When Weather Predictions Go Awry

This is old news for Denverites, but crazy weather is always cool.

Last Friday we had a cold front predicted to hit the front range. Temps were going to go from appx 50F to appx 0f in a matter of hours. On my way home from school drop off I came down the hill toward our neighborhood to glimpse one of my favorite views of the front range and Mt. Evans. 

Wait! No Mt. Evans to be seen, just a solid line of ominous looking clouds. Sure enough, here came our predicted front. We were supposed to get cold, some wind, and maybe a flurry or two.

Drive home,  9:00am

An hour and a half later my Mom scurried out of our house because it was starting to snow. I decided I better go to school early because it might take me a while. Streets that had been dry just moments before were suddenly covered in super slippy ice snow. By the time I completed the 3 minute drive to school it was DUMPING huge fat flakes. This was definitely NOT in the forecast. I considered cancelling our noon haircuts but persevered, thinking all the time someone was about to crash into us.  We arrived 20 minutes late - the normally 5 minute drive took nearly 30.

11:30am. I'm not the only one who thought early would be a good idea.

 We got done with haircuts at 1:30 and the sky was blue, the wind had stopped, and the roads were nearly dry again. The storm wasn't done yet, just taking a breather. It snowed again a couple hours later and continued the rest of the night, making rush hour messy.

Locals know it was cold all weekend. Bitter freeze your nose hairs cold. We never got out of the teens. This, of course, coincided nicely with a home football playoff game which we felt compelled to attend. With the car thermometer registering 5F we bundled up, stocked up on hand warmers, and hoped for the best. We survived the game, double overtime and all, but the silly Broncos could not overcome and thus ended our football season.

King of the Ice

As much as is reasonable we let F pick his own activities. Sometimes there's a veto if it's not age appropriate or budget and schedule friendly, but overall he gets to do the extracurricular stuff he wants to do.

Back in preschool F's class went ice skating once a month. He. Loved. It. I checked out ice skating classes at the time and we had a schedule conflict. This fall there was a new schedule and since he's a little older he qualifies for more classes ergo more available time slots. He started in November and is now into his first full session of skating lessons.

F's a hoot on ice. From my perch outside the rink it appears his two favorite things are skating backwards and running into the boards. Perhaps he'll opt for hockey soon.

This afternoon we got a flier from school for the local youth baseball and volleyball leagues. F's expressed interest in playing these sports so I offered him up a choice. Skating, baseball, OR volleyball. After trying to talk me into letting him do them all, then "...maybe just two of them, Mommy?" he quickly opted for skating. I was a bit surprised, the pull of baseball has been strong.

After lessons I let him free skate for a while and that kiddo boogied around the ice chock full of confidence. He may choose alternative sports and activities, but dang it he's having a really good time.

Baby Katie

There's a new baby in our family, born in November and cute as a button. Baby Katie is F's second cousin (they are kids of first cousins) and he's been dying to meet her.  She lives in Kansas City, so we hit the road after our mountain holiday was over and headed east.

F can tell you exactly how many times he got to hold Katie, what she wore every day, what and how often she ate, and how long she slept. He was in baby heaven.

We also got to visit with my family, too. We got to see Katie's parents, my cousin Sarah and her husband Brian and my grandparents a.k.a F's great grandparents.

Brian was pretty excited F showed up, there's a new Lego Discovery Center in KC and you have to have a child to accompany to get in. F obliged and he and Brian had a great time while we gals hung about and watched.

Just how many Legos do you weigh?

Racing Lego cars is WAY COOL!

Brian and his assistant built a really awesome fast car that hardly ever broke.
Always have an engineer on your team.

The giant Legos paired with a wrecking "ball" were a huge hit.

There were a couple rides, a giant playground/lego pit, DIY racing, lego towers vs. earthquake, 4D movie, and of course giant bins of Legos everywhere. Lego Friends had their own little corner, too. I thought we'd pass right by this sparkly pink and purple wonderland, but F spotted karaoke and made a beeline for the, "REAL microphones Mommy!"

Working it baby - while trying very hard to read all on his own.

We had a spectacular trip, and even managed to squeeze in a quick trip to Trader Joe's since ours won't open until the end of the year. The drive home was quiet and uneventful. And I mean REALLY quiet and REALLY uneventful. It's awfully flat and lonely in western Kansas. With the holiday rush over I didn't even have many truckers to keep me company. Good thing I had some great Books on CD.

Homeward bound

Winter Piano Recital

FFM's class finished their assigned music book early this semester. The parents voted to wrap up the year with some Christmas music. This recital was a bit different, instead of it being only students of our teacher it was several different teachers. Including violin. That part was painful. The rest, pretty good.

We bring you a joyful performance - Ode to Joy (in two different keys) and Joy to the World.

Ho Ho Ho

I love the holidays! I love skiing!

We kicked off at home with some pre-Christmas treats and dinner with friends. Yum.

 The lights were awesome as always, and it wasn't even super cold this year.

We attended Christmas Eve church service with my Mom at the chapel we were married in at Beaver Creek. During church the snow started coming down and it managed to snow every single night that we were in the mountains.

 We woke up on Christmas day to lightly falling glittery snow. I love white Christmases! It was even white in Denver this year.

 Santa enjoyed his snack and left FFM a thank you note.

 A much anticipated gift from Santa. He didn't bring slot cars but Mom and Dad and Eric all found really cool car tracks that should last a lot longer than the slot cars that were in Santa's budget.

I'm so glad I have the opportunity to ski with my family. Earlier this year we planned to do Christmas at home, but as winter started knocking on the door all three of us got the urge to hit the slopes.  We opted for ski passes with no blackout dates, bought twice as many ski lessons as we did last year, and instead of heading to the hills right after Christmas we headed out as soon as school was out.

Travis got new gear this year, he's blindingly colorful.

Skiing at ski school with Ripperoo!

Ski school means Mom and Dad get some ski time on our own :)

It wasn't all about the skiing, we took some time off to loaf and veg.  FFM is getting into Star Wars and Travis got the entire series as a gift. Sadly it was Blu Ray and wouldn't play at the mountain house. Luckily the mountain house had Episodes 4, 5, 6 on good old VHS! Note the tiny Darth Vader figure F's holding, Luke is on the floor. DV is his favorite character, he likes the shiny helmet.

I loafed, too. And started a sweater for FFM. He's been patiently waiting for me to knit something for him and I'm finally getting around to it.  He picked different colors (the dino had to be green and he liked darker blue) so we'll see how it turns out.

We stayed all the way up to New Year's and celebrated New Year's Eve in Beaver Creek. The resort goes all out for families and had a great NYE celebration.  We dined, skated, visited with the Winterfest characters, enjoyed the "glow worm" ski down, and watched the family-friendly fireworks at 7pm. We counted down to the New Year at 8pm and shouted HAPPY NEW YEAR! across the valley.

Skating lessons are paying off!

The Winter Queen. FFM's in love again.
 Sorry Belle.

Skiers and boarders loading up for the glow worm ski down

Glow worm in action!
FFM SO wanted to do this, but he's got to advance
 a couple levels in ski school first.