Telluride Ski Resort has created a road-less-traveled impasse for families: Register the kids in ski school and conquer the terrain of Colorado’s most awe-inspiring resort. –OR– Enroll in Eco Adventures, a one-stop adventure shop designed to connect the entire family to the surrounding Telluride region. Ever the fence sitters, my family did both. And sorry, Mr. Browning, our indecision made all the difference. Eco Adventures for Kids While most of Colorado’s resorts focus their efforts solely on ski and ride school, Telluride’s Eco Adventures offers an unparalleled opportunity to try a compendium of activities while learning about area ecosystems. Prior to our trip, I sat Hadley (6) and Bode (4) down to review their many class choices that include identifying animal tracks, construct...
My husband Jamie and I are different. Sure, in many ways we think alike, have the same interests and similar methodology with raising our children. But we go about life very differently. He is low-key. Methodical. Wise. I am not. One of the areas in which we are most different is how we need to connect. I am
It’s our Week of LOOOOOVE with stories of the good, the bad and the sometimes ugly path to romance! Also checkout our Mama Contest box for details of our fantastic daily giveaways! During my single years, the road was rocky as I attempted to find a man who would one day be legally required to be my Valentine. Some people call it marriage. My most memorable S.A.D. (Single Awareness Day) was my junior year of college. I had been casually dating a guy for a month. When I say casually, I mean casually. Even though we spent an inordinate amount of time together, he had shown no romantic inclinations towards me. He was a bit of an anomaly: drop-dead gorgeous and absolutely clueless. Women fawned over him but he was immune to their charms. He was on the fast-track in business school but was...
My family had an unprecedented vacation to Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR). It wasn’t just attributed to the eight inches of fresh powder without a lift line in sight or the glistening Elk Mountains (the frozen equivalent of Shangri-La). But rather, because I skied my first double-black diamond run (Rachels)…and later managed to fall getting off the chairlift as I avoided a wayward ski-schooler. Par for the course in a funky mountain hamlet where you should expect the unexpected. Camp CB Hands down, Crested Butte is my favorite Colorado mountain town (read my summer exploits) and I was positively giddy to ski Crested Butte Mountain Resort for the first time. My family awoke to
I get attached to a few primetime television shows, particularly during the dark winter months. I was in mourning when LOST ended its epic run and I have berated the networks for cutting shows mid-season without any regard (or explanation) for their devoted audience. I get that it’s all about ratings and money. For this reason when a new show debuts, I’m a careful devotee so as to protect my heart from cancellation. Some shows I am currently invested in are The Good Wife, Parenthood, Modern Family and Brothers and Sisters. So I was a little bit more than displeased to read this article detailing ABC’s early renewals for next year. Castle and Cougar Town were the two shows that lead the pack while my beloved Brothers and Sisters is potentially on the chopping block. I don&...
On Saturday, my family had one of our favorite winter adventures in Colorado: We skated Evergreen Lake. Located just 20 minutes from Denver off I-70, this lake is surrounded by blue spruce, pines, evergreens and is about as close to an authentic Canadian skating experience as you can get in the Denver-area. Side note: I was raised gliding along frozen lakes and rivers and learned very quickly that pretty much anywhere is skatable and that frozen nose hairs are a fashion statement. A large portion of the 40-acre Evergreen Lake is Zambonied (a true Canadian verb) into a skating area with several smaller enclaves for hockey. The Evergreen Lakehouse is a
There are Mommy & Me sign language, yoga and swim classes but why should it stop there? At Echo Mountain it keeps going—straight down the mountain in their Parent and Me private ski lessons for 3-year-old skiers and his/her parent. The concept is brilliant and simple: Take a one-hour lesson with your child to prepare them for group instruction by age 4. I learned to ski at a one-lift hill in Canada and there is a special place in my heart for small resorts. In addition to proximity to Denver (just 35 miles away outside of Evergreen), Echo Mountains is also about affordability and offers great ski school packages, terrain parks, and night skiing until 9 p.m. five nights a week. Oh, and the free parking in the small lot and lack of stairs in the lodge were awesome, too. If you’ve ever w...
In January, someone is going to catch a cold. February will bring some snow and a cold. March will find us at the St. Patrick’s Day parade. Someone will have a cold and will be wearing green ON HIS FACE. The Easter baskets in April will be full of Cadbury Mini Eggs, but we will miss church due to someone having a cold. In May, things get really hectic before the end of the school year. Immune systems will be strained. Colds. June will bring wild sunshine and colds caught from ice cream cones scooped by someone who should have stayed home from work. Fireworks will shatter the velvety night sky. Emotions will run high. Is that sniffling caused by patriotic pride or viral overload? Back to school in August! Hello, new germies brought in from vacations to places far and flung. I wish the...
I’ve never been one to make New Year’s resolutions for the primary reason that I’m not good at keeping them. Don’t get me wrong: I’m a goal-making, ambitious gal but I’ve never met a New Year’s resolution I liked, primarily because there seems to be a healthy dose of guilt associated with not keeping it. Well, with the exception of the year I resolved (and learned how) to use chopsticks. Lesson learned: Aim low. As I’ve been reflecting back upon 2010, I’ve been amazed at how incredibly blessed my family has been professionally and personally. The year kicked off when I was chosen as Microsoft Office’s accredited blogger at the 2010 Vancouver games. Our whirlwind has not stopped as we’ve traveled the world and have learned in...
At first glance, the giraffe area at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo might not seem an exceedingly romantic spot. Granted, it boasts a lovely location, high on a hill, with Colorado Springs spread out below. But when you get down to it, it’s just a big patch of dirt surrounded by a stone wall. And the inside enclosure, where the ruminants ruminate when it’s too cold to go outside, is, well, stinky. But together they compose one of the world’s most renowned settings for giraffe love. With 194 successful births since 1954, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo claims one of the most successful giraffe-breeding programs anywhere. It helps that it has a lot of giraffes to start with. The 20 reticulated giraffes residing at the zoo make up the largest collection of that subspecies in any zoo, according...
There. I said it. I don’t like holiday decorations. Bah Humbug! Not only that, I’ll take it a step further. I can’t stand holiday decorations. Would “hate” be too strong a word? I’m probably not going to make very many friends with this post today, but today’s post is about confessions, and this is a timely one. (I took this photo last year, but it’s not a self-portrait. However, the resemblance is uncanny, no?) I don’t like holiday decorations in my own house. You can do what you want in yours. Yes, your decorations look lovely. Luckily, my husband doesn’t like decorations either, so for years, we lived in a decoration-less house, and it was awesome. For years, we’d say, “We have kitties! We can’t have all those decorations out!” or “We travel for the holidays, so what’s th...
They are impossible to eat, but look nice in a big bowl on the kitchen table. Popcorn balls were a part of every Christmas celebration held by my mom’s side of the family. My grandma and my great-grandmother made them using the same ancient techniques the Mayans used to make the bricks to build the pyramids of the Yucatan peninsula. The pyramids still stand. The hard part for that Mesoamerican civilization was lifting them off what must have been massive sheets of wax paper. Somewhere near Montrose, Colorado, there is a landfill with several layers of pink and green popcorn balls defying the forces of erosion and decay. Maybe someday Wheel of Fortune will give away fabulous trips to the Popcorn Balls Fields of Montrose County. Even though I never managed to chew through an entire pop...