Christmas and New Year's in Review

Things have finally gotten back to normal from the holiday activities (well, almost normal - the decorations are still up, but will come down this weekend). Christmas itself was fairly uneventful. I cooked "Christmas Dinner" on Christmas Eve, and we opened all our gifts afterwards.



The older two taught baby M
how to open his presents.



Christmas morning was filled with the usual excitement of finding out what Santa brought, as well as the hustle and bustle of us loading up the car for our first Christmas Vacation. The hubs grew up skiing, none of the rest of us have ever attempted any sort of winter activity - other than sledding - so of course, an eight day trip to the mountains was just what we needed, right?

After loading the car full of suitcases, skiing/snowboarding/sledding/skating equipment, the dog, and of course ourselves (and yes, the car looked like it belonged to the Clampets once all of the previously mentioned items were in it) we were off to Winter Park, a ski resort town about an hour's drive from home.

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View from the car as we crossed
part of Berthoud Pass.

Most days were full of activity; however, I will confess that cooking at a higher altitude than what we're currently at proved to not always be as easy as it is down here at a mere 6,000 ft. Somehow, I managed to bake cookies (not typically an easy feet at higher elevations), but didn't get soup right - I'm blaming it on the water, no way it could be anything I did wrong!



Day one of our quest put both me and the middle child in "ski school". I use this term loosely because he will fiercly tell you he does NOT ski, he boards/rides/whatever the "cool" term for snowboarding is. All I know is after two lessons he's flying down the mountain fearlessly while I'm still plowing my way at a snails pace on the baby slopes. It was a lot of fun though, and I'm looking forward to many memories being made out there.



Proof that - contrary to any reports
 you might hear -  I can stay upright on skis.



I am happy to report that there were only two falls made by yours truly on the mountain. The first was when I went a little faster than what was in my comfort zone, and subsequently got the tips of my skis stuck together. I know, rookie mistake... Fortunately there was a nice soft snow dune that I drove myself into. I'm sure it was a lovely sight. The second was a classic "Beth Accident". For some reason I have an unrational fear of the chairlift. As the hubs and I approached the end of one of our rides, there was literally a man down. Some guy had fallen not far from the lift's exit ramp. Of course I was afraid of running over him, so got stuck on the chair and instead of exiting when I should have, I instead jumped from the chair as it turned the corner to head back to the bottom. Luckily it had snowed a few inches the previous night and I had a soft landing pad.



Middle Child (in green jacket) gets
ready to head downhill in class.

Middle child, of course, is much more athletic and was zooming down the slopes in no time. Laughing at me as he passed by, and upset the last couple days we were in town because it was too cold and windy to take him out.

One of the highlights of our trip was a jaunt over to Grand Lake. An area known for summer activities, but also a haven for snowshoeing and ice fishing. Originally the plan was to do some ice fishing, but we got a late start and just did some sightseeing and shopping instead.

We did not;  however, venture close
to them. Moose are not known for
being nice if they think you are
invading their space...

We did see three large moose in a meadow on our drive. To me that was one of the highlights of the trip!

Unfortunately, our trip was not without drama. We originally planned to come home on the 2nd. But, as temperatures plummetted (windchills ranged from -50 to -31, with real temps being around -4 for the highs) the hubs and I decided we'd all be a little saner if we went back to our own home, where we each had our own rooms to retreat to instead of the two bedroom duplex we were staying in.

We packed up and decided to leave after lunch. While we cooked, the kids entertained themselves. And that's when middle child decided he would carry baby man around the back bedroom. Somehow, they fell and when they did the baby took a face plant into the metal bedframe, splitting his right nostril open.



What? You mean stury strips aren't
normally part of my handsome physique? 



Nine and a half hours, two emergency rooms and quite a few stitches later - we were home. Thankful that nothing more tragic happened, and wondering if maybe we should have left after breakfast instead of trying to cook lunch.

It was a good trip; however, and these are the things memories are made of, right?

Oldest child refused to pose
for pictures - but that's her on the left, just
in front of the bridge skating
.

Baby Man loving the sled!

***Side note, I have no idea why there are two of the same pics of middle child snowboarding, the first one is not showing up in my edit thread, it appears to be deleted but when I publish it's there. So get over seeing the same pic twice. Also, I apparently lack the skills of making a cool photo montage, so deal with the sloppy way they are there. As you can tell, I did not resolve to be less snarky this year - only to post on a more regular basis. Cheers!***