Durango, Colorado

I think we have found our favorite ski resort.  Favorite, as in... it has on site childcare, plenty of variety of slopes (greens & blues), and lodging is reasonable.  We've found a neighborhood that has a lot of rental townhomes.  We like having a kitchen for meals, and the space for the kids.  The one we stayed in this year was a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, loft, den, yadda yadda yadda, fabulous townhome:

When we leave the neighborhood, if we turn right, it's 20 minutes to the slopes.  If we turn left, it's 20 minutes to town.  Perfect!

We skied the first day (Sunday) together.  Monday we stayed "home" and hung out (the Mister had to work).  Tuesday, the Mister dropped the rest of us off at the mountain.  Little Man went to childcare, and the sisters and I skied.  We had fun! Then we skied Wednesday & Thursday together (I am certain 4 days of skiing is plenty for my body... maybe even 3).  Friday we took a train ride... there's an old steam engine train that takes you up into the mountains and back.  It was neat:

The train ride was eventful, with a 20-month-old on board.  Luckily, there were 2 other families with toddlers in our car, so the screams and fussiness were the norm.  Of course, Little Man fell asleep 5 minutes before we stopped for lunch:

But the scenery was beautiful!  A true reminder of a God who has an imagination.

Happy New Year!

So, December was a blur.  Truly.

The beginning of the month had its usual piano recital, Christmas party at church for the sisters, Sister #1 had a few school choir performances ( I won't bore you with the details, but it was a little much... especially for a 4th grader), and then the school "holiday" parties.  Oh, and the neighborhood Christmas play.  That's right. The neighborhood play.  I'll save that one for another post.

Then there was The Holiday.  We choose to skip the (extended)family dramatics and go skiing.  So much simpler.  Since we were leaving town on the day the sisters got out of school, we decided to celebrate Christmas early.  And we let the cat out of the bag.  That's right.  We are the mean, harsh parents that popped their children's fantasy of a big jolly man coming down the chimney (we don't have one... our fireplace just has this weird metal box that vents in the backyard) and leaving presents for good girls.  They took it pretty well. Just a couple of questions about logistics, and they were fine with it all.  We did tell them not to spoil it for other kids, which I think they get.  They've had a few kids at school try to spoil it for them, and I reminded them they didn't want to be lumped into the same category as them.

Anywho... here's a few pics of our holiday:

And then here are a few pics of our ski trip:

I'll go into detail on the ski trip another day...