Chris’ family goes skiing in Colorado every year during spring break and this year, for the first time, we lived close enough to join in on the fun. So, Friday we loaded kids and bags into the car, dropped Pip off for a little “vacation” of his own, and drove 3 hours west to Steamboat Springs.
We took an inadvertent detour through Laramie on the way there, which went a little like this:
Chris: “This doesn’t look right.”
Me: “Why is it getting uglier?”
Road Sign: “Welcome to Wyoming”
Chris and Me, “What the heck did we do wrong!?”
Apparently, we had missed a turn on the GPS and instead of telling us to turn around, it very quickly rerouted to a different route with an extra 100 miles added in, without notifying us of the change. Of course, by the time we figure this out, it was too late to turn around, so we took the un-scenic route there.
I’ll admit, I was a little less than thrilled to be going off to willingly spend time in snow in March — I am so over it by this time of year — but the weather did not turn out to be that bad, and everyone had a lot of fun. Chris skied all day Saturday with his family and I happily volunteered to hang out in the condo with Zara. The last time I went skiing, probably six years ago, was not very pretty and I decided afterwards that I don’t really feel the need to strap little boards to my feet and careen down the side of the mountain ever again. Nora was super excited about trying skiing, though, so I got over my mama-fear and signed her up for a whole day of ski school. Once I saw the incredibly slight incline that they used for her class I was able to breathe easy and do what I do best: take a ridiculous amount of pictures. My once cautious girl is turning out to be quite brave, and all we have heard about in the past two days is how much she loves to ski.
We also enjoyed some much-needed family time. Nora finally got the opportunity to meet her second cousins (who are right around her age), and both girls loved, loved, loved getting to play with Grandma. I was struck by how different Zara’s and Nora’s personalities are — at this age, Nora didn’t want much to do with our family members during visits (though she loves seeing them now), but Zara has zero qualms about letting someone new hold her or play with her. It was nice not to have to stress about that aspect of family time, although Zara did keep us busy with her refusal to sit for any length of time at a restaurant and the absolute nightmare she was at night without her own sleeping space. Luckily, the all night nursing and staying up way past her bedtime was limited only to the trip.
We managed to drive home the right way, and got to experience some of the most beautiful mountain views I have ever seen. We drove back through Roosevelt National Forest and I must have driven Chris crazy with my incessant exclamations over the beauty. Coming back the right way also got me very excited about the possibilities for the summer, once I realized that we are only 40 minutes away from some beautiful hiking, picnicking, and camping spots in the mountains. I’m already counting the days until our first day trip to the mountains, although we might give the snow a little more time to melt first.