We had just enough time to unpack, stow the suitcases, fill the recycle bin with boxes, and put away the Christmas decorations, and then it was time to get the suitcases back out and dig through the storage bins for our winter gear, because we were off to Colorado!
Officially, I was there for a veterinary conference. Unofficially, we were there for SNOW -
- Ski School -
- doing our best to survive as middle-aged snowboarders -
- and arguably the best part of winter sports, finding somewhere cozy after to eat too many snacks and have wine and cocoa. (Yes, I know there's a name for it. No, I can't bring myself to use "apres" as a verb. I also don't understand why it's so difficult to use both syllables of the word "powder".)
Both kids made a lot of progress at ski school - Lucie graduated from the magic carpet and got the green light to ride the lift, and Brennan mastered his "Lincoln turns" and got to go in one of the terrain parks. At least, I think that's what he was describing, the story involved jumps, a tunnel, and a teepee?!? They were both very fixated on their ski school level - no matter what we told them - so thankfully Lucie was promoted to Level 2+ and Brennan to Level 4, whatever that means. Because when they go to ski school at Vail, they vanish until roughly 3:30, and as hard you might try to spy them out on the slopes, it could be anyone's kid all bundled up in snowsuits, helmets, and goggles.
When they were not busy fixating on arbitrary numbers assigned to them, the kids had fun with other traditional winter pursuits, like making snow angels:
and glow-in-the-dark bowling.
We had dinner at a place called Bol, which I foolishly thought might be some sort of Asian-fusion place with rice bowls and pho, but actually is swanky bar food with a bowling alley in the back. The lanes were full, and as our meal ended, I was just promising Brennan we could do it another time, when our server let us know a lane had just opened up.
Lucky me. Gosh I love bowling.
(I absolutely do not love bowling)
So we capped off dinner with the most breath-takingly expensive game of bowling I've ever witnessed. But it made the kids happy - well, except when Lucie was actively bowling, as she was upset that she didn't instantly get a strike, and she refused to use the bowling ball ramp because it was "for babies".
It was another great visit to Colorado, but we did miss having our buddies Audrey and Grace there. Also, I missed about half of my lectures, so it wasn't a huge success on the continuing education front. I don't know who I was kidding on that one.
Now it's time to see if we can pull off skiing as a family. Two weeks later, we loaded up the Subaru and headed up to Tahoe.
We went with our neighbors again - this time to Truckee, which we liked a lot. It's a little closer to San Francisco and less townie than Tahoe City. We got Tahoe local passes this year, not because we plan to ski a bunch, but because it gave us access to Vail and Northstar, and 6 days of lift tickets costs more than a season pass.
It was our first time at Northstar, and we really liked it. I'm sure serious skiers have their complaints, but we're down with a lot of easy to intermediate terrain, overpriced-but-at-least-tasty-and-kinda-healthy food, and nice employees handing out chocolate kisses to kids in the gondola line.
After a family lesson and a little more time on the bunny hill -
- we were ready to chance skiing together.
We got the go-pro working, figured out how to get on & off the lift as a group, and remembered to stuff our pockets with snacks for when it's meltdown-thirty. Both kids got to pick a thing to do - Brennan wanted to try the terrain park we spotted from the lift, and Lucie chose going to the very top of the mountain.
Here we are at the summit - Mt. Pluto (8617 ft)
Time to get back down & celebrate!
Roux got it on the fun, too. She loved the snow - especially when someone would toss her snowballs.
1 comment:
You hate bowling.
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