Over MLK day weekend, my family and I were lucky enough to be hosted by Winter Park resort, as part of a group effort from Colorado Ski Country USA to show off how families can have fun at resorts all over Colorado.

From the get-go I was honest with them about my lack-luster skiing abilities. I mean, seriously – have you SEEN the Terror On The Mountain video? Grace, agility + snow are not words meant to be in my vocabulary.

Luckily, Winter Park has a bunch of other activities for people like me, so Bryan and I did a snowshoe tour while Declan entered his very first day EVER at ski school. (More on that later).

Bryan has been trying to get me to go snowshoeing for YEARS, he was always the more adventurous one of us.

What I learned? I LOVE SNOWSHOEING. It was perfect for me. Tromping around in the snow, requiring pretty much zero skills other than the ability to walk like a duck, and taking photos of nature? PERFECT.

We even saw a porcupine sleeping way up in a tree.

And here, you can turn your head sideways for the closest thing we got to “Terror On The Mountain Part II.” I think it’s an improvement at least.

Here is the direct link to the “Aimee Slide” video.

After all this snow plowing, we had lunch in the newly-finished village area next to the ski slopes of Winter Park. And I have to tell say – THANK YOU WINTER PARK, for this addition. Because while WP is so close to Denver (an hour and a half), the one other time we had been there, I was frustrated with the lack of restaurants, and particularly the lack of retail near the resort. They now have a nice balance. Sure, they definitely maintained the small-town feel that WP is so famous for – but it’s a nice step into the next century.

Speaking of the next century and whiz bangy stuff. Remember how Declan was in ski school all day?

Well, he also had a *GPS tracker* on him, which I know was for safety and all, blah blah blah, whatever, what WE loved was we could log-in on the Flaik (“flake”) website when we got back to the hotel and SEE exactly where he had been on the mountain (actually a ton of places, see below) and how fast he was going (not very).

And as I mentioned above, we were much happier with our dinner choices this time around. A few restaurants have exported from Denver, like Cheeky Monk and Lime, plus comfort food from Doc’s Roadhouse and several other places we didn’t have time to try over the course of the weekend. [Next time.]

The next morning was all about TUBING. If you have never been, you cannot go to Winter Park and skip TUBING. Have I mentioned we love TUBING. You can probably see in my header right now that we enjoyed the TUBING. But here is one extra special cute-as-hell photo of Declan to convince you. That we like TUBING.

Oh, and a video as well. Of the TUBING. And the CACKLING. What is up with the CACKLING?

Here is the direct link to the “Oh Good We Didn’t” video.

There are *two* TUBING places, one family-owned, the original, which is the first you see and one is Colorado Adventure Park, which is the one we went to this time around and has more things to do. But, I would say both are great, and they exist on the same hill. [So pick whichever has the shortest lines, basically.]

In between all this extracurricular fun, Bryan did manage to get some snowboarding in, and I rode up and down the lifts, taking photos. By the way, people like getting their photo taken on lifts.

And here comes the part where those of you paying attention to the news will know that I pay attention to the news as well. Intrawest, who has a deal with the City of Denver (the real owner of Winter Park, making it truly “Denver’s Resort”) for operations over the next 50 years is in a bit of trouble. As in they also own Whistler-Blackcomb in Vancouver, the site of the Olympics next month, and plan to auction off *that* resort DURING the big event. Seriously. This was all announced 3 days after we got back from Winter Park. Folks here in Colorado are calm (as we usually are) – but I couldn’t help emailing my rep at Winter Park and offering to auction off *her* resort on my blog. Seriously. [She laughed, but declined.]

Now. To bring this all full-circle. For those REALLY paying attention, you will remember that Declan was actually *conceived* at Whistler-Blackcomb on a ski trip on Feb 8, 2002 [Yes, I *do* know the date] – almost exactly 8 years ago. ALSO, you may have heard the screaming in Denver yesterday when it was announced that our very own Editor-in-Mile-Highness, Amber, is headed BACK to Vancouver to cover the Winter Olympics! SERENDIPITY, PEOPLE! The Circle of Life! I feel like holding Declan up like Simba! [And I am really sure Winter Park is THRILLED they picked me as their Colorado snow mama right about now.]

OK, Aimee. Focus.

What was I talking about?

Oh, yeah! Fun in Winter Park!

The other cool new thing up there is the Fraser Valley Rec Center. Brand new, with huge pool, huge slides inside the pool, and just one huge rule: NO CAMERAS. OK, there are more rules, but the one I heard about within 5 seconds of taking my camera out was: NO CAMERAS. I managed to sweet-talk my way into getting a shot or two anyway.

So, net-net?

Clearly we had a great time. We’ll be back. We liked the convenience of the village, the convenience of their new concierge-esque Custom Delivery Service (as in, for $29 for 4 people, they bring your boots, rental and lesson paperwork and lift tickets to you, NOT KIDDING), the convenience of walking across from the hotel to the slopes, the convenience of having Declan in ski school while we did our thing… can you see convenience is big with me?

And hopefully we’ll make is convenient for you to get there too. Winter Park is giving away a family 4-pack of tickets through the Mile High Mama’s site. **CONTEST IS CLOSED!  CONGRATS TO OUR WINNER: HOLLY FULLMER!**

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OK, and ALSO, I really had to let you know about all the FREE stuff going on up there every night of the week as well. Oh, and if you are ever going up for some TUBING, you know who to call.

WINTER 2009-2010 FREE ONGOING FAMILY ACTIVITIES

MONDAYS
ICE-SKATING LESSONS
TIME/DATE: Saturdays – Wednesdays, December 19 – mid-March, 4:00 – 5:00pm
LOCATION: Village Ice Rink & Gazebo

TUESDAYS
ICE-SKATING LESSONS
TIME/DATE: Saturdays – Wednesdays, December 19 – mid-March, 4:00 – 5:00pm
LOCATION: Village Ice Rink & Gazebo

WEDNESDAYS
ICE-SKATING LESSONS
TIME/DATE: Saturdays – Wednesdays, December 19 – mid-March, 4:00 – 5:00pm
LOCATION: Village Ice Rink & Gazebo

THURSDAYS
KIDS’ NIGHT OUT
TIME/DATE: Thursdays, December 17 – April 8, 5:30 – 8:30pm
LOCATION: Kids’ Ski & Ride School—Blue/Green Rooms

DISCO SKATE NIGHTS
TIME/DATE: Thursdays, January 7 & 21, February 4 & 18, 6:00 – 8:00pm
LOCATION: Village Ice Rink & Gazebo

FRIDAYS
COWBOY SING-A-LONG
TIME/DATE: Fridays, December 18 – April 10, 4:00 – 5:00pm
LOCATION: Village Gazebo

MINI RAIL JAM SERIES
TIME/DATE: Fridays, January 15 – March 19, 4:30 – 6:00pm
LOCATION: Bouncer Terrain Park near Discovery Center

SATURDAYS
FIRESIDE STORY-TELLING
TIME/DATE: Saturdays, January 9 – March 27, 3:00 – 4:00pm
LOCATION: Discovery Center Plaza

ICE-SKATING BLADE CAPADES (GAMES)
TIME/DATE: Saturdays – Wednesdays, December 19 – mid-March, 4:00 – 5:00pm
LOCATION: Village Ice Rink & Gazebo

MEET WINTER PARK WILLIE
TIME/DATE: Saturdays, December 12 – April 10, 4:00pm – 5:00pm
LOCATION: Village Gazebo

SUNDAYS
FREE ICE-SKATING LESSONS
TIME/DATE: Saturdays – Wednesdays, December 19 – mid-March, 4:00 – 5:00pm
LOCATION: Village Ice Rink & Gazebo
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P.S. If you can’t handle not seeing ALLLLLLL the Winter Park photos, here is the set. I warn you. There are a bunch of us TUBING.

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