Wednesday, February 13, 2002
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.
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.
