In case you have never gone to Colorado skiing before, you may be interested to know that in addition to taking winter clothes, baby gear and toiletries, we will also take snowsuits, hats, gloves, ski boots, skis, helmets, poles, goggles, and long underwear.
Sparkle does ski and has honed her skills in the last three years enough to ski with me and Jim. In fact, she may just pass her old lady in the skill category after this trip. Brown Sugar just skied for the first time Friday night, but we still plan on taking her out with us as much as possible. We think/hope/pray that she will be a pro by the end of the week. Both girls are also going to spend some time in ski school.
So far so good.
Then we come to Jr. At 20 months, he just isn't old enough to throw on skis yet---although we've thought about it. The mountain does offer childcare and we do have leads on several other services in the area that offer the same service for resort visitors. Jim and I also plan on switching off and on between skiing and watching him.
Not ideal but it will work.
Now, at this point you are either thinking we are crazy or insane. Or, maybe you think we've been sniffing a little too much glue at the kids' craft table. I would agree with all of the above. On paper, this looks like a vacation with the potential for "national incident" written all over it.
However, I remember two similar trips my family took when we were young. Not 7, 4, and 20-months young...more like late elementary and middle school age. We went with another family who also had two kids. We made the 2-day drive from Indiana to Keystone, Colorado and we all stayed in a glorious condo that had these huge floor to ceiling windows that beautifully framed the mountain and each morning's fresh snowfall. We all still talk about those trips! Many memories were made, but most of those memories (at least mine) are made up of what seemed like "horror" stories at the time. Here are some of my memories:
- On the trip out, we got stuck in a blizzard somewhere in Kansas and had to eat dinner with a bunch of clowns. Literally. They made us kids balloon animals. We were mortified. After all, we were all of 10 or 12 years old.
- Our families drove out in two cars. At one point, we lost each other on the beltway around some city. Didn't find each other until we passed each other going opposite directions.
- We stayed in one hotel on the trip out that was filthy, at best. We knew we were in trouble when they gave us our towels at the desk. We slept in sleeping bags on top of the beds.
- We had to stay overnight in Boulder, or was it Colorado Springs, as we sought an emergency room to seek care for the mom in the other family. I think it had something to do with her ears and the altitude.
- I ran over Larry, other family's son that was my age, on the bunny hill. Flattened him. Actually, I knocked him straight up in the air, and then I flattened him. Hey, he was in my way.
- I got on the chair lift a little before my dad which tipped the chair up and knocked him right off. I went up the lift by myself while the lift operators dug my dad out of a snow drift.
- A few of us got sun poisoning. Yes, you need to wear sunscreen when you ski.
- There were several instances that involved lots of laughing and little control of bladders, if you get my drift. I won't single out the offenders, but they know who they are. Especially at a particular dinner where a certain drink was served. That's all I'm saying.
Just as we had several "horror" stories from those trips, I'm sure we will have several "horror" stories from this trip. Yet, those stories and experiences are what make great trips. Those are the stories memories are made from.
Although I know this won't be the type of ski trip we had in mind when we started planning this vacation, I'm getting really excited about all the memories that have yet to unravel by taking the entire family.
Stay tuned...I'm looking forward to sharing our adventures with all of you.
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1 comment:
Jeff claims it wasn't him that had the bladder control issue. Can you confirm his version of the story?
M
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