We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. We spent a couple of nights at Stacey's parents' home, we ate well on Thursday and the moms did the 4am Black Friday thing. That afternoon we jumped in the minivan and headed for Avon/Beaver Creek, where my family had a couple of rooms at the Sheraton in Avon. Though we didn't ski (my Bro-in-law, Omar, did), we had a fabulous time. It snowed the whole time we were there--it was a veritable Winter Wonderland. We went to a nice tree-lighting ceremony at Beaver Creek on Friday evening. Right when Santa came out on the Zamboni, they cued the fireworks and the big snow began to fall. They couldn't have staged the snowfall any better.
We caught a Gingerbread house display (competition) and enjoyed the evening, topping it off with a rousing game of Acquire, which I acquired for my B-Day (thanks to Stacey's mom!).
On Saturday we went out and did some sledding, followed by some swimming (we opted for the indoor pool), and closed with a couple of games (we like games!).
On Sunday we hit the bilingual Vail Branch for Sacrament Meeting, then we hit the road. This is where the weekend got
really memorable. Between the continuous snowfall and the Thanksgiving traffic, the roads were ultrahorrible. It took us 2.5 hours to get from Avon to Dillon, a distance of 38 miles. When we pulled off in Dillon for a potty break, it came to our immediate attention that just getting back onto the Interstate was going to be a 90-minute, stop-and-go adventure. Decision time. Through sheer dumb luck (or maybe inspiration?), our potty break took us to a Borders bookstore directly across the street from the Comfort Suites. It didn't take long for those wheels to turn, and I ran across the (traffic-snarled) street and booked us a room. That may be one of the top five decisions I have ever made. Within a couple of hours, I-70 was closed, all the hotels in town were full, the red cross had set up a shelter in the rec center, and everyone on the road was miserable. Given Sarah's penchant for carsickness, we made the right choice. It took my poor sister and her family 9 hours and 45 minutes to get from Vail to Colo. Springs, a distance of 170 miles.
We, meanwhile, hung out at the bookstore for hours (quite fun, really), went swimming, bathed, and got some dinner at the Chimayo, where there was no line (though Ruby Tuesday's had a 90 minute wait). The icing on the cake was the serendipitous fact that the hotel room not only had the two queen beds, but also a hide-a-bed, which means that all six of us had a bed to sleep in.
The next morning we got up, had our continental breakfast waffles, and drove home in under two hours (which wouldn't even have gotten us the ten miles to the Eisenhower Tunnel the previous day). Sarah still got carsick, but all in all it was fabulous.
Photo from Christmas 2005.
We caught a Gingerbread house display (competition) and enjoyed the evening, topping it off with a rousing game of Acquire, which I acquired for my B-Day (thanks to Stacey's mom!). 
On Sunday we hit the bilingual Vail Branch for Sacrament Meeting, then we hit the road. This is where the weekend got really memorable. Between the continuous snowfall and the Thanksgiving traffic, the roads were ultrahorrible. It took us 2.5 hours to get from Avon to Dillon, a distance of 38 miles. When we pulled off in Dillon for a potty break, it came to our immediate attention that just getting back onto the Interstate was going to be a 90-minute, stop-and-go adventure. Decision time. Through sheer dumb luck (or maybe inspiration?), our potty break took us to a Borders bookstore directly across the street from the Comfort Suites. It didn't take long for those wheels to turn, and I ran across the (traffic-snarled) street and booked us a room. That may be one of the top five decisions I have ever made. Within a couple of hours, I-70 was closed, all the hotels in town were full, the red cross had set up a shelter in the rec center, and everyone on the road was miserable. Given Sarah's penchant for carsickness, we made the right choice. It took my poor sister and her family 9 hours and 45 minutes to get from Vail to Colo. Springs, a distance of 170 miles.
Yes, Mom, we have some prints for you. 
There is a wizard, Griffin and Unicorn carved on the hilt and of course Godric's name is carved down the blade (made from foam board covered in fondant). The shadow box is the cake, cut in box form and covered with fondant. Wow! I was very happy with the product and excited to bring it to the birthday girl. I loaded the cake into the car, told the kids to get into the car and ran back into the house to turn off lights and close the door. The next thing I know, David is running into the house saying "Seth crawled through the cake!" I'm thinking "This had better be a joke!" I can't even begin to describe the stomach clenching, heart stopping, hair pulling experience as I looked at the destroyed cake for the party that would begin in 30 minutes. There were several foot marks through the cake, the sword hilt was broken in half. I screamed and cried (I'm embarrassed to say, so loud that my neighbors came out to see which child had been hit by a car.) Thankfully, one neighbor took care of the kids while the other neighbor helped me to save the cake. We took off all of the fondant, cut off the smashed pieces cake, re-rolled fondant and covered the smaller cake, fixed the sword--and it turned out alright. It only took 2 hours to fix. Thankfully, the party didn't need the cake for another hour after it was finally delivered but they were very happy to have it. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the destroyed cake--only the before and after pictures along with a picture of the table holding the scraps of cake that had been taken off. The moral of the story is: buckle the two year old in the car BEFORE putting the cake in the car.
We had the bonus of seeing the Rockies throw a shutout (not especially common at Coors Field). We're not holding our breath for another miracle run like last year, but it sure would be fun. Thanks for a great afternoon, guys!
Last week we made our annual "the-kids-earned-free-tickets-so-let's-go-to-Lakeside" trip. Lakeside is a 100-year-old amusement park with some really old rides (and a few new ones), but we love going once a year. Seth barely made the 36" minimum height and Hannah made the 42" minimum height for the bigger rides, so they had a lot of fun doing new things. David, on the other hand, is now too big for the kiddie rides, though he used Seth as a meal ticket to ride a few of them.
We just spent a long weekend at Lake McConaughy, just north of Ogallala, NE, with Stacey's parents and niece and nephew. We had a 1 1/2 days of good weather and a half day and night of really crummy (read: super windy) weather. All in all, a good time, and nobody got too sunburned. Hooray, SPF 50!
Hannah and Dad after taking the plunge on Splash Mountain. The wettest part is actually before you go up, because you wait right next to where others come down (and the geysers shoot up). Still, a thoroughly enjoyable ride.
Seth and Mommy on Goofy's barnstormer. With no line, we probably rode it half a dozen times (and Seth loved it!).
