For the last two years, the weather has been awesome. Who can beat sunny skies, even if there's some snow on the ground? This year, as New Year's Day approached, the unseasonably warm temperatures that we'd been enjoying also decided to take a hike.
Since we knew the conditions would be a little snowier than our previous years, we decided to embrace the snow and go cross-country skiing. The boys had never been, and we'd only been once (Sam fell...a lot). There were snowy landscapes galore, but my eyes were fixated more on this little number that appeared in the temperature gauge of our trusty minivan:
Um......ok, that's not usually a temperature I see when I'm planning on doing an outdoor activity. Mr. Weather, you must have forgotten that I grew up in MIAMI. Where that zero usually has at least a 9 marching merrily (albeit sweatily) along in front of it. Now, I'm not saying that I prefer the weather in Miami at all; I spend much of my time talking about how the weather in Colorado is the best the country has to offer. But still...zero?
Then I saw this:
Nope, dear reader, sorry to dash your desperate hopes of the weather getting warmer. There's a little minus sign in front of that 4. At this point I'm cursing myself for ever starting a dumb family tradition of hiking on New Year's Day. That's just crazy talk. Why couldn't I have started a family tradition of staying in our pajamas, watching cartoons, and drinking hot cocoa??
And from there, things went from bad to worse...or more accurately, from frigid to arctic. As we made our way over Berthoud Pass, I saw this:
hahahahahahaha. Well, you can either laugh or cry, right? I may have done both. We rolled into Snow Mountain Ranch, a 5,000 acre YMCA property out near Granby, and attempted to not turn into popsicles as we checked in.
The weather was so $*!#@(^# cold that the guy who was assigned to giving the free cross-country lessons was NOT happy that my two older boys were brave enough (or that their parents were cruel enough) to spend time outdoors. I have never been in weather like that, where it was utterly unbearable simply going from the car into a building. But gosh darnit, they were free lessons and we were going to take advantage of them! The boys were amazing troopers--I watched from a 5-foot proximity of the fireplace as they skied up and down on on the practice trail, falling often but popping right back up and skiing some more. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the rec center building, roller skating and playing hockey.
Thanks to the many hours spent playing hockey in our driveway, the boys had no problem keeping up with much older kids |
Kenyon also knows his way around a hockey stick |
Roller Skating Kenyon |
Now, I'd like to think that I'm not terribly snobby, but I very much prefer to stay in hotels that don't have the YHB (Yucky Hotel Blanket). I wasn't expecting the Four Seasons--for $149 a night, we had a room, free breakfast, and access to all the property has to offer--snowshoeing, cross-country skiing (including free lessons for the kids!), archery, hockey, roller skating, basketball, ice skating, craft studio, rock climbing wall). But we did have the yucky hotel blanket (which I immediately folded down to the edge of the bed and instructed the kids to stay away from), and when we pulled out the foldout couch for Jackson, it was apparent that the sheets had not been changed--it may have been the dirty sock in the rumpled sheets that clued me in. They came and changed the sheets, but I was fairly obsessed with the possibility of contracting bed bugs the whole night.
Kenyon enjoying the not-so-luxurious accomodations |
Kenyon preparing to travel in style |
sigh...maybe this was a good tradition to start after all...
Annie, Luis and I loved your blog. What a great time you must have had with the boys! You brave souls! The pictures were wonderful! Love it. Please say Hi! to your Mom for me. Love, Lourdes
ReplyDeleteFun to read as always, sweetie. My grandsons are real troopers!
ReplyDeleteLove,
Dad
Great pictures, wonderful adventures and one fabulously interesting and happy family. WHat could be better?
ReplyDeleteLove you,
mom
Too fun!!! You guys do great stuff together as a family.
ReplyDelete