Monday, February 28, 2011

Ballad of the Dinosaurs



Now Owen has started working on some original songs about a subject near and dear to his heart, dinosaurs!

Sunday, February 27, 2011

The Boy in Black



(Well, technically brown and green, but you get the idea.)

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Snowmass

IMG_0334.JPG

Our ski vacation began rather ominously. On our way to the airport, Allen announced he had a conference call which made checking in the two bags and skis as well as going through security with 2 kids under the age of 5...interesting. Once he was finally off the phone, the kids were fed and we were on route to Denver, things looked promising, except Nora refused to nap and would scream unless we allowed her to watch Dinosaur Train on my i-phone. Both kids crashed on the flight to Aspen, but while Nora woke up as soon as we landed and preceded to scream unabashedly, Owen remained asleep while we got our luggage, boarded the shuttle to the condos, and even when the driver had to stop short to avoid hitting an elk and he fell to the floor. We finally arrived at the condo (as it snowed heavily), got the kids in bed and after a brief exchange with Allen's friends, crashed around 11 pm MST (which would be 1 am EST).

Only to discover the next morning that Owen had a fever.

Now, Owen is typically a one day fever kind of kid, which is fortunate because he's also an aspiring Christian Scientists who refuses to take medicine. Alas, this wasn't a one day kind of fever. Owen maintained that he wasn't actually sick but rather just tired and bored, hence his sleeping roughly 20 hours a day while Allen and I alternated parenting duties and skiing. But by the third day of trying to force Motrin down him only to have him spit it on us as his temperature climbed higher and our days in Snowmass dwindled, we finally took him to the professionals at the Snowmass clinic who, after ruling out strep, the flu, pneumonia and failing to get any Tylenol down him despite four adults holding him down, advised us to go the suppository route and head to the ER if the fever didn't break.

But it did, and finally, four days into our vacation, it really began. Owen went to ski lessons; Nora went to daycare and Allen and I were able to ski together (until he ditched me for some black diamonds) along with Nabeel, Megan, Chris, Elise and Billy.


Despite the medical drama, we really had an amazing time with the Hyatts, the Pearsons, their offspring, and Billy. The kids (Kaden, Liam, Hazel, Owen & Nora) interacted adorably, particularly after Owen was fully recovered and they were able to build their "fun house" together. The adults traded off skiing partners so that the more adventurous (Allen and Nabeel) could get in some fresh powder and fast runs before opting for more scenic runs with the less ambitious crowd (Megan, Chris, Elise and myself) and Billy even missed his heat in the "Men's Ski Slopestyle" at the Aspen/Snowmass Open just to hang out with the crew. There were lots of late night dinners (after the kids were asleep or at least in bed) and some even later night viewings of "Dan vs" with Chris providing some color commentary, but mostly it was just a chance to hang out with some of our favorite people who we don't get to see nearly enough.

It ended all to soon (though the Hyatts did manage to extend their stay a few more days...) but hopefully well go back in another year or two. After we've made sure Owen has had all his shots...

IMG_0359.JPG
IMG_1331.JPG

(click here for Allen's pictures)
(click here for Nabeel's pictures)
(click here for the full slideshow)