Dec 12 - Dec 16 / Snow vs. sick

Previous pictures of Rachel going to zoo lights and sitting on Santa's lap.  Rachel says for Christmas she wants a stop sign and a reindeer.
Wed Dec 12
Daycare calls and informs Jason that Rachel has a terrible cough and they suspect croup so she needs to go home immediately.  Jason happens to have the car that day so he can go to an appointment after school.  Meggan has a meeting in Denver and has arranged bus and car pooling so neither of us is able to get Rachel. Our friend (Jason's assistant principal) Johnny saves the day, and is able to watch Rachel for a little while until Meggan gets home.  Rachel has a terrible barking cough and runny nose, but is happy and energetic.

Thurs Dec 13
Jason calls in sick and stays home with Rachel.  A trip to the doctor confirms no major illness but just a bad cough.  Meggan works, Jason and Rachel play and run errands.

Fri Dec 14
Meggan has day off as usual on Friday and plays with Rachel, who seems to be improving and enjoying herself.  It's pretty cold so lots more indoor play time and packing for ski weekend in the mountains.  Jason has big day with a district competition for his students in Denver.  After school, we pack up the car and depart the house.  Before leaving for the mountains, we go to Meggan's staff Christmas party.  Rachel spends most of the time running around the restaurant.  As usual, we find the prices for our food way overpriced for what we end up getting.  I just don't think we're meant to be fancy.

We drive from restaurant to REI, where we buy Rachel new snowpants because she has grown out of her others.  Then we drive up to the mountains. At about Georgetown, Jason gets very sleepy and Meggan takes over driving.  Meggan drives toward the tunnel as the snow starts coming down more heavily, so after the tunnel Jason takes over again.  Jason gets us down the mountain safely into our Silverthorne hotel, and we all go to sleep.  We scored an awesome room for $70/night with huge bed, fireplace, jaccuzi tub, pull out sofa-bed.

Sat Dec 15
Rachel wakes us early as usual and Jason eventually leaves for Keystone.  Meggan and Rachel walk around Silverthorne shopping and playing in the fresh beautiful snow.  Jason catches fresh tracks on North Peak all morning and has a great time before crowds get thick and he comes back to the hotel for lunch.  Meggan heads out after lunch while Jason and Rachel start having a bath in our large jacuzzi tub.

Meggan has never been to a resort by herself to ski by herself.  How simple!  Grab skis, walk to gondola, get on gondola, ride up, on to 2nd gondola, get off top of North Peak.  Step into binding.... on no!!!  Grabbed Jason's skis by accident.  While our skis are the same brand, Jason's are much longer and purple with white writing while Meggan's skis are white with purple writing.  So no choice but to download 2 gondolas back to car, exchange skis, and ride back up again.  An hour wasted and frustrated, finally ski down the icy, skied over snow.  Another run on North Peak proves to be full of rocks, so the black diamond ends up being quite a challenging run.  Cold wind blows through and Meggan does only one more run before calling it a day.  The morning lovely snow couldn't last with such a thin base.

From Silverthorne we head to Breck and watch the 'Dew Tour' Snowboard men's 'Big Air' finals.  Rachel says the snowboarders 'flew into the sky' and then cheered if they landed with everyone else.  But if they fell on their landing, Rachel said 'aw... man!  owy on their bum-bum!' and everyone around us would laugh.  As a Canadian rider was leading the last couple of runs, we headed home and out of the cold.

Jason goes to bed early that night with a tummy ache.  Our friend Kaitlyn arrives late to stay on the sofa and we plan to go together to Breck in the morning.

Sun Dec 16
5am Meggan wakes up with stomach pains and feels nauseated.  Rachel wakes up shortly afterward and wants to snuggle.  Jason feels ill.  Meggan begins to vomit and has a hard time getting out of bed.  We send Kaitlyn on her way to enjoy the slopes and try to pack up our things and figure out how we will get home alive.  We both feel awful.  Jason recovers enough to get Rachel dressed, fed, and our stuff packed up.  Meggan hobbles to the car.  Meggan cannot even keep water down.  Rachel is unimpressed with her Mommy's lack of snuggling and playing and cries and cries.

Back in the car Sunday morning... going home instead of skiing ... boo!

Somehow, Jason drives us away from Silverthorne.  Meggan requests several pull overs from time to time and uses Rachel's potty as a catching bucket.  It's snowing and cold.  Jason's whole body is sore and aching and he is uncomfortable sitting in the car.  The snow stops by Georgetown.  Rachel sleeps the whole way home and Meggan manages to nap some.

We get home, take turns napping, and slowly pack our stuff away.  Eventually we manage to keep a little food down before bed Sunday night.

Mon Dec 17
Jason is significantly better and heads to school.  Rachel is still fine and heads to daycare.  Meggan is recovering but not well enough to work so stays at home.

Next year, we will be getting our flu shots!!!  We are really bummed that we missed out on skiing at Breck and spent the money to stay in a hotel and it didn't work out.  Also, we really wish during these tough sick times that we had family closer that we could call in for help.

The great part is that we'll be healthy as can be for our upcoming Canada trip!
Hope you are healthier than us!

Another little Oliver coming

As most of you already know, we are expecting a baby!  Yay!  We are very excited and will be celebrating more this week as we hit the 12 week mark.

We had a successful 10 week ultrasound and saw a healthy moving little baby with good heart rate and size.  We also told Rachel and she keeps voting differently for either a baby brother or sister.

Here is a typical conversation for me these days:

Me: I am pregnant.
Person: congrats! That is exciting! How far along are you?
Me: 11 weeks.
Person: oh, ok.  So when is the baby due?
Me: 4th of July
Person: really? Funny.  That is my cousins birthday (or someone they know who has that birthday).
Me:right

Person: so can you tell the sex yet?
Me: no.  But we are not going to find out.
Person: wow! Really? Cool.  What a nice surprise.  There are not many surprises left in life.  But don't you want to know?
Me: I am tempted, but I would rather wait.

Person: so how have you been feeling?
Me: pretty good.  Very tired but recently getting a little more energy again.  A little nauseated with less appetite for real food, but I am lucky because I have not vomited at all.
Person: were you sick with your first?
Me: not really.  A little bit.

Person: well that's great.  Are you going to be. Able to work right up until the end?
Me: yes I plan to.
Person: and will you get time off?
Me: I will take 3 months unpaid maternity.
Person: and then come back to work?
Me: We are still discussing our options for daycare costs and how many hours I will be able to work after the second child arrives.

I see an average of 15 patients a day, and I seriously have this exact conversation 3-4 times per day.

Anyway, we will keep you posted.

Home for Christmas

In 9 more nights, we will be in Victoria BC for the holidays.  I am about ready to burst because its been so long.  Rachel and I were last on the island in February, when immigration would not let me enter the USA and I was stuck in Canada.  Jason hasn't been to the island in a very long time.

Here are all the things I am very excited about:

1) seeing family, particularly my brothers' families.  I miss my 2 nieces and 3 nephews and miss being close to watch them grow up or know what they like.  My eldest brother tony broke his neck earlier in the year, my grandpa hunt died, and everyone has grown a little older.  Lots of hugs needed to be made up for in person!

2) eating mandarin oranges

3) board games with family

4) running the chip trails near UNICEF

5) seeing the ocean and green dense forests

6) seeing extended family, like my grandmother, Uncles and aunts and cousins

7) seeing friends, like our Penticton running crew and hopefully great friends like andi and Barney and New Year's Eve at the dabreo house.

8) having Rachel and Jason enjoy a little island time, and seeing a place that means very much to me

Skiing Dec 1, 2

This winter season we have decided to commit to staying in a hotel for 1-2 weekends per month, so that we can make sure we get skiing.  So far this year, Colorado mountains seem to be missing most of the snow that the rest of the continent is getting.  Thankfully, Keystone resort is great at making snow. 

Friday playtime Rachel was ready Frosty the Snowman and playing with a new Mr. Potato Head toy from Grandma.  Mr Potato Head has a green pipe.  Rachel calls both Mr Potato Head's pipe and Frosty the Snowman's pipe "corndogs".  Some confusion between corn cob pipe and a corn dog!

Friday night we headed up to our hotel in Silverthorne, stopping at Evergreen for dinner.  (note - I think this might have been the first and last time I ever eat at Burger King).  We got a sweet early season deal on our Quality Inn ($74/night including all), which had a pool/hot tub/internet/laundry/hot breakfast/nice rooms.  Friday night we arrived, unpacked, and eventually convinced Rachel to go to sleep in her travel crib.  (yes, her awesome red Phil N Teds travel crib still fits and we still love it).

Saturday morning began at 4am, when Rachel woke up and would not go back to sleep.  We took turns trying to quietly snuggle and read with her until we went to breakfast at 5:59am.  We decided to take everything at head to Keystone for the day, and were excited to be there among the first in the morning to get the nice groomed snow.  Rachel still did not want to wear her gloves, and getting her from the car to the gondola was another big challenge.  She also did not want to wear her ski boots, but did seem interested in trying to ski, but after one run was really mad at her boots and gloves.

The tunnel with the magic carpet lift inside

We took turns skiing and playing in the lodge, until about lunch time, when we were done skiing the same 3 runs and Rachel seemed pretty tired and crabby.  So we did what we thought was the responsible choice, and headed home away from the crowded slopes that were turning icy, and headed back to the hotel.  Rachel slept for 10 minutes in the car, but would not nap again.  Jason took her for a drive to try and convince her to go back to sleep while I napped, but she would not.  Jason sternly told her she had to nap, and she said "Daddy... you are freaking out!"

Jason and Rachel came back to the hotel room, Jason napped and I took Rachel out for a walk.  She wouldn't sleep but enjoyed taking clothes off hangers at any of the outlet stores.  We had a quick swim at the pool and decided to go to the Breckenridge Santa Run and parade, where we met our friends Julie and Patch.

Rachel was very excited to see Santa and possibly sit on his lap.  But, as we were walking from the car, she fell asleep in the carrier.  So we watched the Santa run, had hot chocolate and cookies, and walked around before she woke up.  She woke up to see fire engines at the fire hall and see Santa, but didn't want to sit on his lap.

 

We decided to head to dinner with Julie and Patch, but in the car Rachel started crying and crying: "I want to sit on Santa's lap!  I want to sit on Santa's lap!"  And no logic would console her.  As miracles would have it, we walked into dinner and guess who had a nearby table?  Santa!  Still in his costume, and willing to say hello to Rachel.  Rachel chatted with Santa but was too shy to sit on his lap after all.

After dinner, Julie and Patch were kind enough to watch Rachel while Jason and I headed back to the slopes for some night skiing.  A bit icy... but fun to ski together.

Sunday morning started at 4:30am, and we could not convince Rachel to go back to sleep.  After playing, reading, packing up, and breakfast, we headed back to the hill for some more skiing.  We were much smarter about getting Rachel to the gondola this time.  We used skier drop-off parking, which was much closer, and allowed us to drop off our gear.  Jason was able to drop off Rachel and I and go back to park.  Rachel wore her gloves and rode in the red wagon to the gondola. 

We took turns in the lodge and skiing, but three things worked out really well.  First, it was a beautiful warm sunny day.  Second, our cousin Kelsey and her friend Eli joined us and helped watch Rachel some.  Third, Rachel was interested in skiing and had much more success wearing all her gear and sticking it out a little longer.  She did about 6 runs between our legs throughout the day.  On the way down each time she giggled and said 'wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!'.  On the way back up the magic carpet, through the tunnel, she sometimes complained about her gloves or her boots but sometimes just played happily.

Rachel falls asleep for nap before making it out of the gondola

Sunday afternoon we drove home, pretty exhausted.  Rachel had trouble getting to sleep for the next few nights, and woke up early each morning.

Tues morning - woke at 3:30am.  We'd put her back into her bed, she'd get up crying and come back into our room.  Repeat for 1 hour.  From 4:30 until 5:30am, I 'locked' her in her room by sitting on the other side of her door and held the door handle so she couldn't open the door.  She screamed for an hour on the other side until I declared it morning and went in with her at 5:30am.

Tues night - similar door holding strategy for about 30 min or so allowed her to get to bed.

Wed morning - wake at 4:30am, door holding strategy for 45 min before declaring it morning.

Wed night - reading Christmas stories and singing Christmas carols.  Rachel's favorite is Frosty the Snowman and the cute book 'Llama llama holiday drama'.  But 'Santa Claus is coming to Town' was sang many times.  And Santa 'knows when you are sleeping and he knows when you're awake."  So before bed, Rachel asked if her stocking would still get filled by Santa if she was awake.  And we happily pulled a great parenting trick and told her Santa would only fill her stocking on Christmas morning if she slept well and waited until the lights were on before getting out of bed.

Thurs and Friday morning Rachel woke up at 5:30am again.  We're much happier parents for it and very thankful for Santa and his magical powers.

Rachel's favorite things these days include Spot from Eric Hill stories, 'We're going on a bear hunt' book from the library, singing Christmas songs, beating the drum at school, pretending to 'cut food' on her cutting board (see picture below), finding the 'R' for Rachel in any word or sign that she sees, doing puzzles, and dressing and undressing her dolls. 

Nov 17-21 Virginia

Once again, please forgive us for being slow to post.  We are transitioning over to a brand new computer with Windows 8.  This means pictures are all over the place on different computers, our office is a mess, and we have no idea how to use our new computer yet.  We will soon be getting it all together and have everything in one place!

Nov 17, 2012 Jason and Rachel went to Virginia to see family before Thanksgiving. 

Pictures can be found BY CLICKING HERE

Videos from the trip below:

 

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving in Colorado

On Wed Nov 21, Karen Oliver flew to Denver from California.  Rachel, Jason and Susan Oliver flew from Virginia to Denver.  Everyone came to our hew house for Thanksgiving.

We were joined by our cousin Kelsey Butler (and her dog Bodhi) who is living in Boulder to attend grad school, and everyone helped us decorate for the holidays. 

It was really fun and we were so glad to have time together with family. 

 

 

(our new artificial tree - we love it!)



Other highlights of the visit include going to the zoo, having Karen and Susan leave all sorts of fun Christmas packages for us to open later, and going to the Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory Tour. 

Shortly after Thanksgiving, Jason and I went on a hike with Rachel, who still loves wearing her warm monkey costume out and about.  We have not hiked with Rachel in the backpack in quite a while.  She didn't want to be in it as much and wanted to walk more, but eventually she fell asleep in it anyway. 

 

Getting excited about the holidays!

Goals update

Jason continues to describe me as the most goal oriented person he has ever known.  So let's check in on some goals. In June, I published 7 goals and I am confident that 6 of them have or will be achieved:


1) hike 3 mountains over 14,000ft
Check.  Quandary, Sherman, Beirstadt 


2) go to 5 new states
Check. North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine 


3) take Rachel on a backpacking trip of at least 2 nights and 3 days
Check.  Maroon bells hiking tip with aunt Karen June/July 2012


4) complete a half marathon in less than 2:30
Boo.  Not going to happen..  Fell off exercise wagon after mid august.


5) complete an Olympic distance triathlon
Check. August 2012 in steamboat springs


6) do a ski touring hut trip in the winter of 2012/2013
Have 2 hut trips planned for January.

7) leave the continent and travel somewhere international before I turn 34 years old
Have tickets to Mexico booked for spring break.  Not quite the foreign adventure travel I had exactly planned, but it will be a great trip, and we are really looking forward to it. 


Soon it will be time to set more goals as we all reflect on 2012 and look forward to what 2013 will bring!  I will keep you posted :)

First Ski Day of the Season

Sunday, Nov 11, 2012

Things have been particularly crazy around here lately.  Jason's work seems to have kicked into high gear.  Rachel seems to be living up to all the things you think and hear about 2 year olds: she's cute and hilarious, but she's a real handful.  She wants to do everything herself, and gets instantly aggressive if she was not given the chance to do it by herself.  Her favorite phrases are "No!" and "I do it!".  She's also blowing us away with how smart she is, and how much she learns all the time.  She's becoming more and more interested in activities typical of her gender, such as dressing and undressing dolls, rocking her babies to sleep, and having lunch/tea parties with Nunu & Friends.

Rachel goes potty in car after museum visit Sat

So, while Jason was away at a conference Friday and Saturday, Rachel and Meggan did the usual things we've been up to lately.  Friday morning groceries and gymnastics, Friday afternoon pool.  Saturday we had planned to go to the zoo before the weather turned too cold, but it started snowing on the way to the zoo.  So we hit the Museum of Science and Nature instead with Rachel's friend Finn.  She played with puzzles and pretend food.  She saw pretend elk, bears, seals.  She went to the moon and played with moon rocks and told me that we live on Earth and that Saturn has rings around it.  After the museum, we drove home as the wet snow came down, and we spent the rest of the day cooped up in the house.  This inspired a trial of finger painting at home for the first time, which was fun.

Saturday night Jason returned home and I was still not packed for our Sunday ski adventure, despite having had two full days to do it.  Jason had already put the snow tires on a few days before, which was very helpful.  So, Saturday night, he graciously helped by mounting the ski racks and scraping wax off skis while I packed clothes and food.




Sunday morning we left the house by 6:45am and picked up our friend Kaitlyn nearby.  It was 8 degrees F and there was about an inch of snow on the ground.  We drove up to Breckenridge without any concerns, except for one brief and unusual episode of vomit from Rachel.  We went to Blue River Sports (the ski shop where Jason used to work).  They helped us get Rachel set up with skis, boots, and a helmet for the year.  Then we drove to Keystone.

Rachel gets her own ski boots at Blue River

Park in the parking lot, get bundled up (it was now before 10am and 12 deg F and snowing), and try to get ourselves through the village to the gondola.  Very quickly we learned what the hardest part of winter is going to be for us: gloves.  Rachel, as you all know, is a big fan of sucking her thumb.  We put a balaclava and a winter hat and a snowsuit with a hood on her head.  She did not appreciate the balaclava at all.  Then we put on gloves, and she started to fight and cry and scream.  So I, mommy of little patience, carried a screaming child across Keystone village in the freezing cold hoping she would understand that her gloves were saving her hands.  Eventually, near the line, I gave in and took her gloves off.  This made her stop crying while we waited in a long lineup to get her (free) pass for the year.  Then we waited in the gondola line, trying to manage all our skis and poles and Rachel, who started crying after a short while because her hands were getting cold.

View from top of Gondola/Summit House

At the top of the gondola, we sprinted into Summit House and made camp upstairs in the super warm lodge area.  At that point, things started to improve because we got to start skiing.  It was about 11am.  Because we had 3 adults, we got to take turns and ski with a friend.  Jason and I got to ski 5 runs together throughout the day!!!  A huge treat for us.  And the snow was ok.  It was just very, very cold.  And windy.  And crowded.  And visibility was not great.  But it was still really fun.

By some miracle, Rachel decided to put herself to sleep on Kaitlyn's shift, and slept under the table in the lodge.  She slept there for over two hours!  By the time she woke up, the staff at the lodge were kicking us out and the mountain was closing for the day.  So we gathered our stuff, headed down the gondola, and got back to the car.

Rachel did not end up trying her skis after all.  Another day!

I have to pause and explain a game at Vail Resorts called "Epic Mix".  Everyone with a pass at Vail Resorts will have their pass scanned every time they check in for the day, ride a chair lift, and can even get their picture taken from camera staff on the mountain.  You can then check your status to see how many lifts you rode, how many vertical feet you have skied, etc.  There are points you can earn for doing certain things.  For example, if you ride the same lift 5 times in a row, you get 50 bonus points.  If you ride lift X then lift Y then lift Z in a row, you get more bonus points.  So, even though we will only ski 10 or so days this year, it's fun to try and get as many points as possible.

For this last reason, I had a goal of skiing 11 lifts on 11/11, to earn extra EpicMix points.  And I did!  I was really excited.  Except that, for some reason, my last 4 rides did not register.  So I was really sad that I did not earn these bonus points, and feel a bit slighted by the whole thing.

Monday, Nov 12
Jason had the day off for Veteran's Day.  Rachel and Jason ate breakfast, and then Rachel vomited.  A LOT.  Poor thing!  No idea why.  After we cleaned her up, she did not seem too unhappy or out of sorts.  But we were concerned, since she vomited Sunday and Monday morning and is not commonly sick.  We opted not to take her to the doctor, but to keep her at home instead of going to daycare for the day.  Since Meggan did not feel great either, and because Jason had loads of grading and school work to do, Meggan called in sick and took the day off.  We tried to catch up on housework and spend lots of time snuggling with Rachel.  We did succeed in some garage organization but poor Jason probably got even further behind with work!

One fun thing Rachel has learned lately is the "Willabe-wallaby Waddy... an elephant sat on Daddy!" song.  So she is singing it with everyone's names and laughing hysterically afterward.

Also, this evening we finally strapped Rachel down and cut her hair.  Although I had wanted to grow it all out and clip it back every day, Rachel puts up a huge fight to having her hair done in any way: shampoo, rinse, brushing, pony tails.  She will stand putting in clips, but that's it.  So she has looked unkempt for the last couple of months with her hair in her eyes most of the time.  Tonight, Daddy entertained her while I cut her hair.  And I think it went quite well!  Better pictures to follow.

Hope you are all well.