Winter Park Ski School - Week 5

Our final weekend in Winter Park, we went to Hernando's with the Martin's.  We couldn't let it end without the Martin's eating their favorite Winter Park pizza.

Three of the four kids opted for pasta over pizza.

Then, there was Cole, the boys who stood alone eating cheese pizza.  Yum!

We arrived at the condo with the luggage cart, riding in style. 

We left the condo with a luggage cart, riding with style.

Kellan was bright eyed and ready for ski lesson #5.

On the march to lessons, Oliver enjoyed a tasty treat... so I thought... until he threw it at me!

After four weeks of ski lessons, the fifth lesson had finally arrived.  It was a bitter sweet day.  It was nice to know that the following weekend we didn't have to drive up to the mountains and have our weekend consumed with ski lessons.  It was also sad that this was the end.  The kids were making such great progress and really loving it.  The talk of the day was when do we get them up again before spring sports start and how soon can we sign up for next year.

Oliver and Owen were fired up!  Their instructor, Jordan said that he loved skiing with these two and he looked forward to Saturdays all week.  He said that they were making great progress and they were definitely ready for the next level.  We were really impressed with Jordan as well and if we could, we would hire him for private lessons.  Unfortunately, those private lessons come with a steep price tag.  We can always dream. 

At lunch, I was proud to see Jeff and his buddy supporting the business.  Thanks guys!!!

After lessons, Kellan found a puddle that required a stomp, or two, or three.

Kellan and Cole had a great final day as well.  Their instructor said that they did well learning how to turn and stop.  Kellan is still little nervous, but he'll work through that.  He has a great demonstration on how you are suppose to hold your hands, how you should stand and then reminds you to bend your knees.

On the ride back to the car, we had not one snow lover....

... but two!

Yes, Oliver collected a pile of snowballs that he was not only proud of, but excited to share with his brother.

As we rode off into the cloud covered sunset, we were SO proud of all of our new skiers!

We are super excited that we are well on our way to being a skiing family.  We area looking forward to getting up another time or two this year for some sunny spring skiing with our boys, but not before a weekend at home to catch up!

Oliver's 100th Day of Kindergarten

Oliver's 100th day of school approached and he brought home notes that he needed to bring in 100 items to represent 100 days of school.  He thought about what he wanted to bring and settled on 100 Starburst.  WIth ski school and the Super Bowl, we completely spaced buying Starburst so on the morning of the 100th day, Daddy took him to the store to buy 100 Starburst.  They searched and found a bag that had about 80 Starburst in it.  They bought 2 bags and Oliver counted out 100 Starburst.  That night at home, he explained to Mommy how he had 160 Starburst, but used 100, so he had 60 extra (to eat).  When I pulled his Starburst out of his backpack, he also had another treat that we didn't know about.  His 100 Starburst earned him 1st place for the 100th Day Project.  Way to go, Big Guy!  100 Starburst for our 1st Place Kindergartner.  (now if Mommy and Daddy could stop eating them!)

The (not so) Big Game

FINALLY!!

The Big Game was here!

The Broncos were in the Super Bowl playing the Seahawks.

We had our Blue and Orange and we were fired up!

Top to Bottom:

Kellan, Oliver, Cole

Owen, Owen, Mark

We were fired up and ready for some fun!

Especially Oliver and Eric

More Blue and Orange:

Top to Bottom

Jennie, Cole, Kellan, Kristi

Carrie, Owen, Owen, Mark, Oliver and Eric

All the crowd, plus Patrick.

Oh, why not one more, with Keith.

The Martin family is ready for the Big Game!

Kristi, Owen, Patrick and Cole

The Ham Fam is Ready Too!

Carrie, Oliver, Kellan and Keith

So are the Heinemans.

Jennie, Owen and Eric

For pre-game festivities, Krist made orang and blue jell-o jigglers.

Who doesn't love a little jiggle from the jell-o?

Jennie made a game time bingo game for the kids and adults.  It was amazing how attentive they were.  The Brooke family had also arrived and the Wells' were here too.

The game was off to a rough start, so Kellan brought down some additional fan fare to get the party started.

As the game went on, it didn't take long to wonder what had happened to the Broncos that we have watched dominate all season long.

Fortunately, we had a half time party of our own to pick up our spirits.

Happy Birthday Jennie and Eric.  It was SO fun to celebrate you on Super Bowl Sunday!

Happy Birthday Jennie and Eric!

As for the Broncos, they lost in one of the hardest games to watch, ever.  We've always got next year and we're ready to cheer on the Blue and Orange!

Winter Park Ski School - Week 4

Week four of Winter Park Ski School started off with a Blizzard.  After several weeks with no measurable snow, the mountains were getting pounded and it was flying all of the way down to the front range.  We left at our usual time of 4 PM and heard from our buddy Jeff Wells that I-70 was a parking lot, so we went up the canyon.  Canyon short cut or not, we were bound to sit in traffic that was stopped as far as the eye could see.  Thanks to Jeff, we had a heads up to jump on the frontage road and it's a good thing because we heard later that if we would have stayed on I-70 the entire way, it would have added 2 hours to our 2.5 hour trip.  Come to find out, there was a "low speed chase" (no joke... the news said "low speed" with a drunk driver that ended in a crash when I-70 came to a common abrupt stop.  Traffic past Hwy 40 was diverted back down the mountain but thankfully, we headed up Hwy 40.

Traffic was so bad that the Martin's didn't even attempt the drive, which meant that they missed out on their favorite Hernandos Pizza in Winter Park!

We met Jeff and Jin for pizza and the kids were all entertained during our wait thanks to Steve Jobs' iPhone.

The Manning brothers joined us for dinner.  Peyton had a big Super Bowl game on Sunday and they were celebrating the Broncos on Friday at school.

The next day, Winter Park was measuring snow by the foot.  It was GORGEOUS!!

As the boys and I walked to Ski School, I said "Look at all of this snow!" in which Oliver responded, "That means there is more snow to eat!".  I was quickly given a lesson in the priorities of a child and it took me back to my childhood.  After a quick reminisce, this Mama was back to herded her cats to ski lessons.

We weren't sure how the boys would do in their lesson but we dropped them off and hoped for the best.  It turned out that they loved it!  Kellan had a private lesson since the rest of his class didn't show up (Cole was home sick).  Oliver and Owen only had one other classmate with him.  They had a great time working on their turns and giving powder a chance.

In the meantime, the Dad's hit the slopes.

I heard all kind of stories about Warren Miller Moments from Patrick and Keith.

Apparently, there were crowds cheering for their powder skills and helicopters flying over head.

Notice... there is no proof of helicopters or crowds.  Just Patrick and the man behind the camera.

I'm sure there were plenty of Warren Miller moments, complete with theme music.  Unfortunately, Keith and Patrick weren't the stars, this time.

The man behind the camera.

While the guys had powder that went on for miles, this Mama had Starbucks and spreadsheets that went on for hours.  Sometimes you have to take the responsible role and get some work done on a Saturday.  Surely, the cider market will thank me, someday.  Or not.