Spring Skiing

Day two and we were already having to rearrange and modify plans.  Our original plans had involved various combinations of adults skiing with adults, kids skiing with adults and just generally all of us getting out there and enjoying the mountain.  What we hadn't factored in was one of the adults getting injured on day one...

After the morning of playing outside, that left the kids tired and ready for a movie, our lone adult male, G was ready to hit the slopes for an hour or two of afternoon skiing.  He and I headed up to get his rental skis, his lift tickets for the rest of the week and a quick read of the lift lines to see where he should go first.  G hopped on the gondola with me - he hopped off at Peak 7 after agreeing to meet up with the rest of us in the living room of One Ski Hill when the mountain closed and I continued on home.  Two hours later, A and I had all of the kids corralled at our waiting point when she got a call from G.  He had fallen and hurt himself and didn't know how he would get back down.  After a few back and forths, G made his way down and we got him back onto the gondola, into his truck and down the mountain to the urgent care facility.  Thankfully, his calf was just sprained and not torn, but sadly it still meant an end to his skiing while on this vacation. 

It also meant that the next morning A and I took her oldest 3 to ski school and then she headed back home to take care of her baby and sick man.  I stayed on the mountain with the girls and we got our fill of the fresh air.  The mountain was close to empty (check out the pics, there is hardly another soul in them and that isn't camera trickery) and the lift lines were non-existent so we were up and down and crossed from peak to peak and back again and still made it back home by noon.  Add the sunshine and warm day and you can see why I love Breck best in spring!

Ready to go...

But first a selfie...

Not a soul in sight.

So. Much. Snow. (and it continued to fall)

This video is mostly to show you the snow!  And the empty runs! (The skiing is the usual)

We grabbed some hot chocolate, hopped back on the gondola and took in the view of the runs we had just conquered and couldn't help but smile...

Let it Snow...

One of the harder parts of living so far away from family and friends is that keeping in touch by anything but text/email can be difficult.  When you are separated by 6 time zones (or more), it can be a challenge to find a time where each party is awake and also available because many times while one family is getting ready for school while the other is making dinner and doing bedtime routines.   It makes the spontaneous, random catch up call almost impossible and it means you can go weeks (or months) without being able to actually talk to a live person.  I am not complaining, just stating the facts.  

One of the perks of moving back home was that we were finally in the same time zone as so many of our old friends (and way out of sync with our new friends but that is a different post). Lives are still busy, of course, but at least now I don't have to calculate what time it is back home and wait for the appropriate time to call.  I just pick up the phone.  If they answer, great.  If not, I know I can just try again without planning.  Which is what I have been doing with my friend A.

A and her family were the first people we met when we started on our expat journey 8 years ago.  They also worked for the same company B does and they had just moved to Santiago about a month before we did.  They had a 6-month-old which was perfect because Stinkerbell was only a year older.  We spent A LOT of time together for the 3 years we lived in the same place.  And then we moved to Europe, they moved back to the US and it was a few years between visits.  But we never lost touch completely.  When we moved back, I called.  And then it just became a ritual for me to talk with her while I am out walking the dog.  She answers when she can and we talk all of the time for usually just a few minutes (she does have 4 under 9 after all).  

During one of these calls, we hatched a plan to meet up.  We had no real plans for Spring Break and neither did they so we decided to meet in Breck at the house and spend some quality time in the snow.  Which is exactly what we did.  I'm not saying there weren't some hiccups along the way (I'll get to those) but overall it was a fantastic vacation.  And the kids couldn't have gotten along better!  I think.  We rarely saw them because they were either out in the snow, watching a movie, or just playing together somewhere.  And I wouldn't have had it any other way!

The photos are from our first full day.  We don't ski that day because we are all just getting used to the altitude (it's high - the house is at 10,000 feet).  But that doesn't mean they couldn't roll around in those record high piles of snow...

Just missing the baby.

Snow banks taller than your average 4-year-old...

They took their "mountain" climbing seriously...

And then they threw themselves down the snow slides in various ways...

Suddenly, we had a bear amongst us who wanted to join the party...

Baby L and the snow storm...

Sprinting to the Finish

MadHatter can run.  I mean, really run.  We found out almost by accident about two years ago at her school sports day.  She ran her heat of the 50 meters and blew everyone away.  She ran the finals and was thisclose to winning (seriously, it was a photo finish).  But then she didn't race again until the next sports day a year later, so we didn't think much of it.  And then she tied the same girl in the same race, and it sparked something in her but since there were no track and field teams in our International school we never pursued it any further.  That is until we got back to the U.S. this fall and MadHatter brought home a magazine full of athletic clubs that kids her age could join.  She had already circled the one for the Track and Field club in our area that started up in late January.  I immediately called, paid her yearly dues, and we waited (not so) patiently for January to roll around.

It is now late March, and MadHatter has been diligently going to practice 3-4 times per week (even some Saturday mornings).  She has been working on her form, her stamina, and her strength.  To her dismay, she has learned that even though she is a sprinter, she must do the longer runs to build up her lung capacity.  She has practiced her explosive starts and how to harness her fast twitch muscles.  She has also learned that she still has a lot to learn and has to be patient with her progress.

And, this past weekend, she has had her eyes opened to the fact that even though she is the fastest girl in her age group (or almost any age group) on her team, she is not the fastest in the league.  At least not yet.  She is determined to get there though, and I am very proud of how dedicated she is to be the best she can be.  A lot of these girls have been running for many years (club running starts at 5, not 11) and she has a long way to go but her times are still pretty impressive (she runs about a 14 second 100 m).  Faster than I have ever been that is without question.

Our first meet of the season was last Saturday, and she did great.  I can't wait to see how the season progresses.  I'll keep you posted on her standings.  She is shooting for the Jr. Olympics this year - I am shooting for a fun season.

So official!

Cheering on her teammates.  Track is a lot of hurry up and stand around.  Run for 14 seconds.  Wait 3 hours.  Run for 25 seconds.  Wait 3 hours...You get the picture.

On the field waiting with her teammates for the 400m (her least favorite race).

So fast she is blurry :)

And tired.  She dislikes the 400 because it is technically still a sprint but a heck of a long one.  She is not used to it yet.

This is how Stinkerbell passes the time - coloring, listening to her iPad, hoarding snacks and drinks and eating snow cones.  I think she enjoys the track meets as much as her sister does.

Running the 100m.  She placed 4th and, for her first time, it was a fabulous race.

She actually placed better in the 200m (3rd), and we both learned a few things.  You MUST have sprinting spikes to even compete - and you have to eat something between races, so you have energy.  Next time we will be better prepared!

Bars and Vaults and Beams...

Stinkerbell has loved gymnastic since before she could walk.  And we were very lucky that while we lived in Prague we found an English speaking coach that gave her private small group lessons at the local gym (which trained the Czech Olympic athletes).  She was in heaven and got pretty good while we were there.  But when we moved to Germany, we just couldn't find a gym that she could train at, even casually.  Their school system is very different than ours in that they go to school from about 8 am until noon.  They go straight through for 4 hours without breaks and there are no subjects like band, art and PE during the school day.  They are expected to do those during their afternoons, outside of school.  This meant that any classes we could find for Stinkerbell to participate in (German or English language - no need to really speak the language at this type of class) all took place while she was still in school because our International schools had a different schedule.  Sadly, we spent our 2 1/2 years in Germany without gymnastics.  {Well, at least outside of the home.  Any given day would find Stinkerbell flipping and turning and cartwheeling on any surface she could find}.

One of the first things I did when we moved into our new neighborhood was to ask around about a good gym.  The answer was unanimous - Twisters.   We popped right over and signed up.  For about 3 months we let Stinkerbell just settle in.  We wanted to let her get her groove back before seeing if she wanted to really pursue training.  And when I finally asked her if she would like to try out for the pre-team her resounding yes was out of her mouth before I could even finish my question.

She aced the tryout and made the team but we were told that she had to start at the very beginning and work her way up.  Which meant starting her training with kids much younger than she was and perfecting skills that she missed along the way.  She has worked hard, never complained and has made great strides since last month.  We are still working on strength (she needs to be able to do those pull-ups!) but I am so proud of how far she has come.  With practice and perserverence, I just know she will be on the competition team in no time and up with her age group!

The pictures and videos below are from an in-house meet.  They were judged on Beam, Bars, Vault and Floor just as if they were at a traditional meet (the only difference was that they were competing among their teammates and not other clubs).  Stinkerbell did great - placing 5th overall and 1st in the vault.

Can't wait to see the progression as we go through the season.

Her beam practice...

 Practicing her floor routine with the girls...

 The winning vault...

So proud of her medal!

Bits and Bobs

Random happenings in early March...

They took a bus, a train and a bus to get there but had a great time at the museum.  And Stinkerbell got to have Cracker Barrel for lunch (lucky her).

This one has an allergy to bugs.  One bite did this (and has done it before).

It rained so hard it overflowed our pool.

Birds, birds and more birds.

Those are the instructions for Stinkerbells pull up machine.  Don't think they could have printed them any smaller.

I got it together.  Now if only she could do a pull up...Check back - we are working on it.

Her sister, on the other hand, can already do it...

I had some "help" in making the new wreaths for my front doors.

Another Magical Weekend

It had been a whole 6 weeks since we had been to Disney.  High time to remedy that.  And since Nana had just had a hip replaced, we thought we would go test it out by doing a little walking.  We were only headed up for the weekend so we had to make the most of the time we did have.  Friday night we headed over to Hollywood Studios for a quick bite to eat and to see the Fantasmic show since we had never seen it before.  We were back and snuggled in our Disney themed beds (an Airbnb just offsite) by 10 pm.  We had a full day tomorrow and wanted to be well rested.

Epcot was our park of choice for our only full day.  And we were lucky enough that we were there just before the Flower and Garden Festival started because the crowds had not yet descended but they had almost completed the decorating.  It was gorgeous.

I think my favorite part of the festival was the topiaries.  They were in each land and all along the paths.  It seemed like every character you could think of was carved out of a bush.  I will give you some of my favorites...

We rode a bunch of rides with almost no wait at all.  It is truly the best time of year to go if you can manage it.  And we stopped for some sweet treats to refuel us before riding a few more rides...

We had some refreshing drinks with our tasty dinner in France.

And then we said goodnight to Epcot.

We were at it pretty bright and early again the next morning.   We had to leave in the late afternoon so we wanted to make sure we got the most out of our trip.  We stopped for a quick shot in front of the castle before hitting some attractions.

And by luck, just after we came around the side of the castle on our way to some ice cream, we ran into this...

Another purely magical weekend!

And the weather thought so too as we saw this on the drive home...