Breckenridge 2019

When we left Dave & Kara's house in Colorado Springs, we were very glad that we upgraded our rental car from a minivan to a 4WD Jeep, though that did make it pretty tight squeezing in all the groceries. The worst parts of the drive to Breck were getting out of Dave & Kara's neighborhood, and the last 100 yards to the house in Breckenridge. We probably could have made it without the 4WD, but we'd be violating the chain laws, and getting back up the snowy drive from the house in Breck would have been a challenge.



The house in Breckenridge was beautiful and included a pool table, a hot tub, and private baths for all the couples. The only drawback being it wasn't ski-in ski-out, and it was quite a hike to the shuttle stop. Fortunately, the Sodermans rented a land-boat, and since Jennifer wasn't skiing, we were able to ferry everyone the three minute drive to the slopes.

On the first day skiing, Mike, Steve, Hayden, Connor, Gabriel and Owen all took a family group lesson together, while Nora went the traditional ski school route. Meanwhile, Elaine and I explored the slopes on our own: we skied all the blue groomers on Peak 7 in the morning, had a lovely lunch together at Sevens, then skied the more challenging blues on Peak 6 as the snow started rolling in, before working our way back over to Peak 9.



Megan and Mirabel got in on Tuesday afternoon (the synchronized skating went great!), so on Wednesday all the kids were in lessons, and all the skiing adults were on the slopes together. Elaine and I guided everyone over to our favorite spots on Peak 7, and we all had lunch again at Sevens (and partook in the free Oxygen bar downstairs ;-). After lunch, Elaine and Megan went off for a Women's Ski & Wine lesson, and I broke off from the guys to explore some black diamonds.



Coming out of lessons on Wednesday, Owen and Hayden were somewhere around level 6.8 and itching to do more black diamonds, Nora was around level 6.5 but wanting to take it easy and ski with the other kids. So, the last two days, I skiied with Owen & Hayden searching out challenging runs, while the rest of the crew stayed together on some of the more reasonable blue terrain. The boys and I spent a lot of time on the T-bar, skiing the North Face Bowl and even some double black diamonds on Horseshoe Bowl. We went up to the top of Peak 8, the highest lift in North America at 12,840 feet, but it was super cold and windy so we just skiied the double black diamond Imperial Bowl together once. We found better conditions off of 6-Chair with loads of fun wooded black diamonds, from the fast and fun No Name, to the super steep narrow and mogul filled Hombre, and best of all going through the gates to the Way Out Bowl. It was super fun skiing with the boys, and we might even have made it to the point I have to admit Owen is a better skier than me :-)


It was a pretty amazing trip, and we've already voted on the DCPS school calendar poll to try and insure we get another trip in next February...

(To see all the skiing pictures, click here.)

In the Springs

When we discovered the kids would have a week off of school in February, we immediately thought we should go skiing. And when we started planning a trip with some friends, we decided to go to Colorado. But when our friends announced they couldn't actually make it to Colorado until Monday of that week due to a synchronized ice-skating competition (which is really a thing), I was sad -- two whole days of skiing lost. That was when Allen reminded me that we had family in Colorado, and our ski delay would actually afford us time to see them. And that, my friends, is what we call lemonade.

So we called Dave and Kara, confirmed the dates worked with their schedule.  After we landed in Denver (in a snowstorm) and rented a jeep (which the 10 year old version of myself would have enjoyed more than the 45 year old version did), we headed to "The Springs."

We fit a lot into just a few days. Allen dropped the rest of us off Saturday night and immediately headed to the Springs Ensemble Theater to catch his friend, Paul "Jude" Bishop, in the title role of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance -- Paul was Liberty Valance as opposed to the Man. The next morning, the kids and Uncle Dave conceived, work-shopped and filmed (with help from Allen), Ripped from the Headlines, the latest AEON production. We all went out to lunch and then Dave joined us for a showing of Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse, while Kara prepared for an onslaught of Gradys as Caitlin and Brandon's family came over for dinner, cupcakes in honor of Quin's birthday, and a viewing of the previous AEON production, The Rebellion.

The next morning, we decorated cookies, made a massive grocery store run for the rental house, gave a lot of hugs, and then packed up and headed to Breckenridge for the next stage of our Colorado adventure.



(To see all the Colorado Springs pictures, click here.)

The Rebellion

Last year my 43rd birthday was on Super Bowl Sunday and of course we had a big birthday/Super Bowl party at Katherine & Lee's house. With my 44th birthday on Monday this year, it just made too much sense to do it again! Elaine and Molly had tickets to see a live taping of the My Favorite Murder podcast on Saturday night, so the kids and I headed up to K&L's early with grandpa to spend the night before Super Sunday. This gave them plenty of time to work on their latest production. In the past they've put on plays like, Rebels on Naboo, that have been impressive productions for their age, but do require a fair amount of patience and coordination from the audience. Over Thanksgiving they discovered iMovie with their cousins making the hit series of films: Island Adventure, U2's Dad, and Sponsored by LaCroix. This was a revelation! Now they can indulge their theatrical flights of fancy with editing! Needless to say, the grown ups all were able to enjoy a wonderful weekend long Super Bowl/Birthday party with only a few calls for appearing in cameos (a welcome distraction from the incredibly boring Super Bowl this year), the kids did a deep dive into how to craft a 'realistic fiction that strays from history', and you loyal blog reader can enjoy the fruits of their labors: The Rebellion!