What a Weekend!

Skiing. Sledding. Snowmobiling. Swimming. Cross-country skiing. Ice skating.

These are the things some or all of us did this weekend with friends around Winter Park, CO. With Chloe not having school on Friday (teacher in-service), we were able to spend a 3-day weekend in the mountains with friends, Colorado-style. Here's the rough itinerary for each day: Wake up. Have a gut-busting breakfast. Spend a good bit of the day outside doing something. Come in for an awesome dinner. Hang out with friends for a while. Go to sleep. Then, to top it off, after returning to Boulder this afternoon, it was off to another friends' home for yet another awesome dinner!

Below are some pix and vid of this fabulous weekend. (Clicking on a picture enlarges it.)

Peggy and I after a day of skiing
at Winter Park.

No comment.

Peggy enjoying the après-ski.

Peggy and Kim celebrating a
successful day on the slopes.

Chloe making her way back
to the top of the sledding hill.
Nice views, eh?

Chloe and "The Blue Flash."

Views of the Continental Divide

from our cabin.

Another view of the Continental
Divide from our cabin.

Picture of Rollins Pass, taken

during snowmobile tour.

Carl, I and Jamie during
the snowmobile tour.

View of Winter Park
and Mary Jane

Some sledding videos...

Jamie and Carl snowmobiling

Cake, Ice Cream, Eggs Benedict and Malt Liquor. Yup, It's a Birthday Party!

Today is Peg's Birthday!

"Which one?" you ask. Well, let's just say she's not 40. Yet.

"Why malt liquor?" you ask. A friend gave her a 40 oz. bottle of malt liquor, but crossed out the "40" on the label and inscribed her age.

"Why Eggs Benedict?" you ask. Because when I asked Peggy what she wanted for dinner on her birthday, that was the response.

To celebrate this milestone, I organized a gathering of friends for a little surprise party at a local roller skating rink yesterday. Followed that up with some ice cream at a nearby DQ. And then, today, had the birthday dinner, cake and ice cream.

Happy 26th, Sweetie!

Peggy, Chloe, and Cocoa & Corduroy

Wanting to hit the slopes after a pretty busy business travel schedule, and to have some mother-daughter time together, Peggy picked Chloe up from school on Friday afternoon and made their way into the Rockies to do some day skiing at Beaver Creek on Saturday. (Yours truly stayed home to have some dad-dad time.) And they picked a good weekend to go... several inches of powder came down on Friday night, making for great conditions on Saturday.

So come Saturday morning, after getting some breakfast and taking the shuttle over to the resort area, the snow bunnies partook in a Beaver Creek custom: Cocoa and Corduroy. At the top of the one chair lift, there are resort employees standing there handing out small cups of hot cocoa to any and all who want some. The corduroy part of that custom comes from the fact the Beaver Creek is known for grooming the dickens out of their slopes, and the grooming machines make tiny corduroy-like ridges on the slopes. (Yes, Beaver Creek is a bit shi-shi. In fact, towards the end of the day, they have Cookies and Corduroy, but Peggy and Chloe missed that one.)

Another highlight of the day came when they were getting off the one chair lift and Chloe all of a sudden starts spitting out a little blood. (Just bare with me.) Peggy had no idea what was going on, until Chloe stopped in her tracks on the "exit ramp" and started yelling "My toof! My toof!" And there, in the snow, was Chloe's front tooth. It was the 4th one she lost, and it had been hanging on by a thread for a good week or so. A fellow skier who noticed them came along and gave Chloe a dollar!

Because they stayed locally the night before, the got an early jump on the skiing, which meant that by 2:30p, their legs were cooked. So they headed back East and met me at a local Boulder landmark - Mountain Sun Pub and Brewery - for some apres ski dinner.

(Pictures, top to bottom: The Snow Bunnies waiting for the resort shuttle; Chloe; Chloe playing in the powder; Chloe and her morning Cocoa; "The Shredder.")

No Arachnophobia Here

It was a day off from school for Chloe, so after a very leisurely morning – but one where Peggy and I booked our Disneyland family vacation – Chloe and I spent the afternoon together out and about.

The first stop was lunch at Carrabba's (Thanks Howard and Kristin!). It was then off to the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster. We visited it back in June 2008 when we came out to Boulder one weekend to look for a place to live, and Chloe felt it was time to go back again to check it out.

To be sure, the butterflies (and moths) do play a prominent role in the business. And one can't help but walk through the "tropical pavilion" with a little smile on one's face as the guests of honor flutter all around. But as irony has it, perhaps the most famous resident of the Butterfly Pavilion isn't of the winged variety; instead, it's of the arachnid kind. The longest line, by far, was the one for whomever wanted to hold Rosie, the Chilean Rose Hair tarantula.

Chloe wouldn't get near her back in 2008, but was actually excited about having Rosie walk around on her hand this go-around (see picture.)

We're an Aunt/Uncle/Cousin Again!

Frank P. Vollaro V was born today, giving us a new nephew/cousin! Early reports are that all are doing well, despite being wicked tired, and that the boy has a good set of screaming lungs!. He came in at 9 lbs., 3 oz. and 22 inches. Some early photos...

Congrats Jess and Frank!

News of the Mostly Good Kind

Peggy and I had our 2nd parent teacher conference with Chloe's teacher this afternoon, and we were so pleased to hear that Chloe is doing really well in the "3 Rs." She's even being moved into an "accelerated reader" curriculum. (Some work, though, still needs to be done on the 4th R - running on of the mouth. It seems that Chloe still likes to chat things up with her classmates when she is done with her work and they are not done with theirs, causing some distraction.)