Rocky Mountain High

It's time for a much overdo post about our trip out to Colorado a couple weeks ago. Too bad you can't read minds, because this has actually been written for about that length of time, I just never got it to my fingertips.

Around this time last year, all of our friends and kids of friends seemed to go on a trip for what this area calls their "ski week". The week of President's Day has become a sort of holiday week for the bay area. I guess they figured so many kids were out of school because they were up in the mountains skiing that they'd just build it into our district schedule. Officially it's called "Mid Winter Break" but word on the street is "ski week". So, since last year everyone had up and left for snow, or sun, I decided we wouldn't be left behind this year. And alas, the time came and we up and went to Denver to visit my sister and her husband and kids.

It was well worth the advance planning.

First and foremost, it needs to be noted that my little family of five is now plane-worthy. Our last airplane trip together was last summer, and it was notably a bit easier at that time. This time was like a little slice of heaven. My husband and I found ourselves looking at each other and shrugging quite a bit. The now-what-do-we-do-to-keep-ourselves-entertained shrug. You see, neither of us had planned on having "free time" on the plane. Which, for any adults travelling without young kids, is all you have when you fly. But for us, family flying has always been filled with how-do-we-keep-the-little-one-entertained moments.

I'm proud to say we've passed a bit of a threshold in our family. It held true on both flights. All the kids were entertained and my husband and I were digging through the seat back pockets and reading the airline magazine and catalogue. We obviously weren't prepared for this phenomenon. The details are such that we barely even noticed our 8 year old was along for the ride, she was so self sufficient with her own bag of goodies. I think her favorite part was plugging in her headphones to the airplane stereo and watching Cake Boss on the airplane TV. Now you know you've passed some sort of barrier when your oldest likes to watch the same shows as you. And our younger daughter was happy with her puzzle books or the DVD player.

And then there was our son. The one we banked on to take up all our time.

Not so. He was fabulous. In fact, on the way home he was perfectly happy to sit and watch Dora on my phone for almost an hour stretch at one point. He occasionally wanted to get up and walk around a bit, so we happily obliged him. And other than that, he was content playing with his cars or watching a show in his seat.

Hence the magazine time for mom and dad. It was a thing of beauty.

Now, on to the real beauty. The Rocky Mountains. We didn't know it at the time, but we hit perfect weather. It snowed the whole time we were there.

Some people might think perfect weather is clear and sunny skies. But we Californians get that quite a bit. What my kids wanted to see, and me too for that matter, was the white stuff. The 'stuff' that always amazes me how much room it can take up and how beautiful it can make things look. And all it is is frozen water.

After our meet and greet in Denver with my sister and family, we all packed up the cars and went to the mountains for 3 nights. We had a great place to stay, thanks to my husband's friend, with a sledding hill behind the house and the ski mountain a 20 minute drive away. And the shopping outlets only 5 minutes away, which truth be told, my sister and I hit on our last morning there.

My girls went through a roller coaster of emotions with regards to the actual skiing. Want to, don't want to, hot, cold, had a blast, too tired. You name it, they spewed forth it all. But in the end, we all had an incredible time.

My husband and I got the girls out there for two days of skiing. We decided this year that we'd go with them ourselves and see if their skills could further along a bit faster than a group lesson, where they spend a lot of time waiting in line. We had a lot of fun spending real quality time with each of them.

We heard the squeal with excitement as they started to go faster. We listened and attended to their concerns. We got them over some humps of anxiety.

And our legs will never be the same.

Their reward during the day was frequent stops in the lodge for candy. And our reward at night was a hot tub with a cold beer.

We also frequently explored the hill behind the house with tubing and sledding, chasing each other down the hill. And we built a little snow man. And to boot, I didn't have to coordinate dinner. I was just the helper. Thank you sis.

It's fun to just be a kid for a while.

After our exhausted broods went to sleep, the four of us adults hung out chatting and playing cards. Truth be told, if the TV wasn't in the room that two kids were sleeping in, we would have been vegging out in front of the Olympics. But instead, we had the pleasure of enjoying each other's company. Another unexpected surprise.

The trip had a lot of favorite moments.

Watching my kids catch snowflakes on their tongues.

Hearing "that was awesome!" after getting off a chairlift with my daughter.

Watching my kids have a blast playing with their cousins.

Enjoying the scenic beauty of the Rockies right out our window.

Getting 22 points in one hand of cribbage. If you have to ask, assume it's good.

Hearing "that was awesome!" after my younger daughter went down the hill on her own tube.

Getting in a little shopping with my sister.

Watching the beauty of snow falling. Something I haven't seen a lot in the last 7 years.

All in all, I'd have to agree with my daughters' sentiments.

That was awesome.