Back on the slopes!

On the way to the jacuzzi, S* told me that he wouldn't take part in the picture because he didn't want little girls seeing him on the internet. Well... luckily he forgot, and when a jacuzzi "neighbor" offered to take our picture, S* obliged. This jacuzzi is steps from our condo, and we met some people from Mass., Ohio, Illinois and California. It was very cold today. On the top of one of the ski slopes, the temperature read 17 degrees. S* and Z* did ski school again, and they gave me a full report. S* rode on a chairlift multiple times! Our plan tomorrow is to split up, and I'll be with S* on the bunny slopes, and Dale & Z* will be checking out the terrain parks.

So, to celebrate Valentine's day, I bought the ingredients to make cosmos! Yum! I spent about $27 on the supplies which balanced out the fact that we ate in the whole day. We were able to eat lunch in our condo since we are so close to one end of the mountain. It was nice to come in and warm up!

Here is a picture of us eating at the table at our condo, I would definitely stay here again. Did I tell you we have sleep number beds???!!! The kids have one too and have played with them incessantly, trying to find the perfect number.

Ski Break

Well, we had a wonderful time skiing yesterday, and the kids loved the ski school. Z* got to do a little of a black diamond run which was very cool for him. Dale & I ended up in an unmarked black diamond run and struggled through it. Everything went very well, except the morning was a comedy of errors. We set our alarm yesterday morning for 6:15 a.m. since we thought we had to be at the top of the gondola before 9:00 a.m. We got in line for the heavenly gondola at 8:23 a.m., then we found out that it didn't OPEN until 9:00 a.m. Then when we arrived at the ski school at 9:20 on the mountain, we found out that we could have dropped our kids off at the bottom and then had a cappicuno. Oh well, we signed them up for another day ($$$) on Thursday because S* does much better without mom or dad telling him what to do. (S* doesn't want his ski picture on the blog)

Today we are taking a break, kind of, the kids have done a tennis clinic, the pool, ping pong, snowball fight - I need to go, they are building a snowman, and I think I need to admire and take a picture!

Day 1 on the Mountain

So, our planned 3-hour "dry run" ended up being about 5 hours with S* & Dale being picked up by the snowmobile and taking a ride down the gondola at Heavenly. No one is hurt, but we were a little ambitious about what we thought the kids could do, especially S*. We just wanted to see how to get to the ski school (where they are going on Monday), and it was much more challenging in real life than it looked on the map. And I feel major mom guilt because Sean begged to go on the gondola after lunch, and we said no (because we thought it cost $$$$), but he got to go after all! Z* and I went down the hill together. Z* would fall about every 3- 8 feet. I think it's really hard to stop on a snowboard. BUT both of the kids got on and off their speedy chairlifts, and I crashed into Z* only once. I will have to say, we were very thankful to have our walkie-talkies since I was able to get help for Dale & S*. I kept promising Z* that he would get to swim today, but with all of the glitches, we didn't get home until after dinner around 7 p.m. We went anyway, since I was using the pool as a major carrot to get Z* down some hills. So the kids jump in the pool as if they could swim for hours. Dale and I can barely move we're so tired! Speaking of which, my sleepnumber bed is sounding fabulous right now!
Thanks for checking in.... Day 2 will be Dale & I traversing the mountain together while S* and Z* are in all day ski school!

We've Arrived!

We left at 1:00 p.m. today and arrived at Ridge Tahoe around 5:00 p.m. We will start our first day of skiing tomorrow. They have a really neat pool at the resort that is half indoor and half outdoor. Z* is nearly outside of his skin dying to go in that pool. (Since we had cable), we watched "house flipper" which luckily stopped the pool angst (for today). And.... Dale might have lost his kelly green beanie cap. If I could have lost it for him, I would have, but maybe he will have to buy a new one. Speaking of new items, I bought a new ski jacket which is a tinge too small, but SO beautiful. It's powder blue with a powder blue fleece. So I guess I will have to lose that 10 pounds after all.

I asked Dale to bring a cable for the camera and only when we were settling into our room, did he realize that I brought the cable for blogging!!

(Hey, Lauri, they have an indoor tennis court here!)

And, one more pic, I made some valentines for my coworkers and filled the mini ziploc bags with red, pink and white m & m's. I love that mouse!

Muddin'

Well, my camera shutter was a little sleepy, so my mud bath picture is very blurry. As this was my first mud bath, I'll have to say that I will definitely do it again. I sunk down into the warm mud and was suspended in it. My mom & sis did it too! After the mud bath, it was a mineral bath, blanket wrap, and, to top it off, an hour massage. It was fabulous! The weather was beautiful and we ate delicious food. We did a little wine tasting at Folie a Deux.

I got 2 books at the bookstore in Calistoga: (1) Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and (2) Complaint Free in 21 days. The complaint free book encourages you to get a purple plastic bracelet so that you can switch your bracelet from one hand to the other everytime you complain (gossip or criticize) until you wear the bracelet on the same side for 21 days straight. Since my sister is anti-plastic, I am using one of my own bracelets. I switched my bracelet about 4 times today. Unfortunately, this leads to some extra processing, "Was that exactly complaining?"

P.S. (not complaining, boasting) I won our scrabble game Sunday night!

And, finally, I got my new Stampin' up order today, and I couldn't wait to color my elephant PINK. I also bought some PINK ribbon.

Almost Wednesday

Well, I realize now that when you have a blog you need a few things to say. I hope I haven't run out already! It reminds me a bit of scrapbooking where you intentionally take pictures of events so that you can make the "perfect" page. But I don't want to disappoint my 2 readers, so I'll update you on the kitchen. Dale is ordering phase 2 wall cabinets, so we should have them by the weekend after next. *OH* I just thought of something!



THIS WEEKEND....

My sister, my mom and I are going to Calistoga. I am going to get a mud bath for the first time! We are staying at Dr. Wilkinson's. This is only my 2nd time to Calistoga. For those not native to Northern California, Calistoga is a very small resort town north of Napa. It has restaurants, spas, hot springs and chocolate. Dale and I celebrated our 12th anniversary there, and I just loved it. The food and wine are delicious. I am totally ready for the mud bath, massage, non-stop talking, and chocolate.