NOTE: our apologies, five months have passed since we updated this blog! I’m not sure if that is bad etiquette or not, I’ll check wikipedia. In the meantime, here’s what Momster had written after our family vacation. I’ll finish it after I 30 seconds the deck.
So we finally make it up on the Snow Bunny Park. It is packed. And the park is officially closed. (Why didn’t they say so - the web site says "open on school holidays" - New Year’s is not only a School holiday, but a National holiday as well.) Since we don’t own things like sled or snow disk, and there is no inner tube to rent, we end up borrowing Rob and Molly's. Taking turns. Which worked out OK, since Brandon (4) is very cautious and doesn’t want any part of this sledding nonsense.
Momster loads Sophie up on the plastic tobaggon and heads up to the bunny hill. The child keeps sliding off the dang little tray so literaly we take 3 steps forward and 2 steps back. Only quarter of the way up the bunny hill, I’m already regretting being the first one to go up there with the hellion. Should have sent Daddy. Slip goes Sophie again so I turn around to load her up on the little plastic tray. Then Bam! Out of nowhere this evil child on bob sled made of whiffle ball material knocks me over and I land on my head. Here comes, I am in a bad bad mood. People, watch your own kid. I have my hands full with my own hellion. (That is one of my pet peeves, people who let their pushy older kids loose with no supervision in crowded places. I end up watching for mine and theirs, and I end up scolding their brats, which gets me into a foul mood.)
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Our First Family Vacation, part 1
We haven’t really gone on a trip anywhere since Sophie was born (other than to see Sophie’s grand parents who live about 3 hours drive away, which we try to do every other month or so.) Since we lack in overnight baby sitting relatives near by, we decided to pack the little demon child and head to to the mountain, After all we live only an hour away from one, so we have been told.
So, we call our friends Rob and Molly with their two kids Brandon (4) and Anna (15mon) to go with us. Merry Christmas, you are invited to the "Non-weekend" with the Satans! Somehow, they seem to enjoy our company, and they don’t put up much of a fight.
Making reservations for winter resorts, however is not as easy as it seems. Every place we can think to stay is booked until mid January. If you want a weekend, wait till February. This is quite puzzling since pre-hellion, Satans always went for terrorizing tropical adventures (jumping off water falls, canoeing to the wildlife/historical sanctuary or disappearing island, swimming at the green sand beach where you have to hike for an hour and 45min to get there, then you have to walk back, or using public transportations in Mexico) vacations. Why would anyone want to spend not just a day but evening and more day in the freezing cold? Apparently, there were more masochists who would prefer freezing in the wilderness than we’d imagined, and they roll down the snowy mountainside lugging pricey equipment for fun.
We finally find a B&B that is willing to accept children and isn’t run by a crazy lonely cat lady. Indeed, this one received a "4 kisses" rating from "The Best Places to Kiss" guide book. (This is where Momster finds all her hook-ups. It is a bible one should not leave home without.) We plan to return without our hellion one of these days, but that is another story.
Skip forward to the trip. At least the day of. Packing for a winter trip is a chore. A major one. Everything you need to pack takes up the whole bag. So you end up taking all the bags you own on top of the stuff you need. Then you have to pack for the hellion, which takes up even more space, so you unpack half of your stuff to make room. Several unpackings and re-packings and packing some more in plastic bags (because you are out of normal bags) we cram everything into the official Satan-mobile, do the last sweep of the house and find our hot water heater is spewing, what a surprise, hot water all over the utility closet. It’s holiday, everything is closed. So we tun off the water, mop up the spew, bury the casualties of war (wet TP and moldy air filter anyone?) and go our merry way to our first family vacation. Thank God for cell phones and WiFi, we can summon Home Depot from wherever we are.
Our friends are waiting at the Golden Arches by our house. Logical place with kids in the tow, un-glamorously dressed (in things that are thin enough to wear under the ski gear but you don’t have the puffy stuff on yet). On the way there, (that’s few hundred yards out the door) we realize we never finished our "last sweep" courtesy of the water heater leak and forgot things like Sophie’s snow bunny suit. So we go to meet our friends anyway, order and wolf down McBreakfasts, send Daddy to finish "the last sweep" while the rest of us take turns visiting McBathrooms and watch the kids run around in the play place hoping that they will sleep in the car.
Daddy returns and finally we are on the way. We burned through all the slop time we accounted for and are right on schedule. Not bad for losing a water heater. Who said it only takes an hour to get to the mountain?
So, we call our friends Rob and Molly with their two kids Brandon (4) and Anna (15mon) to go with us. Merry Christmas, you are invited to the "Non-weekend" with the Satans! Somehow, they seem to enjoy our company, and they don’t put up much of a fight.
Making reservations for winter resorts, however is not as easy as it seems. Every place we can think to stay is booked until mid January. If you want a weekend, wait till February. This is quite puzzling since pre-hellion, Satans always went for terrorizing tropical adventures (jumping off water falls, canoeing to the wildlife/historical sanctuary or disappearing island, swimming at the green sand beach where you have to hike for an hour and 45min to get there, then you have to walk back, or using public transportations in Mexico) vacations. Why would anyone want to spend not just a day but evening and more day in the freezing cold? Apparently, there were more masochists who would prefer freezing in the wilderness than we’d imagined, and they roll down the snowy mountainside lugging pricey equipment for fun.
We finally find a B&B that is willing to accept children and isn’t run by a crazy lonely cat lady. Indeed, this one received a "4 kisses" rating from "The Best Places to Kiss" guide book. (This is where Momster finds all her hook-ups. It is a bible one should not leave home without.) We plan to return without our hellion one of these days, but that is another story.
Skip forward to the trip. At least the day of. Packing for a winter trip is a chore. A major one. Everything you need to pack takes up the whole bag. So you end up taking all the bags you own on top of the stuff you need. Then you have to pack for the hellion, which takes up even more space, so you unpack half of your stuff to make room. Several unpackings and re-packings and packing some more in plastic bags (because you are out of normal bags) we cram everything into the official Satan-mobile, do the last sweep of the house and find our hot water heater is spewing, what a surprise, hot water all over the utility closet. It’s holiday, everything is closed. So we tun off the water, mop up the spew, bury the casualties of war (wet TP and moldy air filter anyone?) and go our merry way to our first family vacation. Thank God for cell phones and WiFi, we can summon Home Depot from wherever we are.
Our friends are waiting at the Golden Arches by our house. Logical place with kids in the tow, un-glamorously dressed (in things that are thin enough to wear under the ski gear but you don’t have the puffy stuff on yet). On the way there, (that’s few hundred yards out the door) we realize we never finished our "last sweep" courtesy of the water heater leak and forgot things like Sophie’s snow bunny suit. So we go to meet our friends anyway, order and wolf down McBreakfasts, send Daddy to finish "the last sweep" while the rest of us take turns visiting McBathrooms and watch the kids run around in the play place hoping that they will sleep in the car.
Daddy returns and finally we are on the way. We burned through all the slop time we accounted for and are right on schedule. Not bad for losing a water heater. Who said it only takes an hour to get to the mountain?
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