Being bad parents, we again took our kids out of school a couple of days before their break started. It was a couple of days after my break started, and we returned a couple of days after my break ended. So we split the difference so to speak.
About the only trouble on the trip was the car rental. I won't bore you with the details, but neither rental went particularly smoothly. We were actually happy with the big SUV we had in Colorado as we could put all our ski stuff in the back rather than messing with a ski rack on the roof.
It was great to catch up with our friends in Chicago, even if we only stayed one night. Girls slept until 5am on the first morning, which wasn't too bad. We had an uneventful drive to Iowa to see my family. We were long overdue, as we weren't able to see my parents last summer. My mom broke her ankle the week before our visit, so she was in a wheelchair (she's out of the cast now and in theory is doing PT so she can walk without a walker).
I felt bad for LBJ, who was pressed into duty twice. My first trip was to Grinnell to give a talk. It was nice to be back, and I got great feedback on the paper I presented. My dad even got to see me present.
Second was a trip to the NCAA basketball tournament in Des Moines. We went to 2 games - Indiana beat Kentucky (my former employer), and Kansas beat UConn.
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| View from our seats in Des Moines |
Perhaps all too soon, we were off to Colorado. I promised LBJ a week of skiing, and it did not disappoint. We stayed in Keystone, although the girls and I did 3 days of lessons (separately) at Arapahoe Basin. The lessons were great - excellent value and we learned a ton. I ended up with 1 private lessons, and my other two lessons had only one other student. We also skied two days at Copper Mountain, which was only 30 or so minutes away (and was much cheaper than Keystone).
FABJ's highlight was skiing down a blue (intermediate) run with her mother. That wasn't probably ORBJ's highlight, as she turned unexpectedly in front of me and I ran her over. I'm not a great skier, I admit. But she did get to go on a snowmobile earlier in the day, which she loved.
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| Two ski bunnies at Arapahoe |
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| ORBJ on the slopes |
Yes, we've introduced the kids to yet another expensive hobby that they love. Along with LBJ, they'd like an annual ski trip. Admittedly, the conditions and facilities were great - it snowed several times, giving us a lot of fresh powder. The resorts there are very nice (although expensive).
We did take one day off from skiing, and I discovered a great sledding hill a few miles away. Although the kids complained at first about not getting to go tubing ($40 an hour per person!), they had a great time:
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| Friendly locals even lent us a "tube" |
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| FABJ on a saucer that reminded me of childhood |
Our last day of skiing was on Easter, so the girls took a break from skiing to collect some Easter eggs.
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| Eggs everywhere! |
By the end of the day, they needed a rest...
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| Honey I shrunk the kids again? |
The drive back to Denver wasn't too bad. We had two nights (one day) there as I presented again, this time at Colorado State University. It was a nice group there, so I enjoyed my visit. The girls and LBJ had a great day at an amazing science museum (I dropped them off there on my way out of town).
All in all, a successful trip.
