Ski Vacation - Part II

Tuesday was another ski day. This time it was adult ski day. Quin was going back to school, and Ethan was enrolled in Woodward, an indoor extreme ski and snowboard school. The warehouse is immense with fake snow ramps that empty into foam pits and trampoline sections to teach people how to tumble with ease through the air. I think Ethan was in for a fun day!

Ethan and I went down to Woodward to drop him off while Jenny dropped Quin off at school. Apparently this day wasn’t as easy to drop off as the previous - Quin really didn’t want to go.

The ski day was relatively uneventful. We did a few black diamonds (for the ski uninitiated, these are rated as “most difficult,” though there were plenty of runs quite a bit more difficult than the ones we did). All in all we skied for around 7 hours straight before packing it in and hitting the hot tub briefly before picking up our little boys.

Ethan had a great time. He was one of only three kids on skis there, all the rest being on snowboards. He learned to do jumps, back and front flips on the trampolines, he went in the half pipe on the hill, and finally was able to do some woods skiing before all was said and done. Quin didn’t have as good a time - too bad we are so lazy and he wasn’t potty trained - once you are 3 and potty trained you can be in ski school which is WAY more fun. Maybe next time.

The rest of the night we spent trying to eat and drink as much of the way too many groceries we brought up to the hill. Jenny met Maylee and the “younger generation” out at a Absinthe bar in the village while I concentrated on finishing out the beer in the condo.

Wednesday was a travel day - we packed our car and were on the road down the mountain by 10:00. We wanted to get some pizza in Idaho Springs, but it was too early when we went through there, and we weren’t sure we’d have enough time to make it to the airport. Our flight was at 3:00.

Fast forward a few hours, the drive down went well. We stopped at a Target to use the bathroom, then had a minor adventure trying to find a gas station within 20 miles of the airport. We were able to return the car by 1:00, got on our bus back to the terminal, then grabbed some pizza in the main terminal before heading through security for the last time and on to our gate.

After getting to the gate, Ethan had some more homework to do, so Quin and I decided to tour the rest of the airport by way of the subterranean train. Our gate was on concourse A, so we took the train to C and walked through. On the way, Quin was propositioned by no fewer than three 30 year old ladies, flight attendants mostly. Two of them were going up the escalator while we were going down. He flirted incessantly with them, poor things. They asked if he would be their boyfriend to which he answered “yes.” They asked if they could go home with him and he again told them “yes.” To their chagrin, he had forgotten all about them by the time we got back on the train…

The flight back was quicker than the flight out, but Quin had a full 2 hour nap under his belt and was in no mood to sit still. Luckily we were on a Frontier plane where we could purchase DirectTV service for the kids. It went mostly without incident, though I’m pretty sure Jenny was ready for her afternoon drink by the time we were about 60 minutes into the flight.

We got home around 7:30, threw down some fast food, then rushed the kids to bed. We were right behind them after quickly emptying the suitcases into the dirty laundry baskets. It was a nice vacation.

Some random thoughts:

• It’s easier to pack for a 6 day vacation where you fly than a 2 day trip to Neillsville. When you are taking a car, you can just keep jamming more stuff in. When you are flying, though, you have to be able to take all of your stuff in a single trip.
• Quinton is “weawy skwong.” Just ask him.
• If something can be broken, Quinton can break it.

That’s it for this year’s kid trip. We don’t have any other vacations planned for this year, so who knows when we’ll take off for another adventure. When we do, I will for sure be here ‘blogging it and blowing your mind with our whirlwind, exciting escapades!