Ski Trip 2009: Steamboat, CO (Days 1 & 2 of 6)

Watching Star Wars on the plane

View from our condo balcony Friday morning

Making our way from our condo (background) to the ski rental place

Helen has an affinity for moose and loved this long legged guy

Checking out some sort of ice structure under construction

Gondola Square in the background with lots of construction

View up the mountain from the bottom

Gondola Square - lots of shops, restaurants, and Gondola loading area

Got our equipment and we're ready to ski

Derek and Adam check out the trail map during a break

Taking the gondola up the mountain

Nice view from the gondola

Derek, Adam, and Me at the top of the gondola

This year we went skiing in Steamboat, Colorado (Google Map, Wikipedia). We really wanted to go out west again, especially because the boys are skiing much better since our last trip out there and because it was pretty icy on the east coast last year on our trip to Sugar Mountain.

I wish our ski trips out west could be for a full week, but because of Helen's teaching schedule she feels she can only get away for the 3 personal days she's allowed each year. If we wrap them around a weekend then we can get 5 days. It's also harder on the kids to miss school the older they get. So, unless we want to ski during crowded holidays we're stuck with the 5 day ski trip.

I started looking at airfares late last year and it wasn't looking good. Then I started to see some reasonable airfares (in the $300 range), but with our limited time we really needed a late afternoon departure time and a late afternoon\early evening return arrival. I finally found one and was about to book the online itenerary I had assembled, but when I went to book the flight it had jumped $60 a person. We pushed the trip back a week, which was good because I found cheaper lodging as well, and I quickly booked the trip. It was a good thing. It wasn't long after I booked everything before the price on our flight started going up.

Thursday Feb 19, 2009

I had the day off and spent a good bit of time the previous night packing. We planned on only checking 1 suitcase. I left a bunch of Helen's clothes out and told her when she woke up that she had some choices to make. She said she wasn't prepared to make any choices and that we would just have to pack 2 suite cases.

Another teacher picked Helen up in the morning so that the boys and I could pick Helen up at her school and head straight to the airport. I finished the packing and loaded all the stuff into the van, did a sweep\vacuum\mop, cleaned the toilets and headed to have lunch with the boys at their school. However, the school decided to have the students eat in their rooms in order to setup the science fair in the cafeteria - thwarted! I filled up the van with gas and ran to the bank for some money and then came back and checked the boys out. They were so excited.

After checking the boys out of school we headed to Helen's school. I told her I would be there about 1:15sh (I always add "sh" to any time commitment). She was stressed about us not making our 3:58 flight and called me on the cell phone about 1:20 wanting to know where I was. I let her panic a little before telling her to look for me because I was pulling into the parking lot.

The drive to airport was pretty smooth, although it was pretty crowded at the airport. I used to valet cars at the airport during college, but I've forgotten all that and had to make a couple trips around the loop before getting the parking right.

We checked in and security wasn't too crowded - thank goodness because we were starting to run out of time. Even though security wasn't crowded it was still a royal pain. I have a big problem with security in general and what a drain it is on productivity. I would estimate that there's at least a 25% surcharge on all productivity do to the need for security. Why can't people just do the right thing and do nothing that detracts from the productivity of society? Do they really need to be wanding 65 year old men and having them remove their clothes? I didn't get to stew about it too long because the plane was boarding by the time we made it to the gate.

We flew Frontier Airlines. They have different animals painted on the planes. Stu the rabbit was flying with us to Denver and then Luke the lynx on the commuter from Denver to Steamboat. The kids loved the animals on the plane. The flights were fine, although we were a little concerned about the pilot on the commuter because he looked and sounded about 20 years old.

The shuttle bus from Steamboat met us at the Steamboat\Hayden airport and it was a 20 minute or so drive to the resort. Derek slept on the sofa and Adam slept on the love seat - and they were excited about it. However, the following nights the novelty wore off and they opted for turning them into sleeper sofa's.

Friday Feb 20, 2009

We woke to a beautiful morning. From our condo balcony we could see people letting their dogs loose and running around the ski slopes before the slopes opened. We had a relaxing morning and didn't get out until about 10. We walked over from our condo in Ski Time Square to Gondola Square where we rented our ski equipment.

It was Spring Break locally so it was probably more crowded than usual, but still minimal lift lines. In the early part of the day we stayed down lower and worked on refreshing our skills. The kids loved the Rabbit Ears terrain park. We all (except Helen) tried some weak jumps. I had just sat back and landed on my butt when this teenager in a Ray Allen Celtics jersey proceeded to nail all three waist\chest high jumps in succession - with a somersault on each one. It was amazing how well people were skiing out there.

Later in the afternoon we took the Gondola up the mountain and did some runs up higher. When were got back to the condo Helen and Derek crashed. Derek had some altitude sickness and didn't stir until morning. Adam and I hit the hot tubs. There was one indoor and one outdoor. We spent most of the time in the outdoor tub - something about the temperature differential that makes it feel really good. Adam, my soaking partner, never really relaxed and treated it instead like a swimming pool. There was lots of kicking, splashing, and jumping in. It was fun.

I ordered some pizzas for takeout and took the city bus to get them and go to the grocery store. It would have been nice if there was a store within walking distance. We brought a bunch of chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies that Helen made at home and they lasted almost the whole trip.

Ski Trip 2006: Keystone, Colorado

Derek, Me, and Adam waiting on the train to the airport in the early morning

Derek and Adam asleep during the sleigh ride dinner

Adam showing off his mad skills

General scenery

Taking the gondola up to the mountain top fondue restaurant

Helen and Me

We gave the boys some Lego's as a fun trip gift and Derek would not rest until he finished them

Adam being silly

Derek wears his ski school pins proudly

We got back Tuesday from our annual family ski trip. I blogged about our last couple of ski trips to Sugar Mountain, North Carolina (Google Map): 2008 Trip Report, 2007 Trip Report, but I wasn't blogging when we took the boys on their first ski trip in 2006 so I thought I would do a trip report on that trip before I do one on this year's trip.

Our first ski trip with the boys, 3 years ago, was to Keystone, Colorado (Google Map). Derek was 6 and Adam was 3. We weighed going for a cheaper trip on the east coast since it was their first ski trip and they wouldn't be able to take full advantage of the big mountains out west, but we opted for the trip out west because we wanted them to have a great first ski experience as the slopes on the east coast can be crowded and icy.

We had a very early flight out. My brother dropped us off at the train station and let us leave our car at his house. For some reason I really didn't want to check any baggage so we all wore our heavy coats and pulled our carry-ons through the airport - even little Adam. We thought we were there in plenty of time, but our gate was a long ways off and we had to hustle to make it. We were all sweating by the time we got to the gate.

It was Adam's first plane ride and Derek's second. Derek had taken a trip to Alaska with us to see my sister when he was 1. On that plane ride I was changing Derek's stinky diaper in the cramped plane bathroom when we hit some turbulence. The stewardesses seemed extra anxious for us to get out of the bathroom and back to our seats. They were knocking on the door and I kept hearing this bell ring over and over. I thought it was the fasten seatbelt bell, although it seemed more frantic. The stewardesses started knocking louder and louder. I finally realized that while I had Derek laid out changing his diaper on the toilet seat he was reaching back and pushing some sort of emergency call button, which was ringing the bell that I was hearing and getting the stewardesses all up in arms. Sorry.

I had gone on a number of pre-kid ski trips (Whistler, Park City\Deer Valley\Alta, Breckenridge\Copper Mountain, and Heavenly) and Helen had gone with me to Park City, but had a bad experience with an impatient ski instructor and was, therefore, a little apprehensive.

We put the boys in ski school. They seemed to really enjoy it and the instructors were terrific. The boys got so excited about the buttons that they were given for each level they mastered. By the end of the trip, Derek was going down some of the small slopes with us. Adam showed dogged determination going down the training slope and riding the magic carpet up over and over. The boys learned the terms "french fries" (ski's apart) to go fast and "pizza" (ski's in a wedge) to slow down. There were some nice slopes for Helen and she gained some confidence.

We also learned a valuable lesson about pre-planning evening activities on a ski trip...don't. We made pre-trip reservations for a horse drawn sleigh ride dinner and a mountain top fondue dinner. We were always beat after skiing all day and it was hard doing anything afterwards - especially with young kids. The kids enjoyed the sleigh ride out to the cabin for dinner, but quickly crashed before the main course arrived. The hosts brought out some big wool blankets and the kids slept on the floor next to our table.

The night we went to the mountain top fondue restaurant we were all beat again. Adam was potty training and Helen took him to the bathroom for an extended stay. Derek had a headache and went to sleep at the table. Then all the raw food arrived for cooking. I scrambled trying frantically to cook each course as the other courses piled up. Helen and Adam came back, but they had all lost it - and we were a long gondola ride away from our room. As soon as I got everything cooked we headed back down the mountain to our room. I felt pretty taken. You pay a bunch of money for a dinner that you basically cook yourself. The only good part was that the leftovers lasted us several meals so that we didn't have to go out again.

Overall, we all had a great time and the kids had a wonderful first ski experience.

XBMC, etc.

This weekend we finished the basketball season with all star games, parent\kid games, and the awards ceremony. Adam's team and Derek's team both won their age groups and they both had a good time this season. Adam received the "Great Scorer" (aka The Black Hole) award and Derek received the "Top Rebounder" award. I'm still playing with my new camera - the photos above are video frames that I saved as photos.

I've also been consumed with my new (old) XBox Media Center. Me and a few other guys from work bought old XBox consoles ($50 at GameStop) and modified them to run XBox Media Center. It's been a fun little project. I also bought a used modem\wireless router combo so that I could connect the XBox wirelessly, but I may end up running a direct ethernet cable because direct is about twice as fast as wireless.

I've always wanted to be able to play, on our tv/stereo in the family room, our music, tv, videos, photos, etc that are saved on our computer - now we can. There's still some kinks to be worked out, but it's nice. I'm also converting all my music that I originally ripped to Microsoft wma format (and was then converted\copied to Apple m4a for iTunes) to mp3. I originally ripped it to wma instead of mp3 because you can store the same quality recording in a smaller file and then I got an iPod and needed iTunes and now I'm tired of maintaining the duplicate proprietary formats.

Basketball

Derek's jersey is the only one blurred because he's the only one fidgeting during the pregame gathering

Derek's jersey is the only one not blurred because he's the only one NOT moving during the game

OK,OK, I'll Update

Helen's parents play some Ravin Rabbids on the Wii with the boys

Derek at Adam's basketball game

Enjoying Nanna's gingerbread house with nieces Lindsay and Brooke

Adam at his best friend Evan's birthday party

After dinner dessert creation

The boys kept bothering me to buy some tape for their hockey sticks

Adam shows off his latest Lego triumph

Derek gets ready to practice skating - he wants to play hockey in the Fall

It's been the usual crazy schedule around here. Helen and the boys have been bugging me to update the Blog so they can find out what's happening in their life.

We're all healthy and back to our normal routines. Helen even seems committed to getting in a regular workout before work - go girl!

The boys are playing basketball. They seem to really enjoy it and their teams are good which helps. Adam is doing really well and is usually the top scorer on his team.

Helen is busy with school and trying to figure out how she's going to cover everything and still take off for our ski trip next month.

I'm in the middle of my USTA tennis season (it's been really cold for tennis) and trying to do all the various projects I happen to be into. I spent a lot of time over the holidays tweaking my computer backup, photo, video strategy and fooling with my new camera. Recently I've been planning our ski and beach trips and rolling out a new online court reservation system for our swim\tennis club. And, as always, trying to focus enough on my real job not to get fired.

Helen and the boys were off for MLK day (I was not). Over dinner, Derek told us that he was going to get a job where he got all the holidays off and didn't have to slave like Daddy. Helen laughed.

BTW, what a great thing it was to see all the excitement around the Obama inauguration.

Holiday Catchup

Can't wait to see what Santa brought

Lego Star Wars Destroyer...yes!!!

Lego Castle and more knights...yeah!

Finally...the whip I've been wanting since I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark

Bakugans too!

The holidays are over and it's back to the real world. I try to take the 2 weeks off during the holidays each year since Helen and the kids are off from school. It's always a great time for us.

It's hectic with family get togethers, parties, and other things, but we also managed to chill quite a bit and de-stress. For the first week we were all trying to overcome the cold\sinus infection\general crud sickness that has been plaguing us. We got out some and did a little shopping to get the holiday feel. Helen always likes to bake and did quite a bit of that. We also watched a lot of movies, had board game nights, and Wii nights, and ate out a bunch. The weather was pretty rainy, but that was OK with us. There were many days where we all hung out in our pajamas for most of the day and just piddled around. It was nice not having to rush around to various activities.

We tackled a number of projects. Helen got rid of a bunch of clothes and cleaned out her closet. I got my car (94 Legend) painted so it's good to go another 5 or 10 years. There were several other small projects as well, but there were still many things we didn't get to...like sending out holiday cards (sorry).

We hope everyone had a nice holiday and that you all have a great 2009.