Martinez Family Journal

(mary) John is away on a brief trip on business to Monterey, planning a conference with some other engineers. I told Drew tonight when tucking him in that he can sleep in my bed since there is room now and he was delighted. He said 'Mommy, bring me in just as soon as you go to bed.' (as if I would wait til later in the night to bring him in?!) and then he inquired why grownups go to bed so much later than little kids. Then he added, ' Mommy can I sleep late? I sure like doing that. It gives me more energy.' I felt like saying 'just for you.'! Yes, we will sleep as late as you let me, as long as we can still get you to school at 12 pm on time!

He also mentioned to me that now that Daddy is gone do I have to do all the work? So I told him the truth, that taking care of him is just a joy.

(Mary) Just now Drew had a time out. He has become very unhappy having to take a time out all by himself and asked if someone could be with him. When told no, he asked if Rory could be with him. Since time outs seem effective for Drew to focus on his behavior, I said yes. So now Rory took a time out too. When 'they' were done, I released them and pretended to be talking to Rory about his behavior, as I do with Drew after time outs. I said 'Rory, are you going to behave better now?' and Drew stuck up for him right away. 'He didn't do anything wrong!!' I explained that I was just joking and that I wasn't being mean.

He seems to be quite attached to Rory these days. I made him go upstairs to get something by hinself, for I thought he could handle it and I was busy making dinner. He complained that a caveman was in his room making him nervous. So he got Rory to go up with him :-)

(Mary) Last night around our bedtime, we called out to Rory to come upstairs with us, but he did not respond. This is not like him. Sure enough, we forgot again and left him in Drew's room for the evening. I suppose he does not like to have to go to bed alone. Drew has recently begun asking for Rory to stay with him as he falls asleep. I never meant to leave Rory in there, though, for the whole evening. :-) Hopefully we will begin remembering to let him out once Drew falls asleep.

(Mary) More posts on our ski trip of 2/4-2/11

We happened to meet another little boy on the way to Steamboat, a 4 year old boy named Kevin whom Drew played with at the Denver airport while awaiting our next flight. They had some fun together playing with Kevin's toys and reading his Scooby Doo book, when we learned they were from Saint Louis, the team we had beaten the night before in the Super Bowl. They even got on the same shuttle bus to Steamboat when we got to Hayden. But we checked and they were not in the same lodge. As luck would have it, we ended up seeing them a couple more times that week, as there were not a lot of people in Steamboat that week. It was a rather slow week, hence the good rate John got with United. As a result, the liftlines were tremendously nonexistent and trails were uncrowded.
That night we arrived, we were hungry and our frig was empty, but we needed to get Drew to bed ASAP as he had ski school early the next am. So we walked over to the Tugboat in the ski square. That was relaxing.

Next am, John and I almost did not know what to do with ourselves. We do not normally have the day to just spend together, just the two of us. It was VERY brightly sunny, but cold, and we got some BBQ'd burgers at Four Points Hut. The rest of the day was really relaxing and we couldn't wait to see Drew at 3. Then we skied another two hours with him. the shuttle brought us back to our condo and we hopped into the hottub and waited for Tom to pick us up at 645. So we got to see their brand new apt and they treated us to a traditional Polish dinner. It truly was the only cabbage dish I have ever liked - YEAH, JOANNA!! I meant to lie Drew down to nap at their place, but was torn between having spend time with them and napping. So he got to go to bed extra late.

Drew was really enjoying ski school now. At Waterville Valley and Stratton, he has been quite hesitant to leave us, and then immediately does fine the rest of the day. But this time he hardly batted an eye that we were saying goodbye. Sure did me good! His instructor says he has fine control and gets up from falls without problems and seems to enjoy it.

We met Tom and Joanna at 215 and boy we were so impressed with Joanna's skiing. She was just a novice last year and talkes as if she is a beginner, but she skis nearly everywhere Tom skis, only with more caution. Nice to bond on the chairlifts. Got some nice photos out on the trails. Had such a relaxing time that all of a sudden someone looked at their watch andf realized that we had exactly five mnutes to get to the bottom.! So we hottailed it to the bottom, following Tom all the way. Oddly enough when we got there, Drew's class had not come off the mtn yet. Upon further notice, we noticed that he was on the ground wrestling with a 'friend'. There we were all to greet him (Aunt Joanna's and Uncle Tom's smiling faces), and we took off up the gondola. WE took a blue run and some green ones. tom and Joanna said they were leaving and Drew wanted to stay out til the lifts absolutely closed. So we went up once more. This boy knows how to get his $ worth.

Thursday we took a skiing class on how to do better in the moguls. Another skier was put in with us, because she wanted to do the same, but she was a novice-intermediate and skied much slower, and in a whole different level. After a frustrating hour, another ski instructor took her off by himself and we got a private lesson. It was starting to get pretty sunny and warm, to where we had to remove clothing every now and then. We spend the rest of the day practicing the new methods we had learned. At 3, we met Drew for two more hours of skiing; John had a run with us and then he had to go to his massage and hot tub. Drew is beginning to be more comfortable with steeper terrain and to be caution before going down over the top of a hill, over which he cannot see the other side of. He has begun skiing up the sides of green runs and everywhere he sees fresh powder.
Boy, were we ever getting worn out; me meinly on my shins from the pressure of the boots. Thursday night and Friday I actually found the lateral aspect of my right lower leg numb from pressure I had been putting on it from the new methods we were practicing from ski school class. I did not learn the reason for the numbness til I ran into the instructor at snowmobiling Friday. She works there too, as her boyfriend own the outfit. It was a huge relief to go snowmobiling as my leg was numb and it was absolutely blizzarding outside, with no end in sight. Drew seemed to enjoy it, though I suspect he got a bit bored because he asked to go back to the condo while we were out in the middle of nowhere. We went to lunch at the base of the gondola at the Grubstake, which we liked. After a bit of shopping, we tried to go tubing, but it was XL'd due to the weather - it was tremendously windy that day and Steamboat had to shut down the chairs and gondola. So we went back to the condo and rented a VERY funny, if juvenile, movie 'cats and Dogs' which I would recommend to anyone who finds animals interesting. (Drew still talks about it. Sometimes he cracks up for no apparent reason, right out of the blue, and says he remembers a scene from 'Cats and Dogs'.

Drew quote from the gondola, looking downa t the people skiing on the slopes 'The people look like jelly beans!'

It is now Lent. Our new parish here in town, Infant Jesus, has such a large French population that it is hard not to feel out of place seeing all the French names in the bulletin. We are giving thought to changing our name for the time here to something like 'Martineau' or Martinet'. Anyone have any ideas for other names?

Drew saw the TV become fuzzy today, like it does when something has gone really wrong with the visual component and said 'Mommy, come here, the TV is furry.' I was puzzled, I hadn't a clue what he meant til I saw it. :-) That was probably the highlight of my day.

Here is more on our winter vacation that I cannot bear to forget:

The night before we left, while the rest of America was glued to the Super Bowl, especially the New Englanders, we realized the skis may not fit in a car, if the shuttle co. sent a car to shuttle us to the airport in Boston. So we called and a stretch limo was sent, for just $10 more! Drew just loved it. We even took pictures inside of each other :-)

As soon as we set foot in Boston, I took one look at the bags sitting on the curb and noticed that the most important one (in a mother's eyes) was left behind. My backpack filled with snacks and toys, games and books that I had painstakingly purchased to prepare for a whole day in airports, was sitting back home. Boy, I just felt like crying. My practical husband made me get over my sadness right away and, to our relief, we found an extension of the Boston Children's Museum gift shop inside. Soon, I scooped up a few choice items and we were on our way again, mostly composed :-)

After a lovely day on two flights, we arrived in Hayden, CO and stepped down the stairs out onto the runway to exit the plane. Neat for Drew to see the plane he had just flown on.

Oops, I forgot to say in the second paragraph of tonight's posting, that getting to know Tom and Joanna at this time had to be the highlight of the trip for me (Mary).

While shopping today for groceries I stopped in the card aisle and as usual slipped a few items into the cart unbeknownst to Drew, as he was watching other things. I told him we were slecting cards for Valentine's Day tomorrow for us to give him and for him to give to us, if he wanted to. He proceeded to pick out the one he wanted us to give to him, one with a maze on it. He REALLY likes mazes! so sure enough we will be giving it to him tomorrow. While I was making dinner tomight, it sat out on the table and he came up to me and showed me how he had successfully completed the maze! I told him that we were supposed to give it to him first, so I told him to look surprised when he opened it tomorrow, and he agreed :-)

He also spied the present ai snuck into the cart to wrap and give to him tomorrow, a Nestle Wonderball and a Valentine Pez and I knew for sure he hadn't seen the treats get into the cart, but sadly during shopping I walked away and returned to the cart a moment later and he was proudly holding up the Wonderball. I quickly took it away and told him it was supposed to ba a surprise, and he seemed to understand.

We just got back from an absolutely super 7 days in Steamboat Springs, where we got to ski and snowmobile and tube down the 'bunny slopes' and watch our son learn to ski. It is really hard to say which was most enjoyable, for they were all outstanding, though getting to know Tom (my brother) and Joanna, his wife of about eight months, at this point in time. What an exciting week to visit Steamboat, as some of their finiest athletes are competing in the Olympics. We had three fine days, which got us feeling each muscle in the body, of skiing right off the bat, full of sunshine and quite cold. It was so exciting to go pick up Drew at 3 pm each day in ski school and hear his love for the sport and see what he has learned. Drew preferred the chairlift, but we took the gondola to get more skiing in before all the lifts closed. He started off the week skiing the green circled trails (the easiest). By Saturday and sunday he was advanced to the next level and was beginning to ski blue squared trails, and experimenting with some of the things he had seen Tom do - skiing up the walls of the green trails, where the jumps are. He kept seeing Tom and others ski off into the woods on the sides of the trails and insisted he was old enough to do that, too! But some of them had jumps higher than him. We even saw Tom do a "helicopter" while just skiing down a green trail toward the base. By Sunday this new group, the level fours, ate at the top of the gondola in the lodge up there, and he was happy about that. I couldn't believe it when we picked him up Sunday and he told us that they did jumps in class and moguls. What sort of joke is that? But he normally does not make up stuff like that. It was true - they did take the level fours over small jumps and petie moguls. Sure enough we were descending the mtn and the catwalk we were on came to a mogully blue. He said he wanted to do it and I told him to ask John, knwoing for sure John would tell him no. But John said if he could do it and take it carefully to go ahead! I was surprised. Sure enough, he handled it; he lacks fear and it is so good to see, though he is careful.

Friday we snowmobiled in the wilderness about 40 minutes outside of Steamboat. It was blizzarding all throughout our two hour tour, which decreased the visibility dramatically. I had been looking forward to this ever since I was a month pregnant with Drew, when we snowmobiled near Breckenridge. This time we were greeted by an advance in technology - handwarmers and a thumbwarmer on the grips. What a delightful invention - now if they would only make them on ski poles, with batteries. We kept seeing signs for other cities in CO and WY, though this was a trail only for snowmobiles and horses. We came pretty close to the WY line but did not cross the Continental Divide, but close. Unfortunately due to the low visibility we were only given only a very samll area to run our mobiles around in, compared to the usual big meadow. The snow was quite deep in places, and not packed down like on the trail, and my mobile fell in deeply and got stuck, while turning. Thank God for the guides, who got me unstuck without too much problem. Drew took turns on our sleds and it was nice having him there - he kept us warm! He liked going fast. He complained about wanting to go home, so we had snacks right there in the middle of the meadow, Ritz Bits with peanut butter. He was getting bored, but now he says the snowmobiling was the best part of vacation. Go figure.

The skiing and snowmobiling and tubing were just what we wanted, and more but couldn't compare to getting to know my new sister in law, Joanna. How delightful and interesting she is. She and Tom seem well-suited and seem very happy together. We watched some Olympics and had dinners together and a breakfast the last am, and skied together one afternoon, all five of us. Boy was Drew surprised to see all of us show up to get him at 3!

The blizzard that descended upon CO on Friday lasted until Saturday afternoon, and produced nearly two feet of snow - 22"! We had agreed to meet Tom at 1 and when we found him he took us to his semi-secret stash of trails, in the trees on a part of the mountain that had been closed for the last six days, due to the chair being inoperational. So there was lots of nearly untouched trails and glades. tom took us to the glades where he often skis, but John and I were fearful as we are not used to skiing in the trees. He had some good pointers 'Remember the weight of the thick snow - often waist deep - will slow you down, so relax.' 'Focus on the spaces, not the trees' I heard from someone else. By the end of Sunday John and I were much more comfortable in the trees. It was the most incredible feeling to be skiing through the trees, as if in a Warren Miller film, with this thick cloud of lifgt snow flying all aorund us. I thought it would probably snow during our trip, but I hadn't dared to dream of this much. There is just nothing like skiing in knee deep powder!! Now I do not have great memory, but I think even I will not forget those moments.

I remember falling in the woods and it being terribly difficult to get up, sinking in the deep mounds of snow. I remember falling into it once and not being able to breathe and getting scared, though I was at the surface. It was just so difficult to maneuver. At one point I fell into the depths of snow underneath a pine tree and a ski came off and I was terribly disheartened, as Tom had told tales of people who lost their skis under large amounts of snow. I knew I wasn't leaving without my ski, and it was quite frustrating to try to find it. That occurred a few times. Thank God for John and Tom helping me :-)

John was funny - he said at one point 'Tom has introduced us to a whole new level of soreness' and it was true - the deep powder skiing made our calves sore for the first time. We don't feel that while skiing hard packed trails. Tom was just blowing us away skiing through the woods like he was born doing it, and John and I were falling frequently, as we are not used to the woods and powder at all. At one point John said, quite facetiously, 'I would like to see Tom fall' :-) Guess he was tired of seeing Tom always vertical while we did all the falling!

I better get to bed, for there needs to be a lot of love shown tomorrow to my husband, child and beloved dog. Incidentally, tomorrow is the fifteenth anniversary of our engagement in South Bend, IN in the spring of our senior year at the Carriage House Restaurant, during appetizers.