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.