My apologies for the extended break, but our wifi while away was absolutely terrible and I had a heck of a time getting a connection to WordPress for some reason. It was actually a kind of breaky trip in general. TV broke, my car’s battery died (light left on, below 0 temps), elevator went out. But at least all the people are in one piece!
Anyway, as we have done for a long time now, we spent the first week of the new year in Vail. We ski. We cook. We watch movies. We hang out. We read. We lick our Christmas-season-induced wounds. We have a great time. We are very very lucky to be able to do this and we cherish our moments together. We were joined by my parents, sister and our friends from Nashville. Our friends’ son is 2 and quite a talker and singer and all around charmer. It was great to see them, and everyone for such an extended period and really get to spend some quality time together.
This was a big trip for both the kids, skiing-wise. Ben spent two days in lessons and went from being a timid guy who couldn’t do much of anything on the mountain to being able to successfully navigate the “magic carpet” and the bunny hill and STOP all on his own.
Tabby on the other hand, spent a sort of wasted day in lessons. The group they assigned her to (despite seeing our footage of her skiing prowess) was way too novice and she did only about 4 runs in 6 hours. We ended up getting her day comped for Ben’s second day and we went back to taking her out on our own. All of a sudden, she is skiing just about any blue with confidence and she has graduated to using poles, which she is super happy about. She also did some of her first bump runs this trip with mixed results. She handled the first one fine, but was slightly scared and the next two she powered through with ease. She truly amazes me. She will be better than me in no time.
The weather was overall gorgeous. The first day out was super sunny but VERY VERY COLD and then it warmed up. Unfortunately, no new snow to speak of. I didn’t mind from the standpoint of staying warm and driving, but we definitely NEED SNOW!
In our downtime, we had lots of fun. The kids played computer games and tablet/phone games and legos. They read books and made drawings.
And Tabby made a pot holder. I found one of those fun loom kids at Walmart for $5 and she enjoyed it every bit as much as I thought she might!
The adults did much of the same. I attempted (and got only about 3 chapters into) a real live paper book. I have no idea when I’ll finish it but I’m going to make a valiant effort. I also used the downtime to catch up on some work and emails and get organized for the new year. 
Matt and I also got to test out or new snowshoes on a wonderful hike. We went through some of the Nordic Center’s trails and then hiked basically straight up the mountain to check out the ice-climbers. It was really amazing.
Now we are home again and headed back to reality. I can’t say I’m ready for vacation to be over, but our routine is really very nice.
Glad you had a good trip!