a HOTEL in the MOUNTAINS

This weekend our friends Raymond and Kristine invited us to join them at a condo resort near SolVista ski area west of Granby, CO. We drove up yesterday morning and immediately headed for the pool/hot tubs. The indoor/outdoor pool was too cool for my taste, but the indoor hot tubs were too hot (just call me Goldilocks).

We went out to the outdoor hot tubs, which were fairly close to just right, but every once in a while my Colorado native boys would jump out and take a few laps in the 25 degree air.

We didn't want the boys to overheat, so we soon went back inside to have lunch in the condo.


After nap we got everyone snowsuited up and drove up the hill to the tubing run at SolVista. Ryan is hanging back here because, as usual, he is not excited about sledding.

This was our first experience toting snow gear for four, and let's just say I'm not looking forward to adding skis, boots and poles to the load...

Here's where my camera loses all ability to function properly in the snow - we were not actually floating in mid-air!

First run - Daddy and Jack

Now Mama and Jack!

Sam convinced Ryan to ride uphill in the tube...

...and then got him to go down the hill.

Kristine and Eli brought their own sled - Eli could not get enough sledding!

We took five or six runs, but there was a group of unchaperoned kids on the tubing slope who were acting a little crazy, so we decided to call it a day. Ryan was enamored with the firepit at the bottom of the run, particularly the Ryan-sized lounge chair.

I promised Ryan we'd drink hot cocoa after sledding, but the base camp lodge was closing up shop so we headed back to our resort.


The on-site restaurant/bar was happy to make regular cocoa for the boys and add a little "extra" to the grown-ups' drinks, and we retired to the "dead animal room" - a semi-enclosed space with a fireplace, taxidermied polar bear, and a wall full of trophy heads, including the head, shoulders and front legs of a bighorn sheep. We've been teaching Jack about how fireplaces, stoves, etc. are hot, so he gave a wide berth to the roaring wood fire, while saying "fyr" "fyr".

Ryan used Jack's stacking cups to play his own version of air hockey on the enormous coffee table.

Back in the room I made a big pot of minestrone and the guys picked up a pizza from the restaurant. It was apparently a day for Jack to learn "f" words as he kept pointing to the clock on the wall sporting a rainbow trout and saying "fsh" "fsh". I wanted to get Jack ready for a bath, but he decided to start celebrating Mardi Gras early.

Still partying in the bath...

Sam had to be at work mid-morning today, so we were up early (as usual - Jack has an internal alarm clock set at 6:30 a.m.) and bid farewell to the Sapersteins. When we got home and started unloading all our bags and gear, Ryan looked at me and said, "Mama! We forgot to go to the beach!" If only it were that easy, buddy.