Vacation Wrap-up

Well, we did end up having a good end to our trip despite the emergency room visit. Grace just had a virus, but it sure made her sick. She missed about a day and a half of skiing. She fell behind in the class and wasn't having so much fun, so we signed her up to take a private daddy and me ski lesson on Saturday morning. This was awesome for both of them. She really built up her confidence and started skiing really well. She has moved up to a level 2 skier which means she can now ride the chair lift. David and I kept skiing all week. When the kids were sick, we just traded off, and then when they were a bit better and went back to camp and day care, we skied some more together. It was so nice to be together all morning and then go to lunch together without the kids. We haven't had so many dates in years. We also had fun going to the fireworks show they have at Smuggler's. Grace was so excited because we missed the fireworks here on the 4th of July. She has not let us forget it since. The instructors also did a torch ski run right before the fireworks show which was pretty cool.
Yay for our first family vacation! David promised me that our next vacation (not to see relatives) will be somewhere warm. I would love to do Disney in 2009 before Grace gets much older.
David says he wants to post about skiing. Hopefully he will soon. I think he was really excited to get back to the sport. We will try to do some spring skiing in Utah when we come this year. David will be there in February and we (the girls and I) are going in March. We hear that Alta does free rope tow all day, so I think I'll take Grace and let her see some Utah powder. New England ice is not so fun...

Ski Vermont!

That license plate is hard to get use to after Ski Utah for most of our lives.

Well, we arrived at Smuggler's Notch, VT on Monday night for our first family vacation ever that doesn't involve visiting relatives. David and I haven't done any skiing in over 10 years. We decided it was time to try it again and teach Grace.

Smuggler's is a fantasy place for families. It is seriously fun. Our little condo is right in the center of the village about 1 minute walking to anything we want to do. In fact, we can ski right to our building. We enrolled Grace in a week-long ski camp and Harriet in a week-long, well, day care. They call it Treasures, and actually it's really nice and they do a very good job, but it is still day care.

Monday was a tough day as we scurried to finish packing, take the dogs to the Doty's house, rent skis from REI and then make the 4 hour drive with the screaming and fighting kids to northern VT. As David says, there's little between here and the arctic and once you've felt the wind at the top of the peak, you're quite sure that Santa's neighborhood isn't far.

Tuesday, we dropped Hattie off and we all started skiing. David and I were a bit nervous and took a cautious day going down the bunny slope to make sure we weren't going to kill ourselves. Grace had a rough day too because the skis REI fitted her with were way too long and she had a hard time keeping up with the class. Still, we were all pretty happy at the end of the day after skiing, got Grace some new skis, and looked forward to a better day on Wednesday.

In the middle of the night, Grace woke up feeling sick with a fever. We couldn't believe our luck that she would get sick on the second night here, but I pretty much had planned on someone getting sick. She woke up Wednesday excited to ski. After a phone call to her doctor who said that if Grace felt like skiing that we should let her ski and she probably wasn't too sick. So we dropped her off at camp and took Hattie up the hill to Treasures. It proved to be a long day for Hattie. She had to stay in the day care for 7 hours (you can't pick them up and take them back) while David and I took ski lessons and then went to a mandatory condo sales pitch (mandatory if you want your $700 discount!)

David and I had great ski lessons (on separate mountains!) and now are pretty confident that we can get back out on the slopes and really enjoy ourselves. Our knees and egos are holding up so far.

We went to pick up Grace who looked like she wanted to lay down and sleep for 100 years. Her eyes were both red little slits and she just looked terrible. Her fever was pretty much gone so we took her back to the room for a good nap hoping that it was just a long day for her. Her instructor said that she had a great day skiing until the last run which ended up being one run too many and she melted down.

Long story short, David just took her for a 30 minute drive to the nearest emergency room. She is really really really sick today. I feel so bad for her. She was so looking forward to learning how to ski and we were looking forward to the end of the week when we could take her out with us and ski with her. Now things aren't looking so good. It should be apparent that if you have time to blog on a vacation, the vacation is not going well!

We have taken only a very few pictures and are now starting to regret we don't have any of Grace skiing or even outside in the snow. We might not get any now. If you're reading this, say a big prayer and cross your fingers for us that we can get Grace better in time for her to do some more skiing before we have to leave.

Here are a few snapshots. See, we could have just posted these and made you all think that we're having a lovely yuppie ski vacation.The view off of our balcony.

Harriet saying "cheese" (she does this on command now!)

Grace in her ski gear before camp yesterday.

Both girls FINALLY in bed and asleep on Monday night, little did we know...

The Family that Sniffs Together...

Well the blog front has been pretty quiet as we have all been battling colds since just after Christmas. In the family friendly tradition, Grace got RSV and her first ear infection right after Christmas. In the spirit of Christmas giving, Grace thought it would be nice to share with Hattie. So Hattie ended up with RSV the next week. And since this takes up to 2 weeks to run its course it was inevitable that Mom and Dad were also going to get sick. All told, everyone visited the doctor except for me. Although I probably should have. This past week was the sickest I have been in recent memory and caused me to take my first sick time in three years. Luckily we are all recovered (I still have no voice and an occasional cough) in time for Vermont. I'll let you know if church produces any sniffles on Wednesday. ;-)

Ring in the New

Nothing new here except new viruses. We have been sick since the day after Christmas and counting. I started the New Year by crawling to the barn in a snowstorm to teach an impromptu riding lesson. When the rider didn't show up, I actually got to ride by myself in the most beautiful snowstorm. A tiny piece of heaven... should have known there was nowhere to go but down! Grace is finally well, but Hattie has RSV this week and David and I finally caught our share. We're just hoping to get better and stay better for our ski trip coming up in about a week!

We've been meaning to do our 2007 top ten list. Still haven't had a chance to do it yet because we've been too busy wiping noses and filling prescriptions. But, I have 5 minutes today (totally should be doing something else) and I thought I would write down a few things that the kids are doing (besides coughing and sneezing) these days before I forget them:

Harriet is:
*wanting to do everything Grace does exactly the way Grace does
*trying to dress herself
*successfully undressing herself at the most inopportune moments (like when we're late to leave to go somewhere!)
*refusing to wear socks, but demanding shoes
*hating to have her diaper changed
*despising to have her teeth brushed
*kicking so hard in the tub, that I think she could kick herself across a swimming pool with no problem.
*throwing a fit at the sight of her carseat
*not wanting to eat anything except candy
*trying to talk, but still 95% eh, eh, eh...
*getting little OCD things going on - like her naptime and bedtime routine that has to be just so or she will launch herself out of her crib until you get it right.
*playing with baby dolls
*playing with trains
*drawing
*laughing at everything
*loving her doggies
*learning to say sorry (she doesn't say sorry, but softly pats the person who needs a sorry)
*wanting to talk on the phone
*wanting to carry a purse or a backpack
*still wearing her pink crocs (what will we do when they don't fit!)
*throwing everything on the floor when she is done with it at the table - plate, utensils, food, cups. The dogs get hit sometimes, but they must think it's worth the bonk on the head from the sippy cup to stay there and wait for the pasta to fall.
*driving us crazy and melting our hearts at the same time

Grace is:
*being driven crazy by Hattie
*loving having someone who can play with her (sometimes)
*starting to pick up little traits at school from her friends - not always good
*loving school
*loving dance
*still playing with trains
*still not doing her hair
*choosing her own clothes - not always good choices for the weather
*able to get dressed all by herself, but doesn't want to half the time
*getting a huge vocabulary
*reading entire books
*adding and subtracting
*counting to 100 by 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's
*writing everything she can think of
*asking us how to spell every word she can think of
*writing lots of notes to Velvet, Shadow, Rudolf, and her friends
*paying close attention to North, South, East, and West when we are driving. She watches the compass in my car. She wishes that we had a Mount Olympus nearby so that you could tell which way was East. East is her favorite direction because that's where Mount Olympus is in SLC.
*desperately wanting to take the training wheels off her new bike
*telling us she already knows how to ski (has never been)
*eating nothing for days and then eating every 20 minutes for days
*telling jokes
*talking more on the phone when I can trick her
*wishing for spring and summer, but appreciating winter
*planning her 5th birthday party

Conversations with Grace this week:

Mom: Grace, get in the car.
nothing
Mom: get in the car
nothing
Mom: Grace, get in the car.
Grace: Just a minute, I'm watching the fluffy gray clouds float by with the wind (on an overcast day when you can barely tell that the clouds are moving). Isn't it beautiful mom?

Grace: Mom, I think I see a red and white light in the sky. Yes! It's Rudolf!

Grace: I can't wait for Kindergarten. They will have monkey bars. You know, just the way I have been dreaming about. It will be amazing.

2007-Year in Review

Well I am a week late and I am sure a few dollars short, but here is the much anticipated 2nd annual video year in review. If you don't see yourself in the video, I guess you need to visit us more often!

Michelle and I are working on a 2007 Top Ten Event list that we will hopefully post shortly. For now, grab the popcorn, the drink, and sit back and enjoy the show. I hope that you have some time to waste.