Vail 2011 - Day 2

Ski School for all on Sunday.  

My ski instructor was great.  We started out on mostly blue slopes which let me get my ski legs back.  Early in the afternoon, though, we hit the blue Berries slope which had a tiny portion of a black at the end.  I conquered it and insisted on a photo opp for proof.

Will, Dawn and David were waiting at Garfinkels at the end of the day.  There's nothing like a cold glass of Blue Moon with an orange slice after a long day of skiing.

With Dawn on the deck at Garfinkels.

McIver was pooped after his first day of ski school.

Waiting for the bus at the transportation center.

Dawn and David's friends, Jen and Matt Carabetta, and their children, Izzy and Baby Charlie, came to Vail for the night on Sunday.  I had met Jen and Matt at Dawn and David's wedding but didn't get to hang out with them too much because Olivia was just a baby and I was pretty preoccupied with her.  

The kids had fun in the hot tub and slurping their ramen noodles.

Mac lost a tooth ... and the Tooth Fairy found us with no problem.

Peggy Pa and Big Pa's new kitchen is awesome!  We always start planning our ski trip menu well in advance.  Will spent many hours in front of the stove cooking bacon for everyone.

Vail 2011 - Day 1

Saturday was an EARLY day for us.  We had to wake up at 2:30am to leave our house by 3 to drive to the Greenville airport.  The kids were no worse for the wear, though.  We were all so excited!

Once we got to the Houston airport, we made our way to the Continental Club room for our layover.  It was crowded, but we managed to find four seats together so we could relax, play games and read the newspaper.

McIver and I played Angry Birds on the iPhone.  He beat me!

Once we got settled at the house in Vail, we went to Lionshead to rent our skis and boots.  The kids were more than willing to sit in the ski chairs for a picture.  They look so big compared to this picture two years ago.

Last one in's a rotten egg!

McIver broke off some icicles for everyone to eat in the hot tub.

Peggy Pa and Cliff (Dawn's parents) have remodeled their house since the last time we were here.  It is FANtastic!  The kids love sitting up at the counter and there's room for everyone in the kitchen.

Tomorrow:  Ski School!

Olivia's 1st Basketball Game

Olivia has been to a month's worth of basketball practices, but was finally able to play in her first game on Saturday afternoon.  Let's just say the game is a whole different story.  The other team was pretty aggressive which took some getting used to.  Olivia hustled the whole time she was on the court, but I think she wasn't sure where exactly the court ended and out-of-bounds began.  

Getting a pep talk from the coach.

Olivia's team lost, but she had fun playing.  And, she's getting to play with some girls from school as well as some from other schools, but who go to the same church.  I'm glad for her to have the opportunity to have some more familiar faces at church.

Clean-Up at the Lake

Will and I decided to cancel the lawn service at the lake in an attempt to save some money.  So, this weekend, it was time to pay the piper.  We waited until ALL the leaves had fallen before going up there to rake and bag them all up.  Will had told the kids that we fully expected their help working in the yard since they also enjoy the lakehouse.   Will was on call so he had to head into the hospital Saturday morning.  I warned the children that we were going to hit the ground running and get some work done before Daddy even got home so that he would know how much we (meaning 'they') appreciate the lake.

 To sweeten the deal, Will had told them they could be paid for their help - $1 EACH per bag of leaves.  I finished up the breakfast dishes and sent the kids out to get started raking.  McIver, clever boy that he is, had already gotten to work - with tiny grocery store bags.  He was totally going to make some money!  

After some convincing on my part, McIver emptied his leaves into a bigger bag and we all got to work.  (Ha!  I just noticed the tag on Olivia's new yoga pants!)

McIver did a bit more playing in the leaves than raking and bagging.

Then, our hero neighbor came over with his lawnmower.  He was SO nice to come over and help us.  Mr. King rode his mulching mower over the leaves and crushed them right up.  What would have taken ALL DAY, ended up taking only about two hours.    This shot pretty much shows the extent of the day ... Olivia happily raking and bagging (and counting the dollars she was earning), with McIver throwing the tennis ball for Tex.  In his defense, knowing where Tex was at all times was very helpful, so that counted toward him actually being helpful.  

Will was VERY impressed with our progress when he drove up at 11:00.  There was no way to even pretend that we had done all that work by ourselves.  He was relieved that so much work had been accomplished, though.  It was really windy, so we decided to wait to get to work on the lake side of the house until Sunday.    Plus, we had to get some lunch and get back to town for Olivia's first basketball game.

Sunday was a little less windy, so we got to work all over again.  The kids counted 50 bags of leaves ... and counted their money.  Will, though, isn't so sure they'll each earn $50.  The whole point was to SAVE money!  When will we stop underestimating how much work they'll do to earn a buck!?

We would have had to make 10 trips across the causeway to take the bags where they county will pick them up, so Will loaded the bags into the boat.  Olivia and McIver thought that was great fun ... and it still took two trips!

This was the second trip, but a better shot of the kids.

Yumilicious

Tuesday morning was a RUDE awakening (literally!) for all of us.  After two weeks of sleeping in and hanging out in our PJs for most of the morning, getting up for school was not easy.  So, I surprised the kids with a trip to Yumilicious where they could have serve-yourself frozen yogurt and toppings.

Clearly it was a hit!

SNOW DAYS!!

School was actually cancelled Sunday night, but I didn't tell the children because I knew it would be hard for them to go to sleep.  I woke up at 3am and saw the snow and couldn't even get back to sleep. Will's office closed, too, but he left at 6am to get to the hospital for surgery.  One of his patients cancelled but he was able to do the other two surgeries.

Look who I found curled up in Will's chair Monday morning when I came downstairs!  Tex must love the new fireplace, too.

 Olivia went outside with me to get the wood for the fire.  She loves her new snow boots (but I do think it's time to take off the tag!).

Tex keeps going out into the snow by himself and taking bites of it.  He comes back in with a wet nose.

The kids and I curled up in the living room in front of a roaring fire watching Harry Potter together. 

Tex and Skittles had fun wrestling in the snow together.  We had to keep a dog towel by the back door to dry off their feet every time they came inside.  Only problem is that Skittles can open our back door by himself so we couldn't necessarily get to them before they tracked wet paw prints all over the house.

We finally got dressed and bundled up to go for a walk in the snow.

Brrrr!

We spent Monday night hanging out with our neighbors.  They have a generator so we even packed a bag in case the power went out.  Once we found out school was cancelled for Tuesday, we let the kids spend the night over there.  Will's office closed again on Tuesday so he was able to sleep in and just go to the hospital to make rounds.

I walked Olivia to a friend's house Tuesday after lunch.  She was glad for a change of scenery and I enjoyed getting out of the house and walking around. Our neighborhood is just beautiful and covered with snow/ice still.

Will's rounds ended up lasting longer than he anticipated so he eager to get out of the house.  He suggested Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner and the rest of us jumped at the chance to get out.  It was total sensory overload for McIver!  He was amazed at ALL of the televisions and couldn't decide where to look.

Olivia must have been starving because she downed her cheeseburger.  BWW was pretty packed - we weren't the only ones with cabin fever.

We got an email last night that we would have a delayed opening this morning (Wednesday).  So, the kids were able to take their time getting up, but we agreed that once they were up, we'd go ahead and eat breakfast and get dressed (no lounging around for us today!).  So, they were all set and ready for carpool by 8:15. We came downstairs and McIver finished up his Special Assignment for school and studied some spelling words.  I had lunch boxes out on the counter waiting to be filled.  Backpacks were packed by the front door.  Then, I checked my email ... they decided to close school AGAIN ... for the third day in a row.  Apparently, the roads to school are still not super clear and the high today is only 30 degrees.  They just didn't feel like they could risk sending buses out to pick up students and a fair number of teachers didn't feel like they could get to school safely.  

1.1.11

McIver and I were the only ones to stay up until midnight on New Years Eve.  We watched the ball drop together and then went outside to look for some fireworks.  

We had a bunch of people over on New Years Day and needed to go pick up the barbecue on New Years morning.  First, though, a stop for breakfast at Lizards Thicket.  The kids found a way to entertain themselves while waiting for our order to be delivered.

The New Years party was great fun.  We had a ton of people come over for Will's collard greens and black-eyed peas.  The barbecue from Hudson's was totally worth the trip to Lexington to get it.  Once everyone had a chance to get some food, the kids were eager to get the popcorn machine going.  They were very orderly about the whole process.

These girls decided to be the servers.

Kids were everywhere - playing kick the can, air hockey, just running around in general, playing football, etc.  And, thankfully, the rain held off until just after everyone left.

Spa Science

Nanoo gave Olivia a cool Spa Science kit for Christmas.  Olivia had a friend spend the night during the Christmas holiday and they decided to give the oatmeal mask a try.  Giggles ensued!

More Christmas with Nanoo & Pop

Pepper made herself right at home on the kitchen sofa with Tex.  She has her very own sofa at home so I'm sure she felt entitled.

Pop treated us to dinner at Sato their last night in Columbia.  Olivia had told me earlier in the week that she was 'craving Sato's soup' which cracked me up.  What does a 9 year old know about 'craving' anything!?  Well, she ate her soup up, as well as McIver's.  McIver wasn't so into Sato, but he did enjoy an order of calamari.  

Christmas with Nanoo, Pop & Cacoo

It was still snowing when Nanoo, Pop and Cacoo arrived in Columbia.  Olivia was SO excited to have some uninterrupted time with Cacoo.  They got busy building a snowman.  McIver wasn't interested in getting his layers on, so he watched from the dining room window.

I had never actually seen anyone make a snowman by rolling the snow into a ball, but you can see the tracks that Olivia and Cacoo made.  It totally worked!  And, Olivia was stylin' in her new "Uggs."

How cute are they!?  They were so proud of their snowman.  Too bad his head ended up falling off.  He ended up with a small pumpkin as a head, which was later destroyed by two little boys playing football in the front yard.

Pop and two of his girls.

Day After Christmas Dinner - Will's fried turkey, the Pioneer Woman's Creamy Rosemary Potatoes (that's not the exact recipe, but it's pretty close), Nanoo's dressing, the Best Broccoli Ever, and leftover mac and cheese and broccoli salad from our Christmas dinner.  It was soooo good - and so much food that we had to serve from the kitchen because there wasn't enough room for everything in the table.

Nanoo and Pop give Will Vince Flynn's new book every year for Christmas.  The only problem is that the book is published in October so he has to wait three months to get it.  He almost had his hands on a copy when we were in Myrtle Beach; I don't know how he could have helped himself.  But, it didn't work out and now he's enjoying his latest addition to the Vince Flynn collection.

McIver got a cool set of hat/gloves, but he had to open his next gift with the gloves on.  It proved to be pretty funny - and slowed down the whole gift-opening process.

Nanoo brought her dogs with her - Pepper and Marley (who is actually Cacoo's dog).  Marley is only five months old, but is already bigger than Tex.  Those dogs, and Skittles, played long and hard together and were exhausted by the end of every night.  Here they are enjoying the fire.

The final gift (and the biggest present) of the night had Olivia and McIver very, very curious.  Once they finally opened it, they were PSYCHED that it was a popcorn maker.  The kids and I put it together today (without Dad's help and without killing eachother!!) and it's almost as tall as Olivia.  We can't wait to use it for our party on New Years Day.