Denver Deal: Stock Show, Globetrotters, Family Nights & More

Happy New Year to You! Most of the people I know are plotting their New Year’s Resolutions. But, at this time of year my favorite thing to do is to create my yearbook. Each year (for the past four), I have put together a yearbook for each of my kids chronicling the fun things we got to do over the last year (it also serves as inspiration of what to do in the upcoming year). I have used MyPublisher, Shutterfly, Walmart Photo and Mixbook. I love using Mixbook the most. They have easy pre-made layouts that I can literally just drop in the photos. And Voila I look like a digital scrapbook star! Do you do something to commemorate your past year?

StockShow

Get out your yee and your haw! Let’s have some fun with the Stock Show. The National Western Stock Show, Rodeo ad Horse Show rolls into town on January 12 with a Parade though Downtown on January 10 starting at 12 noon (free). Tickets for grounds admission is just $13 per adult (kids 12 and up are considered adult) and $2 for kids. Rodeo tickets are more expensive (They can range from $14 to hundreds). Take advantage of their “Deck the Stalls” promotion and get 4 tickets for just $99.

Harlem Globetrotters

The Harlem Globetrotters new “You Write the Rules” tour bounces into town January 5, 2013. Plus, your family can vote at harlemglobetrotters.com and decide rules for the game. With rules like double the points for every basket, and two balls in play at the same time, there’s an exciting rule that every kid will enjoy. After the game, Globetrotter stars will sign autographs and take photographs. Save $7 on each ticket purchased http://www.harlemglobetrotters.com/tickets* (Use promo code: USFamily).

Family Nights

Denver Nuggets family night (4 tickets & 4 meals starting at $79) are Saturday, January 5 – Utah Jazz – 7pm
Sunday, January 13 – Golden State Warriors – 6pm; and Friday, January 18 – Washington Wizards – 7pm or Aquafina Youth Night (Kids 14 & Under free with paid adult) Friday, January 11 – Cleveland Cavaliers – 7pm

Colorado Avalanche family night ticket packages can be purchased online at tickethorse.com, all Dick’s Sporting Goods retail locations, the Pepsi Center box office and by phone (1.866.461.6556). Family nights include four tickets and four family meals* with Pepsis for $99. Next one is Friday, January 22 v Nashville Predators 7 p.m.

Colorado Mammoth Lacrosse Family Night includes 4 tickets, 4 beers or Pepsis and 4 hot dogs for only $49! Next one is January 12 vs. Washington Stealth at 7pm

Beachbody

Did you add working out as one of your New Year’s Resolutions? Have you heard of P90X, Insanity, Turbo Fire or LesMills? These great workouts are on video and available via my website at beachbodycoach.com/Gretcheny. I am also looking for a couple people to add to my sales team. If you know someone who is interested in making some money from home – please have them email me!

Vonage Mobile

Vonage Mobile is a free app that allows users to text message and send/receive phone calls. My ex got the kids iPod Touches this year for Christmas. I just found out that using Vonage Mobile (which is a free app) they can use it like a phone! It totally avoids the need for texting/calling packages from carriers!

Denver Ski Deals

Did you know that January is learn to ski and snowboard month? There are a ton of deals out there – and since you live in Colorado…see what it’s all about. Our Ski Deals page gives you a great place to start.

Happy New Year and have a fantastic week!

Email me if you know of any great Denver deals!

Don’t want to miss any of Mile High Mamas’ contests and events? Be sure to sign up for our weekly email newsletter so you can forward these great deals to your friends.

You can also follow me on Twitter (GeeWhy93). If I find a great deal during the week, I’ll tweet it out.

Ski Deals: Birthday Celebrations and Learn to Ski Month

Woo Hoo! We finally got some snow and now we can all turn our attention away from being inside in the cold to enjoying all the great outdoor fun and frivolity we have in Colorado! Some resorts are having great birthday celebrations, January is Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month, and there are some super fun things happening in many of the resorts this month!

Ski and Trade

Colorado Ski & Golf Stores (including Colorado Ski & Sports at Park Meadows and Boulder Ski Deals) still offers the Junior Trade In Program – which allows you to rent equipment for your kids for the entire season at one low price and keep them all season long (unless the kids grow out of them in which place, Colorado Ski & Golf will replace with the right size). Even better… you get 1/2 the money back when you return the equipment!

5th and 6th Grade Pass holders

If you have your School of Shred or Colorado Ski Country 5th Grade Passport and $99 6th Grade Passport NOW is the time to use those passes. Because January is Learn to Ski and Snowboard month. The resorts offer one FREE beginner lesson (along with rental equipment) to each 5th and 6th Grade Passport holder.

Loveland

Loveland Ski Area is celebrating its 75^th season. Don’t miss their 75^th anniversary party on January 12,2013 with food, drink, freebies, music and several great perks including lift tickets for just $37 all weekend long. Loveland will also be doing 75 Days of Giveaways on weekends, holidays and a few random days throughout the year where they will surprise guests with prizes including lunch, lift tickets, gear, lessons, season passes & more. More details: http://www.skiloveland.com/events/75th1.aspx

Additionally, Loveland offers free season pass when you purchase three lesson pack! Or Play Hookey with 95.7 The Party Radio station…sign up for Party VIP so you can join for Hooky Day on Thursday, January 10th featuring $25 tickets! Simply sign up for Party VIP, print your coupon good for a $25 ticket valid on Thursday, January 10th only, and join us for a great day on the slopes! Can’t make it on Thursday? The coupon also includes a buy one lift ticket get one free valid for two weeks after Hooky Days!

Copper Mountain

Copper Mountain’s Ski and Ride School is offering 50% off your 2nd day when a 2-day adult lesson is purchased (in January). Take your skills to the next level by exploring your inner park rat with the Ski and Ride School and Woodward at Copper. The Easy Rider carpet in Center Village provides beginners free access to the slopes while learning. Ready to test their skills – a lift ticket for the Pitchfork beginner chairlift is just $15. Both tickets to Easy Rider and Pitchfork are available all season long at any Copper Mountain ticket window. No gear? No problem. Reserve your equipment online in advance and save 20%.

“E” book

The “E” book (available at King Soopers) offers great discounts on lift tickets including a FREE child lift ticket with the purchase of an adult at Loveland and a FREE Junior Lift ticket with a paid adult at Ski Granby Ranch. There are lots of other great deals in the book with discounts on gear and lodging as well.

Snow Sale at Vail and Save up to 50 Percent on Lodging

Celebrate the snow and enjoy Vail this winter. Book your mountain getaway now and save up to 50 percent on accommodations at The Arrabelle, The Lodge at Vail, The Austria Haus and Legendary Lodging at The Ritz-Carlton Residences in Vail. This special package can also be customized at an additional cost to include discounted lift tickets, ski school and more just ask our vacation specialists for more details. Visit www.rockresorts.com for more information. Vail is celebrating their 50th Birthday with some fun events! Check out the full list.

Kids Ski Free at Keystone. Every Day. All Season Long. No Blackouts.

Keystone Resort is taking kid-friendly programming to new heights; throughout the entire 2012-2013 winter season, children 12 and under will ski/snowboard for free at Keystone. As simple as childhood itself, Keystone’s Kids Ski Free program removes the red tape and fine print, has no blackout dates and is available on all weekends and holidays, a rarity in the ski industry. To qualify, families must stay two or more nights in one of Keystone’s accommodation options, which span from luxury hotel rooms to cozy ski-in/ski-out condominiums. Families big and small are able to take advantage of the offer, as there are no restrictions on the number of children per adult. www.keystoneresort.com/kidsskifree While it is not free – it is definitely fun – tubing at the top of Keystone or climbing around in the snowfort atop Dercum Mountain!

Crested Butte

Fly into the conveniently located Gunnison/Crested Butte airport on American Airlines, ski three days on the legendary slopes of Crested Butte Mountain Resort and stay four nights at the most popular lodging option in Crested Butte, The Grand Lodge, starting at $699 per person. Don’t delay – this incredible offer must be booked on or before February 1. Call 1.800.600.2803 to book. From January 21 through April 6, stay just steps from the lifts at the luxurious Elevation Hotel & Spa. Buy one night and get the second night half off! This offer is valid on every second night. So, stay 4, 8, or even 36 days and receive half off every second night.

Winter Park

The National Sports Center for the Disabled (NSCD) will host the 25th Annual Winter Park Open Jan. 1 – Jan. 3 at Winter Park Resort. Cheer on your American Athletes at this event, where adaptive athletes come from all over the world to compete for spots on the US National or Paralympic National team. This event is also hosted by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Alpine Skiing, USA Paralympics and the United States Paralympic Committee.

Snowshoe at Beaver Creek
January 6, February 3, or March 3, 2013 – Take your snowshoeing to new heights as a beginner or a world class level snowshoer for the Snowshoe Adventure Series which features competitive 5K and 10K events as well as the Kids’ 1K. In addition to renowned alpine skiing, Beaver Creek is home to 20K of designated Nordic and snowshoe trails in McCoy Park, located at 10,000 feet and surrounded by stunning mountain ranges. The series includes a cash purse and participants may enter one or all of the events. In addition to snowshoe demos and sponsor booths, competitors enjoy a post-race party in the village.

Skin Cancer

Protecting your skin from skin cancer is often associated with being outdoors in the hot, summer sun. Yet many people don’t realize they are at risk for skin cancer in the winter, especially if they are around snow or at a higher elevation. That’s why professional skier and three-time Olympic medalist Julia Mancuso is serving as a SPOTlighter with the American Academy of Dermatology’s (Academy) SPOT Skin Cancer^® initiative, helping get the word out about skin cancer prevention and detection. Mamas please don’t forget to put sunscreen on your kids in winter too!

Email me if you know of any great Denver deals!

Don’t want to miss any of Mile High Mamas’ contests and events? Be sure to sign up for our weekly email newsletter so you can forward these great deals to your friends.

You can also follow me on Twitter (GeeWhy93). If I find a great deal during the week, I’ll tweet it out.

Sales Insider: Botanic Gardens Free Day, Hat Trick & More!

A hat trick

If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to improve your style, stop by Goorin Bros. in Larimer Square and pick out a new hat. Selected styles are discounted 50 percent through Jan. 15. Goorin Bros. has been in the hat business since 1895 and has shops all over the country. Shoppers will find fedoras, flatcaps, ballcaps, floppies and more for men, women and children along with accessories. Hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Don’t miss the store’s monthly First Friday parties from 7 to 9 p.m. with live music, refreshments and special discounts. 1410 Larimer Square, 303-534-4287, goorin.com

Stay at at-ten-tion

Warwick International Hotels has partnered with Macy’s and is offering guests a 10 percent discount of all in-store purchases during their stay through March 31. Guests’ keycards will include a barcode for a Macy’s coupon. The discount is good with all regular, sale and clearance-priced merchandise. Warwick Hotels are located in Denver, Dallas, San Francisco, Seattle and New York City. Details at warwickhotels.com

Free days this week

Friday: Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield, Littleton, botanicgardens.org

Saturday:Colorado Railroad Museum, colorado railroadmuseum.org; Denver Art Museum, denverartmuseum.org

Colorado Access to offer health care for children of working families

Colorado Access, the state’s largest public health-care provider, has nearly 40,000 children enrolled in its Child Health Plan Plus, but according to staff, it could easily have 40,000 more.

With that in mind, the Denver-based organization that serves most of Colorado is launching a “Get Your Kids Covered” campaign in an effort to get coverage for all children who qualify for its services.

“We think there is a large contingent of families who are eligible and either don’t know or haven’t taken advantage,” said Gretchen McGinnis, senior vice president of public policy and performance improvement at Colorado Access.

The CHP plan is designed for working families that make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but can’t afford to get their children covered or aren’t offered insurance at their job.

Joe Vaccarelli
YourHub

Mandarin Chinese becoming first choice as second language

Ivie Hunt was barely 6 last spring and had just finished kindergarten when she shocked the hostess at a Denver Asian restaurant by chatting comfortably in Mandarin Chinese.

“Here was this little blond, white girl having a full conversation with the hostess in Mandarin,” said her mother, Ann Hunt, who admitted to being a bit stunned herself.

That kind of surprise may wear off as Mandarin Chinese becomes the first choice of a growing number of second-language learners.

More language students are saying adios to the recent stampede to learn Spanish and huan ying — or welcome — to mastering a Chinese dialect now spoken by an estimated 100 million non-Chinese.

Local Company Makes Team and Group Management a Snap for Parents

With the new year upon us, we are all looking for new tools and ideas for a better organized life. With every passing month it seems like new events, projects, gatherings and groups get added onto the schedule. I know I certainly need all the help I can get when it comes to staying on top of events and gatherings (as well as my responsibilities for each – do I have snack responsibilities this week?).

Giveaway: Win the Diono RadianRXT Convertible Car Seat (a $340 value)

**CONTEST CLOSED. CONGRATULATIONS TO WINNER RACHEL B.!**

I’ve been strapping children into car seats for 15 1/2 years. When I think back on the first few car seats and carriers we owned, I marvel at how much they’ve changed. My oldest children sat in seats with padded bars I pulled down and buckled. 5-point harnesses didn’t exist and the LATCH system was a gleam in some automotive engineer’s eye. The moment my older kids turned one, we flipped the seats to face forward. When they hit age four, they were done with car seats forever. Laws change, knowledge increases, and now we approach transportation safety with a more thoughtful and serious eye.

Kids today have never been safer as they’re shuttled around town, across the country, and even in the sky. Recently, I was asked to try Diono’s RadianRXT Convertible + Booster because I’ve been a consumer of car seats for a very long time. When I read the specifications, I was immediately impressed.

The first feature that caught my eye was its versatility.

Winter Break Idea: New Kinetics Exhibit Rolls into the Children’s Museum

Need ideas for keeping your kids busy and learning over winter break?

The Children’s Museum of Denver unveiled a new science and engineering exhibit in October that explores the laws of motion with one of the most entertaining interactive exhibits I have ever seen.

The second-floor room features two glass walls that are full of gears, ramps, pulleys, levers, buttons and more. Hundreds of orange plastic balls are scattered around the room and a series of vacuum tubes allow kids of all ages to watch gravity in action and also help move the balls through the tubes and obstacles into a huge ball collection bin on the ceiling.

Colorado’s New Year’s Eve Celebrations & New Year’s Day Guided Hikes!

New Year’s Eve Fireworks in Downtown Denver. The sky will once again sparkle over the 16th Street Mall with two spectacular shows at 9 p.m. and midnight. Costumed entertainers will interact with crowds between shows, including magicians, mascots, balloon artists, stilt walkers, comedians and more. Free. The Regional Transportation District (RTD) once again wants to be your designated driver by offering free rides on all regularly scheduled bus and train service

Noon Year’s Eve at the Children’s Museum of Denver. The Children’s Museum of Denver is ringing in New Year’s Eve just like Times Square! With five ball drops every hour from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., children of all ages can yell the countdown, watch colorful confetti splash the plaza and make fireworks with their feet when they jump on massive sheets of bubble wrap. Free with admission.

Bunk With The Beasts: Zoo Year’s Eve at the Denver Zoo. Kids spend the holiday at the zoo exploring Zoo Lights,

Parenting: Holidays and the Santa lie

We raise our kids to be truthful. We teach them about the laws of physics. And then we tell them that nine flying reindeer pull an immortal fat man and his sleigh through the sky so that he can deliver gifts to millions of kids around the world one night a year.

Is it bad that we lie to our kids about Santa?

Though lying can be an awfully convenient parenting crutch – Sorry, sweetheart, but the police might arrest you if I let you have more candy so we better not – it’s generally best to keep it to a minimum, both to develop trust between yourself and your child and to lead by example. Except in December. Because guess what? Not only is the Santa myth harmless, but it might actually be good for kids’ cognitive development. Fantastical stories foster a type of imaginative play that sparks creativity, social understanding and even – strange as it may sound – scientific reasoning.