There were 17 of us at the condo in Durango last week, from all corners of the country. Family from Seattle, Houston, Wisconsin, Baltimore and Albuquerque all showed up on New Years Eve. There was a fireworks show and lantern ski display that night, and we watched from the balcony of the bigger condo. G hated the fireworks, hence, no pictures. We had a bath instead. He was also wiped out from the plane ride and not having a nap and all the people.
This was the view from our balcony. The small lifts to the right are lift 2. Lift 1 is over to thel eft and not pictured.
The kids walking across the court from the sled hill. Notice Seth in short sleeves? Yeah, it was practically 50 degrees at the base. Totally spring skiing and icy in the morning and slushy after lunch. And this part of the country is the place with the best ski conditions. Their base was 34". For a comparison, Vail, is 12". I CAN NOT imagine how awful that must be.
So Lewis and I (and my dad or mom) skiied the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Chris (our cousin) boarded on the first day, but he wasn't enjoying the ice so he quit. It's harder to be a new boarder in not prime conditions. There was a TON of food, and games, and lots of help (with G). I highly recommend traveling at all times with a grandparent. They are awesome. Not only do they feed
you but they will watch your small person while you go do something fun.
G is a rockstar traveler. My dad, in a WTH kind of moment asked, "
how did he do on his first flight?" I looked at him like he was turning senile. Umm ... not only is this no where
near his first flight, but he's flown out to ABQ at least twice and my dad has picked us up from the airport? He needs a cat scan. For the record, this is probably G's 9 or 10th trip via airplane. He does good. The hardest part now is keeping him from kicking the back of the seat in front of him. And telling people to shove it when they make comments like, "children shouldn't be allowed on planes." Yes, that happened. On my way back from DC.
Anyway - this trip G decided he loves eat bites out of whole apples. Of course he doesn't eat the whole thing but he loved munching down. We collectively decided that his 2 year molars are coming in and that the pressure of biting down felt nice.
I shipped toys to the condo ahead of time. G had like a second Christmas there. And then Gma took those toys home so she could have some there for when we visit. The condo was bigger than our current home, and had a
huge closet in the master bedroom, so we set up his pack n play (from the condo) in there. G does not do well when he shares a room with us. Snoring, moving blankets, getting up to go to the bathroom, all those things wake him up and if he can see us ... it's over. The few times we've had to share a room we make it work ... by playing possum. And eventually after crying a while he'll give up.
He loved the condo's bath tub. No idea why. But he would say Bathhhhhhhhhh all the time. And want to take a bath. He did get stir crazy, and liked walking around outside in the snow.
There was farkle played. And dominoes. Which Matt and Danyelle always win. I kept making mistakes and playing 42 is like playing spades and if you are playing with
master players then they get mad when you don't play the right thing or don't understand exactly what they wanted you to do because they played a 2 of spades.
My mom got out with us on day 2. She did really good. She's a very cautious skier (so am I, for the most part) so it was a bit ... slow. But we had a good time. And I didn't have my ski legs yet so it was good to go slow.
Lewis and I ski'd by ourselves day 3 and 4. Day 3 was just a half day in the afternoon because we said goodbye to everyone. My mom watched G in the afternoon and we hit the runs. The best part about this was the moment was
empty the entire week. It was amazing. No lift lines. Nothing. You could ski for 3 hours and get 10-12 runs in, which on a busy day could be all you get total, with lift lines. Durango is mostly a blue and green mountain. Very few blacks on the front side and just a handful on the back. It's a beginners mountain. If I had kids, this would be a place I'd take them to learn. If they had snow.
For those interested ... G may get up on skiis next year, depending. I think we're going to start him on skis and then when he's older if he wants to try and a board I may take lessons with him. I think. Not sure on that. Ski school wont take him till he's three but we could rent him short skis and take him down the bunny hill on trainers. But he won't
really ski till 2013, I don't think.
G would meet us down at the bottom when we were done. He liked tromping around in the snow and playing with the poles.
Ahhh the heated pool. The kids loved the under water camera.
We took G here too. He liked that he could walk around in the 2 feet end, but his head was cold. He only stayed down there for about 10 minutes than Daddy came and took him back up to the condo to get warm.
We had a wonderful time in Durango. The condo was beautiful and I would love to get to go there again. Skiing 4 days was an amazing treat that I did not think was possible. By day 4 I was skiing great and it was sad I had to go. Lewis and I had races down to the bottom and, well I lost but it's only because I keep thinking in my head ....
if I break my leg how will I take care of G next week? That thought will slow you down.
It was so great to see everyone, some people we hadn't seen in many years. And it's just nice to get the family together when we can. It really does impress me that folks try so hard and make so much effort (folks from Seattle had to wake up at 3AM to catch their plane!) to get together.
We were going to try to go back to Taos to ski with my dad next weekend, but I don't think that's going to work out. With Megan and Brian both working new jobs this year, I'm wondering if my immediate family will get to have their own ski vacation this year. It seems to good to wish for more. But who knows.
Thanks again to everyone for helping watch G while I went skiing. It was a great vacation!
Comments