Rocky Mountain High...and Traveling Lows

Whew!  We are finally home after a whirlwind of traveling the last half of February.  Although both trips were great, it feels really wonderful to be back at the homestead.  Even the mountain of laundry awaiting me upon our return couldn't deter my happiness.  However much I love to travel, I always love coming home all the more.  I guess that's a good thing, right?

But back to the travel...As you saw in my last post, PDW 2013 went very well.  Great times with special friends.  Well, our annual trip to Frisco, Colorado with Conor's buds was more of the same.  Wonderful memories with some of our closest friends -- even if our trip lasted a bit longer than we originally anticipated.  But more on that later.  First, a bit about the planned portion of the vacation.

This better be fun, Mama, 'cuz these ski boots are totally cramping my style.

So our big excitement for this trip was getting Fionny up on skis for the first time.  Both Conor and I love to ski, and we were thrilled to introduce Fionny to the sport as soon as possible so that one day we can ski as a family.  I know, I know.  Two-and-a-half years old is a wee bit young for introduction to the slopes.  But we just couldn't wait to see our boy two-planking it down the mountain.  Can you blame us?

Winter Olympics 2014, here I come! 

As it turned out, Fionn was the only Crimmins up on skis this trip.  I am out of skiing commission for obvious reasons, and Conor decided that it was too big of a hassle to rent all the gear for just a few hours of skiing.  Next year though...next year.  Perhaps we can ski as a family -- or at least as a threesome while Little Brother hangs with a sitter back at the house.  We shall see.  Anyway, getting ahead of myself again.  Back to Fionny's first ski.

It was short-lived, as you might imagine.  In fact, it lasted a whopping 15 minutes, I think.  But those first 5 minutes...man, you should have seen the grin on his face.   It was contagious.  After the first 5 minutes, some of the novelty wore off, and our boy's grin faded a bit.  Conor and I also realized that we had no idea how to teach a kid to ski.  Do we teach him the pizza pie wedge with his ski tips together?  Tell him to lean forward?  We had no clue.

Uh...can I get an instructor up in here?  My mama don't know what she's doin'.

Fionn started to feel our insecurities, I think, because the complaints started rolling in.  By the time we made it down the first bunny slope, our boy declared, "I all done with this skiing."  And there you have it, folks.  Skiing with a 2-year-old.  Not sure whether to deem this one a minor success or an epic failure.

I'll tell you what was a huge success though.  The french fries and hot cocoa that we enjoyed in the ski lodge following our 15-minute skiing endeavor.  Oh, the look of pure bliss on our boy's face as he sipped his hot cocoa.  It was just priceless.  Unfortunately, we didn't capture the hot cocoa sipping on film, but we did snap a picture of Fionny practically making out with his ketchup dipping cup.  Where's the Heinz Ketchup talent scout when you need him?  Haha!

Skiing might have gotten a lukewarm response from Fionn, but sledding later that day was a complete hit.  Watching Fionn and Conor sled down the snowy hills outside of our rented house, I was reminded of their similar love affair with the Aruban water slides back in June. Two peas in a pod when it comes to outdoor adventures.  Oh, how I love my boys.

They sledded and they sledded and they sledded.  And then they sledded some more.  In fact, they sledded until one of the sleds actually shattered.  Check it out.

By the way, Fionn is roaring like a monster at Conor's instruction in the above picture.  Don't worry -- he didn't sustain any injuries.  Uh, that came later.  When he ran into the tree.  I'll spare you the details, but rest assured everyone (sapling and boy) are a-okay.  

Although we had a lot of great family time in Colorado, we also enjoyed hanging out with our wonderful friends who were also at the house.  It was especially fun to spend time with the kiddos who have multiplied quite considerably since last year.  In 2012, we had 2 preggo ladies, but only 2 actual out-of-the-womb kiddos.  This year, we had 5 kids, including Little Miss Clara here.

And Little Miss Elliott.

I know, I know.  Five measly kids is not very impressive when you consider the PDWC offspring count (11 total) from my last post, but our Colorado group is growing all the time.  (By the way, Little Brother just gave me a swift kick inside my belly -- just to prove that point).  We'll have caught up to the PDWC in no time at this rate.  Here is the best pic we took of all 5 kids.

It is not easy to get 5 wiggly kids to sit still for a picture on a couch.  There was some crying, to be sure...and a wee bit of domestic violence, courtesy of our boy.  Here, let me set the scene.  After piling the kids on the couch, I told Fionny to hold on to Elliott who was sitting right beside him.  After all, she's younger, and I thought Fionn could play Big Kid for a few minutes and help keep her still.  Well, I suppose Fionny took my instruction a little too seriously.  First, he put one arm around Elliott. Then he added in the other arm too and pulled her close.  Like so.

Then he locked his arms ever so slightly.  Like so.

 

It was around this time that we started to notice that Elliott's face was turning beet red.  "Her airway!  He's obstructing her airway!" someone shouted.  Obviously, we rushed to the scene and relieved Elliott from Fionn's er, aggressive display of affection.  Fionny, for his part, seemed surprised by the dramatic reaction.  Check out his "dude, it totally wasn't me" stance in the next picture.

We have now dubbed our boy "The Frisco Strangler."

Right before this picture was taken, we learned that our flight home had been cancelled due to snowfall in Denver.  We also learned that we weren't going to get home anytime soon.  The next available flight was not until 2 days later on Tuesday night.  The good news?  More time with our friends in the beautiful state of Colorado.  The bad news?  For a planner like myself, this sort of thing drives me cra-azy.  You have to understand that I had packed exactly the right number of outfits, prenatal vitamins, and Pull-Ups for our long weekend.  Tacking on two extra days meant...well, okay, it was just a matter of doing a quick drugstore run and starting a load of laundry.  But still.  It was stressful, people!  I also had to cancel my clients and reschedule some play dates and a doctor's appointment.  I know.  Blah, blah, blah.  Enjoy your stay in Colorado, and stop your whining, Casey.

You'll be glad to know that, after I recalibrated my attitude a bit, I was able to relax into another couple of wonderful days with our friends.  It was nice not to have to rush off on Sunday.  Heck, we even got to go sledding again!  Here's a family pic taken at the public sledding hill in Frisco.  It was freeeeeezing, but Fionn still loved it.

After another night in Frisco, we relocated to Boulder where we spent our final night with Jess and Trisha.  And their darling son, Quinn.

By the way, hanging out with a Fionn and a Quinn can get quite confusing.  I can't count how many times Trisha and I called our own children by the wrong name.  The boys didn't seem phased though.  Here is a pic of Quinn, er, Fionn in his newly purchased Cookie Monster hat.  He loved the hat so much that he even posed for us on this rock and said, "Cheese!"  This is not typical from our boy.  He usually makes us work for it a little more. 

Fionn and Quinn had a blast playing on the animal statues which line a section of Pearl Street in Boulder.  Their 14-month age difference is starting to narrow already, and I know by next year it will seem like nuthin'. 

How cute are they, right?

As you can see, despite the unexpected extension to our trip, we had a simply marvelous time.  We feel so lucky to have such amazing friends, and we love that we get to share such fun times with them every winter.  Conor and I are already looking forward to next year when we'll have another little ski bunny to add to the mix.  But for now...we are just enjoying the comforts of home.  Until next time, folks.