to control his direction, moving the direction Matt pointed to. But he tires quickly and is really still so very little. He was just happy to get outside and play in the snow, really.

With very little snow, we never did get a real day on the mountain just adults. But we got lots of TV watching, game playing, reading, cooking and even some exploring done. It was so peaceful and relaxing. Unfortunately, we woke up on Saturday to find this:

Gorgeous snow coming down, just in time for us to drive home in it!!! GRRRRRRR

The drive home was not terrible, but longer than normal. 2.5 hours compared to 1.5. Compounding the annoyance were our kiddos. As good as they were our whole trip, they were that bad in the car. Whining, crying, screaming, throwing, fighting, grumping. By the time we got home, our nerves were shot. Lucky for us, we had a bottle of premix margaritas in the fridge that we’d barely touched. We did minimal work to get the house back in order (it’s still not nearly back in order) fed everyone dinner and finished off our margaritas. Not often the way we roll, but not bad either.

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Ben on Skis

This weekend we endangered all the guests on Vail Mountain’s Bunny slope by taking Ben up for his first go. Just kidding … our little danger “baby” did very well and had loads of fun. He has been trying to get on skis since last year, hopping on Tabby’s whether she was currently using them or not and trying on his gear every chance he got. Undoubtedly, his beloved sister’s love for the sport influenced him somewhat, but he is naturally into anything physical, he probably would have been gunning to get up there in any case.

We did the typical things you do with a first timer his age … basically catch and release. We ride up the magic carpet with him and take turns catching and releasing. He had a huge smile on his face practically the entire time or at least until he got cold and tired. He was his typically fearless self and even a few minor spills didn’t flag his enthusiasm. But his balance was something to behold and he could right himself quite well 90% of the time he started to fall. He asked to go back later in the evening on his first day and again when we asked him the next morning, so Matt took him back for another go. He didn’t make it long, but he had fun.

Tabby had new skis to try out and whether it was because of rusty legs or the new skis and boots, she had a few more spills the first couple of trips down the hill than the last time she was up. But in no time she figured it out and she was doing really well, moving beyond the “pizza” or snowplow technique and well into a nice parallel technique, beginning to turn and stop in parallel. She was super excited for us to get her up on the big mountain and neither of us can wait to have a chance to do so, but this go-around it was about our friends and their boys and Ben having a first go. Beyond that, the snow was pretty cruddy and we didn’t want to use our own skis so we would’ve had to rend which is a pain. But we have every confidence that she will be tearing it up when we’re back in Jan.

The rest of the weekend was lovely. For years we have done a “cookie weekend” with our friends and then as kids came, the kids as well, and my parents and sister. This year we backed off the cookies (we only made one type) and mostly just played around, watched movies and relaxing. Matt’s travel schedule meant we had to cut out one evening, but it was still nice and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

As always, it’s a bit hard to come back to reality. Oh well.

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A Tale of Two Weekends

After a totally crazy Friday, Matt and Tabby left for their very first daddy-daughter weekend. They flew to Nashville to meet our new niece and cousin, Baby Autumn. They had a great weekend, filled with baby snuggles, fun outings, and plenty of attention for Miss Tabby. It also made us realize that there will be a day in the not too distant future when air travel with the kids will be a helluva lot easier. Like when Ben is Tabby’s age (or maybe a bit older). I missed having them around like crazy, but I’m so glad they had a nice trip.

Meanwhile, back in CO, Ben and I had a wonderful time together too. Friday night we had a Team Umizoomi mini marathon (2 eps) and CHICKEN NUGGETS for dinner. Saturday we went to the gym (always a hit), ran some errands and then he had a very long nap while I got some things done (cleaning). He was my date at a dinner party with our friends and their kids and he had such a nice time being one of the big boys, running around playing with toys and dressing up in costumes.

Sunday we went grocery shopping together and then Christmas shopping with my mom and sister. We finished up by having dinner with Papa and GiGi as well and then straight home for bedtime. He was pretty exhausted.

He was super cuddly this weekend and kind of unsure about not having Daddy and Sissy around. He only wanted Mommy to hang out with him and hold him and help him. A bit exhausting, but sweet. It was so nice to be able to focus only on him and really hear what he has to say (a lot) and sing (Jingle Bells!). He is coming along so well developmentally and I think sometimes I don’t notice it as much because there’s so much more going on around us. I also noticed his behavior was somewhat improved. No doubt the extra attention had something to do with that.

 

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Music City Weekend

Tomorrow, two lucky people are heading to Music City for the weekend. See Matt’s sister had a beautiful baby girl a couple of weeks ago and they are headed to pay her a visit. We were initially planning to wait until February to go see our new niece and cousin, but we just couldn’t wait. Unfortunately we’re out of vacation time, so a weekend was about the best we could do. Of course taking two kids for a weekend trip (out Friday, Back Sunday) seemed a bit too insane even for us, so we decided it would be best for just half of us to go.

Of course I wanted to be part of the half that gets to snuggle the beautiful Miss Autumn Grace, but it didn’t seem fair for me to go see Matt’s sister and the rest of his family. So I encouraged him to take Tabby with him and proposed that I stay home with Ben. So that is the plan. I know they’re looking forward to some daddy-daughter time – Tabby always relishes alone time with any adults. And of course I am looking forward to some time with just my Ben.

We’ll try not to get too crazy.

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There’s No Place Like Home There’s No Place Like Home

I am so incredibly glad to be back in Denver. I mean how can you not be when you have those two sweet faces to come back to, right? Not to mention my handsome sweet hubby and my slobbery mutt. Home also has my bed (with 10 tons of stuffed animals on it) and my treadmill and my tivo and and and. What can I say? I’m a bit of a homebody. Coming home and seeing everyone is so nice. The kids were ecstatic and Matt even more so. Loki? Rather indifferent.

Portland was great. I really enjoyed my conference all things said and done. I will bring back a lot of good ideas and new things to look at when I go back on Monday. I didn’t see a lot of Portland but most of what I did I liked. It was pretty nice to just chill in the evenings and get to sleep early. Possibly I’m deluding myself but I may have beaten my rotten cold. Or maybe not. The worst bit of the trip was that I didn’t get to meet up with my cousin who lives in Portland. Her little boy was sick and her husband out of town so it just didn’t work out. The dinner I had with my coworkers instead was really enjoyable. The second bad bit of the trip was the opening night welcoming event where they had 4 inches of HAY on the ground and HORSES. My allergies were not amused.

Now it’s back to my routine … but first … Half Marathon #6. I’m Rocking and Rolling on Sunday!

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NYC The Wrap Up

Well unfortunately, I got a bit behind in my recaps. I got some little stomach bug on Sat evening and while it didn’t wreck me, I spent most of my down time sleeping as opposed to internetting. It didn’t last long, but I never got caught up.

It will take way too long and be way too boring if I recap EVERYTHING we did day by day, so I won’t. So here are some highlights:

Continue reading “NYC The Wrap Up”

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NYC Day 2

It was hot and humid today. Sticky humid. But oh well, lots to see. Matt and I did a superquick run along the waterfront before it got nasty. We grabbed breakfast at Sarabeth’s Kitchen. Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon was great. Then we went to the American Museum of Natrual History. Unfortunately, one of the big exhibits we wanted to see (frogs) was sold out for the day,

so we skipped through Central Park and went to The Met. The kids had an awesome time in the park. We climbed Belvedere castle, saw some turtles and enjoyed being outside. Ben really got his energy out and was pretty good while at The Met. Tabby loved the Met and was so excited to see all the amazing stuff … suits of armor, Egyptian carvings, antique furniture, etc. etc. We had a super fab dinner at The Cafeteria – the Mac ‘n’ Cheese is awesome!

Full and FUN day!

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NYC Day 1

Well we made it. Still not sure if the red-eye was a good decision or not, but the kids did sleep a good portion of the flight and we all had to have naps. For obvious reasons we did not do much today … just got pizza and rice pudding and did some shopping. We had to buy a pack ‘n’ play for Ben to sleep in (this was actually about the same price as bringing our own) … speaking of which, the Babies R Us in Union Square is the nicest one I’ve ever seen. We also checked out the Crumpler outlet store which was cool. We scored some great little backpacks for the kids.

We have spent the evening in. Our apartment is in the financial district and it’s got a great view of the Brooklyn Bridge. There’s some dignitaries in town and we’ve been watching the motorcades go through town. Also, in case you were wondering, I’ve been playing with my Bokeh kit. Cheers!

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Thoughts on Camping

We’ve now been on two fairly successful camping trips with our pop-up. $$ aside, I’m very glad we bought it. The trips have been GREAT and I think it’s pretty safe to say we wouldn’t have gone camping without it. I can do without pretty well when it comes to camping … I don’t mind lack of electricity, showers, etc. but I LOVE my sleep and with the pop-up I finally can get sleep while camping. Yay!

Of course maybe the same thing could have been accomplished with a $60 cot from Bass Pro. I guess we’ll never know. Anyhow, here are some things I DO know so far about camping:

  • Not a fan of Campsuds dish soap … does not cut grease worth crap unless you have hot water. This trip we used plain ol’ Dawn and collected our drainage in a grey-water bucket, which can be used to douse the fire, so no worries there. Some say Dr. Bronners (also biodegradable) is better, might check it out later.
  • Just cooking alone makes plenty of dishes, so this trip we opted for paper plates/bowls for eating  … these can then be burned for kindling in the campfire. Saved us tons of water.
  • This last trip I pre-cooked the bacon in the oven and just re-heated it on the stove. So much more fit in the pan and it was so quick! It could keep pace with my frantic pancake-making.
  • I pre-mixed all the dry ingredients for recipes (pancakes, cornbread) and then marked them with the quantities of wet ingredients required. I also decanted the proper amounts of wet ingredients into other vessels to save space if needed.
  • We purchased a big sports cooler to fill with drinking water and that helped me out a lot – I don’t tend to like the taste of water from other places and won’t drink as much as I need. That was Matt’s idea and it’s a very good one.
  • Breakfast the last morning has been cereal with milk both times and I plan to keep it up – quick and easy while we pack up.
  • We have both an LED lantern and several LED flashlights. They rock. They are small, compact, take few batteries, last forever and produce a ton of light (we didn’t get the brightest ones and I’m so glad because the ones we have can half blind you!).
  • Planning and packing are super important. We found a packing list somewhere on the interwebs that we modified for our own use … if you’re interested, it is here in pdf and txt.

We’ve got one more trip tentatively planned for this year – hopefully the weather will hold! I’m sure we’ll continue to refine our camping as we go forward. We are collecting cool places to camp from friends and coworkers and I’m already getting excited about going next year. Many more places we want to see!

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The Dunes

 

This weekend, we went to Egypt.

No … I kid, I kid.


We went to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. It’s an incredible spot, about 4 hours from Denver. It is caused by a very rare natural phenomenon that traps the sand in this valley and creates the beautiful dunes. But I like to think of it as God’s own little practical joke: dropping tons of sand in the middle of the Rockies. Tee-hee.

Continue reading “The Dunes”