Tuesday, April 26, 2011

easter weekend

tim is delighted with the whole process

Our friends the Brandt's contacted us early last week to see if we wanted to spend Easter at their condo in Breckenridge as no one was going to be using it. YES! YES! YES! The snow has been phenomenal this year and didn't disappoint in the days prior to our departure with lots of fresh powder falling daily. For my non-American readers, Good Friday and Easter Monday are not national holidays in the US, so Paul had to take Friday off and be back at work on Monday. I'd never heard of Easter Monday until I moved to Europe.

We started our holiday by coloring eggs with Timothy on Wednesday evening. Check out his blog of this from last year if you want to be reminded of how much he's grown.

this year the dye came with five plastic 'cups'

Mom put together Easter baskets filled with candy for them, (and a few treats for us as well), and I bought plastic eggs to fill with jelly beans and chocolate eggs and to hide in the back yard.

luke's first easter basket

our dye came with stickers too

We decided to do the egg hunting on Friday morning before going to the condo. Tim doesn't know the difference at this age, and I didn't want to haul all those eggs up there. We always leave some toy at the condo and the more we take the more likely we are to leave even more behind. It was a great decision because after several days of rain and more in the forecast, Friday dawned bright and clear. Luke actually found one egg all by himself. Tim was happy to share his booty.


hunting eggs

Driving up to the condo was pleasant with great weather and no traffic as everyone else was at work or in school. We got there with time for Paul to do some skiing and when he finished, we took the boys sledding. They both enjoyed it. We only saw the sign forbidding sledding on the ski run as we were packing up to leave on Sunday. Fortunately, it was very quiet on the slope, so I don't think we bothered anyone. We tried to stay to the sides.

getting ready to go sledding just outside the condo



sledding with dad

After sledding we took them to the condo clubhouse for a turn in the pool and hot tub. The hot tub was too hot for Tim, but Luke was happy to let Paul hold him while he soaked his muscles. Tim and I played in the pool. We took the inflatable car that we bought for him in Turkey back in '08, and he floated around in that. He invented a game. He sat on the top step in his car and told me to "Go under water on your front and be a mermaid." This meant that I swam underwater away from him and kicked the water once as I moved away. He would then push off the step and float after me, laughing. At first he told me to be a whale and I told him I would only play the game if he called me a mermaid. He needs to learn early how to please the ladies. We did this too many times to count, so many times, that Paul and Luke got dressed and went back to the condo. I finally made Tim stop when his lips started to turn blue and he couldn't talk for the chattering of his teeth. It's a heated pool, but you need to be in the water and moving around to combat the cool that hits the room when the sun goes down.

Saturday brought more snow. Paul had thought on Friday that he'd only ski Saturday morning and then we'd go to town for lunch; however, the snow was too good for skiing and too bad for town going, so he skied, stopped for a long lunch break with us, did some more sledding, and then skied some more.

last weekend of the season at breckenridge

The skies cleared around 16:00, and we made it into town for a walk along the main street and dinner. The city council was hosting an egg hunt for kids on the main street, and Tim found two eggs. He likes the Easter Bunny! Paul took Tim swimming again after we returned from town.



paul is holding the camera in one hand, two ski pole in the other and skiing on a black slope

I think it snowed all of Saturday night. Paul skied until about 11:00. We tried to go to the pool again, but it was closed. Tim handled the disappointment very well until I complimented him on it and he had a melt down. It seems we made it through two without too much trouble. Three is proving to be trying indeed.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

spring in colorado


The back yard at 08:00


The back yard at 17:00



The front yard at 08:00


The front yard at 17:00

One of the things I love about Colorado is the weather. If you don't like it, give it a few hours and it will change.

brothers

There are a lot more sibling arguments around our house these days, and we cherish it even if we don't love it.  We have carr...