Skiing at Copper

We went skiing at Copper for President's day. The kids' school was open, so we had Gong Gong and Bu Bu take Audrey, while we left early and took Mason to his 2nd ski adventure.

We met up with our friend Juan Carlos and his son Santiago. Santi has gone about 4 times before and was able to ski next to you unassisted. We borrowed Santi's harness, Bill got on skis for the first time in over 10 years! I got on my snowboard for the first time in 2-3 years.

Albeit a little windy and cold during the lift rides, it was great. The West side of Copper is perfect for beginners and kids skiing with their families. We hope Mason can ski without a harness in a couple more goes. We hope to get back in the mountain soon and maybe invest in a private lesson for Mason.

Lost at Ikea

On Sunday, we meet aunt Heather and Jamie at Ikea and went to their home for a great visit. Mason was happy I go to the kids area, while Audrey wanted to stay with us. Before checking out, we got Mason. We were pretty hungry, so I sent Bill to line up for a hotdog while the rest of us paid. Mason was supposed to follow Bill to the line up for food, but somehow he didn't and Bill thought he stayed with us. After 3-4 minutes checking out, and reuniting with Bill, he asked where Mason was. "What?? Isn't he with you?". We quickly went back to the checkout area where Jamie spotted Mason's red sweatshirt. He crying, clearly shaken, being held by a nice lady. I exhaled as I felt like the worst parent.

Coincidentally that morning I had a talk with Mason about waiting for us and not walking off by himself. And if he did find himself alone, to find a store employee or policeman or a nice lady (preferably with kids) and ask for help. I didn't expect to put that into practice so soon. Very scary!

Here we are back at Heather and Jamie's house.

Childrens Museum

We took the kids to the Children's Museum this past Saturday (President's weekend). The place was packed!! Everyone must have had the same idea. We still had a lot of fun exploring the different exhibits (we hadn't been there in a while). He kids enjoyed playing on the fire truck, exploring in the bubble room, making a vehicle with recycled parts, working at the grocery store and playing with the paper rocket launcher.

Slow eater

Audrey is the slowest eater ever. She can chew on a piece of chicken for 15 minutes. It makes meals very long and it is driving me nuts!

I've learned to eat very quickly as in Jr High we didn't have a long lunch time. It is not a good thing I eat so fast, but I am pretty sure there are no benefits after the food has been chewed into small molecules either.

She has always been slow since she was a baby. Nursing would take 45 minutes, while Mason would have been done after 15 minutes. It has not improved with age so far.

Monster Truck Jam!

Our friend Juan Carlos and his son Santiago were going to the monster truck jam this weekend and had extra tickets. They invited Mason and Bill. As expected the boys (big and small) had a blast.

I was happy to stay home with Audrey. As Bill's sister Shawn appropriately remarked on Bill's Facebook monster truck picture: "you can take the boy out of the South, but..."

My favorite part was when I asked Bill if they ate dinner (the show was from 6-8:30 PM), Bill answered "kind of" as he thought of a better answer. Mason beaming from ear to ear answered "we had dessert first!", followed by more junk food. Oh well, I guess I shouldn't expect better food at a monster truck show.

First cavity filling

Earlier this month, Mason went in for this first cavity filling. It is on two of his top front teeth that come in fused and geminated, leaving a pocket behind that was impossible to clean. He did great as always. He got to watch a movie and take in some fun gas.

Tae Kwon Do

After watching Power Rangers and Kong Fu Panda, Mason has been kicking and punching around the house. Two Saturdays ago he accidentally kicked Audrey (she wasn't hurt), but we decided it was time to channel that energy. We got Mason started in Tae Kwon Do at a small martial arts and performance arts studio. Here he is in his 3rd lesson.

Epic snow?

All news outlets were talking Thursday about the big snowstorm approaching. DIA saw hundreds of flights cancelled. On Thursday, we were still enjoying some sunshine and 40-50s weather, but we could see the storm approaching in the map.

Bill had plans to take Friday off to ski with his friend Mat and Paul. Recently he had also learned that his cousin Sherrie's kids moved to the Vail area. With the talk of the weather getting worse, we quickly changed plans for him to get out of Denver on Thursday night. It turns out that Paul was stranded in DIA after his connection flight to Eagle was cancelled, so Bill picked him up and they drove up to Vail together.

My parents came and stayed over to help with the kids. Mason was running a little fever and there was a good chance school was going to be cancelled, just like most of the public schools already announcing their cancellations. Sure enough Gateway made their official closure decision around 4am Friday.

We woke up about 1 ft of snow. It took me about an hour to clear the driveway and sidewalk with the snowblower (suck a good investment we made when we first moved to this house) and steps that I could only clear with a shovel. It was a good workout!

I worked most of the day. We had power, the kids enjoyed a lazy TV day and some playing in the snow. We had plenty of food.

News has the snow count in Westminster at 18.5 by 8PM Fri. It is still coming down and it supposed to snow all night. Not as epic as the 3 ft+ in 2003 (my first winter in Colorado that snowfall is the 2nd biggest since they started keeping record) but still very good size. UPDATE from 7AM 20.4".

Pictures from our different snow experiences: