Staycation

Before winter officially started, John purchased a Sugarbush Quad Pack (4 tickets) and a Mad Card (3 tickets) for me to use.  As the adviser to the Ski and Snowboard club, he gets a pass pretty much anywhere he wants.  Although Smuggs is closer, his loyalty lies with Mad River and Sugarbush makes more snow so he went with that pass.

By mid January, I hadn't used any of our tickets.  So, we decided to try to do a Waitsfield Valley staycation for part of my February vacation.  I looked into deals at Sugarbush and John called his good friend Garrett who lives in the valley.  As it turns out, Garrett and his family were headed to Florida, so he offered up his house for us to use (as long as we watched his dogs).

Sunday was our 6 year anniversary.  Tom and Cara offered to watch the kids, again.  So, we dropped them off in the early afternoon, headed to Mad River for some couples ski time, had a beer at two separate apres spots, dropped our stuff of at our "staycation" digs, and went out to see music at the Hen of the Woods in Waterbury.  We picked the sleeping children up on our way back.

Because it was Vermont Vacation week, Sugarbush was having a 2 for 1 ski lesson special.  So, on Monday, we dropped the kids off at real ski lessons.  Neither have ever taken a real ski lesson and they were fired up.  Hazen basically had a private lesson all day because there were only 2 Micro bears.  His instructor was amazed at how well he was already skiing.

Cally rocked it as a Mini Bear.  She refined her parallel skiing that her dad had taught her, learned how to hockey stop, side slip, and herring bone!

And while the kids were in lessons, John and I skied lap after lap of groomers (because everything else was set up like cement).  We even got to have a "date lunch".

Tuesday we skied as a family.  Both of the kids were tearing up the Gatehouse lift-- willing and able to ski anything and everything.  And the fun part was getting to ride the lift as a family!

We even got some runs in on Wednesday morning, too.  Four straight days of skiing!  We capped off our staycation with a visit to ECHO in Burlington.

Sadly, we did come home to a sick chicken.  I'm trying not to really know the details because it involves blood and the butt area and pecking from other chickens.  As I've said a million times, the chickens are a problem that I can't take on.  Now we need to head out of town on Friday for five days and John is needing to apply ointment onto this chicken's butt and has moved it into the house.  He leaves for Idaho for a week on Saturday......... Ugghh.

On a funnier note, Cally has started taking "selfies" of herself.  This is our favorite!

Valentine!

I love Valentine's Day.  I've had my ups and downs with this holiday and I know it's the second biggest "consumer" holiday, but I love what it ultimately all about.  To me, it means showing the people around me that I love them.  I grew up with a mom who made a big thing about Valentine's day.  We made cards for friends and family, got chocolate, and exchanged little gifts.  Being in the right relationship and having kids are the perfect excuse to embrace this holiday..... even if it means time consuming arts and craft projects, lots of questions about the spelling of names, and many "scrippy scraps".

The first year that John and I celebrated this holiday of love (2007), we were graced with an epic snowstorm that has gone down in the history books as one of the best ski days in VT.  Over 30 inches fell and we skied together at Mad River until our legs became jelly. We then found the only restaurant that was open and relished in new love and great skiing.

Every year since that storm, we've dreamed about a day like that.  This year, our dream came true.  A winter storm advisory came onto our radar on Monday and by Thursday night the school district had called our first snow day of the year even before a snow flake had fallen.  Seven years later, life is a little more complicated.  We've got two kids who have a school and day care provider who also close when there is a snow day, we don't have the ski legs that we had back then, but we do have the passion to ski fresh snow.

After much deliberation, we decided to bring the kids and park it at Mad River for the day.  We'd swap off skiing and hopefully get the kids out there for a little bit.

Mad River has such a great vibe when it's snowing.  The lines are horrible, but it doesn't get skied up very quickly.  And, it's a really family friendly place.

Yep, that's Hazey in the background there!

We lucked out.  The skiing was great.  We each got plenty of runs, the kids got some runs, friends and their kids let us take some runs together because they were willing to hang out with our kids, and we got to get out for another romantic dinner at that same restaurant.

We spent the rest of the weekend sharing love at a few birthday parties, a sledding party for Outing Club Leaders, and a tea with Cal's friends.

Here's to a lot more love and happy Valentine's Days in the years to come.  I am feeling full to the brim with it right now.

Freedom

John had to go to a Leadership Retreat with his Outing Club kids.  It was a nice day and I really wanted to get our for a ski with the kids.  My usual option is to pull both kids in the Chariot, but it doesn't give them much of a chance to ski (and it means I have to haul over 100 lbs up a mountain on my own).  Hazen has been "skiing" for more than a season, but he has yet to make a turn or stop on his own.  We used a ski leash with him.  I don't recommend it.  It definitely allowed him to follow his sister around and feel comfortable on his skis, but it didn't help him learn any skills (or establish healthy fears).  So, I decided to just go for it and bring both kids on my own to Cochrans.  I knew my friend Claire would be there and her kids ski well on their own, so I could use her help if I needed it......  Within a few runs, Cal was riding the tow rope like a champ and Hazen was skiing after her.  I let out the biggest sigh of relief.  It's been five years since we've had one of the other kid between our legs or sitting at the bottom of the mountain.  We officially have two little skiers.

And he's really good.  He turns and he knows how to stop when he needs to.  This is one proud mama.

Now he can ski on his own with goats at Medora and Spencers:



And Cally can do the ATV assist for the way up.



Exciting times around the corner.

Happy Birthday Mr. H

"They" tell you that your kids grow up quickly.... like a flash before your eyes.  The past five years haven't always seemed to fly by-- those two separate years of waking up sometimes several times a night to nurse babies or wishing that certain stages (potty training) would quickly run their course, but seemed to move like molasses.

Right now, these kids do seem to be growing up really quickly!  I love every minute of it, but before we know it these guys are going to be regular people who might not want to hang out with us as much as they do right now.  I just can't believe our baby really isn't even a toddler anymore!  He's turning into such a fun little dude.

We had a birthday celebration at home on his special day.  His big sister was so excited to help him open his presents.  He loves his sister in such a special way.  Every day, when John drops him off at Tammy's, he gets out of his car seat, walks over to Cally, gives her a kiss and a hug, and says he loves her.  And when we pick him up, he always asks her how her day was.

He's a total goofball and has started to show a very social side (no surprise there).  This year, he asked us if he could have "all" of his friends over for a party.  We decided to invite all our friends who had little ones that were his age for a dinner party.

And there were the older sisters, too.

Hazen had a ball.  He loved every minute of having people there to celebrate his birthday (including his Godparents Cara and Tom, Cynthia, and Scott)

There was impromptu costume time:

And general chumming around with friend.

We love this little dude more than you can know.  His randomly timed "I love you's" are the elixir to my soul.  He loves to snuggle and wrestle and laugh.  He knows how to be generous and kind, but he's boy all around.  I'm so glad he came into the world as quick as lightening on the morning of January 30th, 2011!