Recent Happenings

We have had many activities going on recently. I posted the video of E's first ski trip. That was at Winter Park. Winter Park is pretty close to Denver and is a relatively small ski resort. She enjoyed her first time and really benefited from the lesson that she took there. I could have benefited from a lesson as well. I feel bad for WS, he stays on the easy slopes with me. I'm sure that he would rather be doing some real skiing. The trip to Winter Park was great for E's first trip because it was on a Friday and there really weren't very many people on the slopes. It started out beautiful, but then began to snow by lunchtime. I don't mind skiing in snow, but there was this accompanying wind that was very cold and biting. It stung anything that was exposed.

The following Saturday (12/11), WS' parents took us to the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs for an anniversary dinner. I had never been to the Broadmoor, so it was a really nice treat. It was very decked out for Christmas and there were lights galore. We ate at a great restaurant and decided that we'll go back there to actually stay sometime.

Lake view of the Broadmoor.


WS and I on the bridge that goes over the lake.


I'm relaxing in the lobby.


Broadmoor and lake with lights.


The immense Christmas tree with lots of lights.


Just this past Friday we took a trip up to the mountains once again for some skiing. However, we were fortunate because one of WS' friends has a mountain condo that was available for us to use. We drove up to Silverthorne on Friday late afternoon. WS' sister and her family also came up on Friday evening to spend the weekend with us in the mountains for an extended family ski trip. The condo is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath place. WS and I were in one bedroom with E and his sister and husband in the other bedroom. The kids slept in the living room on air mattresses and couches.

We arrived on Friday at about 6PM. It's a good thing that we came up on Friday night. Although we haven't had any snow down here in Denver (in fact it's almost 60 degrees outside right now), the mountains have been getting hit about every 2-3 days. They have unprecedented amounts of snow. It started snowing late Friday night and continued until we left on Sunday (it's actually supposed to continue off and on until next Friday). We were able to drive from the condo to Copper Mountain on Saturday morning. It was slow going due to all the snow, but it took us only 20 minutes from the condo.

We put E in another class for the day. She did really well. Her instructor said that she was the best in her group. She moved up a level and is now ready to move into level 3. She even took her first chair lift up. When she skied at Winter Park, the kids got up the mountain on snowmobile sleds, so this was a little bit of a different experience for her. It scares me a little bit to picture 4-year-olds on ski lifts, but I guess that the instructors know what they're doing.

I have to say that I've never skied snow like this. I'm not exaggerating by any means. It was powder up to my knees. The snow was falling and it was so dry and powdery that it was just fell apart if you tried to touch it. In fact, WS said that he hadn't skied snow like that either (and he's skied a lot in Colorado). I just think that there's been so much snow up in Copper Mountain that the conditions are incredible. We had a great time skiing with WS' sister and her kids. Everyone is a better skier than I am, even the kids. But, I'm doing my best and I do feel myself improving. I definitely felt more confident by the end of my day at Copper. I'm on my way to get my 10,000 hours of practice (Malcolm Gladwell reference) and then I'll be an expert.

After a day of skiing we went back to the condo and had a big spaghetti dinner. E and her cousins had a great time together. She loves to boss them around and they think that everything she says is so funny. She was calling everyone "Captain Madam." I don't know where she comes up with this stuff. We played Apples to Apples and it was pretty silly by the end. I played my "Elizabeth Taylor" card for the category of "Miserable." I couldn't believe that it didn't win that category!

We were going to stay in the condo until today, but I was concerned that the snow would be too much for us to drive down in. It was unrelenting all of Saturday night and Sunday morning, so we drove back on Sunday afternoon.

E all geared up for her second ski trip.


The bottom lifts were pretty crowded at the beginning of the day. Everyone was trying to get up the mountain. The trails weren't crowded though. Some of the time it was almost like we were skiing alone. I think it's because Copper is pretty big.


WS warming up before our first run. He likes to stretch out. He moves his skis in all directions. I tried to do it too, but I ended up almost falling over.


Snowy slopes.


The entire gang (except WS and E - he's taking the picture and she's in her lesson). I'm the farthest to the right.


WS' youngest niece and me! We did really well skiing together because she and I are almost at the same ski level. She's a lot younger than me though!


Snowy, dusk view from the condo.


I'm relaxing on the couch and wiped out after skiing.


E and the cousins.




This week will be busy. I haven't really done any Christmas shopping, so that's on the agenda. E will be going to school for 2 days this week. Her preschool is open for most of the next two weeks. We're having WS' family over for Christmas Eve. The tamales have been ordered and we should be all set. I'm going to attempt to make Mexican rice and beans. Why do I do this to myself?! I should just order food. I'm sure it will turn out alright, but I'll be very stressed out about it. I think I'll do a trial run tomorrow.

E's First Ski Trip

Anniversary and Tea

Our seventh wedding anniversary is tomorrow. We celebrated it a little bit on Saturday night. WS is in Anaheim for a pharm. convention, so we won't actually be able to celebrate it on the day. We didn't do anything too fancy, we had E with us! WS had flowers delivered to the house. That surprised me because I normally get a bouquet of stargazers from the market. Which I love, but it was nice to change it up a little bit. WS made sure that they included stargazers in the bouquet. Very beautiful.


Here I am with the flowers.

We also exchanged a little something with each other. I'm on a very tight budget, so WS got a shirt that he really liked from Kohl's. It's a great shirt, but I felt a little bit cheap when I opened up his gift.

He gave me this beautiful art print. We really needed some art for our bedroom. And I had been telling him that, so he took it upon himself to find some.


The art that he bought was extra special because he had a reason for buying it (other than just that he liked it). It reminded him of this picture that I had taken on our fall color walk in Kenosha Pass. He thought that the print would remind me of Colorado and the aspen trees.


WS hung our outdoor lights on Saturday. He was feeling a little bit competitive with our neighboring houses. Quite a few of them already had their lights up. We didn't do anything elaborate. I think that he wanted to do more, but I told him that we could add to it every year. Do you know how expensive the lawn decor is? He wanted a deer and they're more than $60! Since we bought the lights this year (they're energy-saving LED!), we decided to just leave it at that. Maybe next year we'll buy a snowman for the yard.
Here's the front of the house.




Here's our pine.



E and I had our own activity on Sunday. We invited WS' stepmom to come with us to a Doll's Tea at an old downtown hotel. A friend of E's from ballet was going with her mom. The unfortunate thing is that my camera batteries died before we even left our house! So, I didn't get any pictures at the tea! Hopefully, E's friend will e-mail us any pictures that came out on their camera.


Here's E posing before we left. It was her idea to pose smelling the flowers!




Mommy and E!



She chose to take her ballerina to the tea because there were ballet dancers that put on a little show after everyone was done eating.


It was such a cute little event. The girls all sat with their dolls at little tables right next to the mom's tables. They had their own little tea snacks and hot cocoa instead of tea. Each girl's table had a bowl of marshmallows that the girls were supposed to add to the hot cocoa. E went crazy! She had 2 refills of cocoa and she put two big scoops of marshmallows in each one. Then, when there was no more cocoa, she just scooped a big mound of marshmallows right on her plate! I finally had to go over and tell her "no more marshmallows." As if the cookie, cupcake, and chocolates that each girl had weren't enough sugar for them!

The moms had champagne (only 1 glass though, boo!) and really good tea snacks. Ballerinas came out and danced right in the middle, and all of the girls were right in front. I don't think that E moved the whole time.

WS has Friday off from work, because he's at the conference all week. His boss told him to just take Friday off. So, I'm taking the day off of work, too. We decided to go skiing on Friday. We're pretty excited. It's going to be E's first time on skis. She's going to be in an all day lesson. Hopefully, it won't be crowded since it's a Friday. The mountains have been getting a lot of snow, so the conditions are supposed to be really good. I've never skied in Colorado, so this will be a first for me. We'll see how it goes!