Thank you, Chase, for a fabulous vacation!

I'm exhausted.  Completely exhausted.  My calves hurt, and my shins are a little bruised.  But I am SOOOOO happy!  *sigh*  What a marvelous vacation.

I mean, just look at this and tell me you wish you weren't here:  

That's me with Mozart over my shoulder and the North Peak in the background.  To be honest, the skiing was probably some of the worst I've ever skied, other than the blizzard that one year.  This year it was icy.  It was also warm.  Like 45-50 degrees highs warm.  Too warm, really, but still SO fun!

And when you're skiing with a crew like the one above, it was just... amazing.  It was the first time I'd hit the slopes in 10+ years, and I was definitely more in shape back in the day.  But, guess what?  I've still got it!  Like riding a bike - you never forget.  :)  I can't tell you how happy that made me!

This is me and my sister-in-law.  (I'm the homeless looking one.  I never thought about how ugly my skiing getup was until just now as I'm looking at the pictures.)  We are on the top of the highest peak in the Outback, just above the treeline.  Way in the distance, you can see Breckenridge.  It was beautiful!

This is Chase, on his snowbike.  I made the mistake of taking him down a blue that was a bit steep on the first day and, well, that was the end of that.  He didn't get hurt, but he decided that snowbiking (as well as skiing and snowboarding) is not for him.  Somehow strapping things to his body, riding to the top of a mountain and then hurling himself down it isn't his idea of fun.  Something about his "self-preservation instinct." (I will never understand him.)

Chase spent day 2 of our ski trip reading in the condo and bringing us lunch at the slopes.  I'm certainly not complaining!  A hot lunch at the entrance to the gondola in between runs.  And he let me ski to my heart's content - he even cleaned up our room in the condo.  He's the best!

A few highlights from the trip:

My nephew (age 11) said from out of nowhere one day as he looked at a bottle of salve, "I'm really disappointed that you would buy something called, 'Bengay'"  This from my newphew, Benjamin.  Also the multiple times my niece put Bengay on her legs, and then rubbed her eyes.

Chase's whole snowbiking experience.  From the certification class, to the 40-something year old asthmatic out-of-shape woman who was also in the class, to his inability to cut across the mountain (it "just doesn't work" for him), to the asthmatic woman's husband telling Chase he was "shredding it," to... oh man.  There's just so much with that little trike  "quadracycle."

There were, of course, the wipe outs.  My one spectacular head-over-heals, one skiied, tumble... as I tried to put my 2nd ski back on outside of the gondola.  It was amazing.  A guy skiied by me and called over his shoulder, "Wish I had a camera for that one."  Honestly, it was the only time I fell, and it was amazing.  Then there was the time Ryan went to take a jump and landed on dirt.  It just so happens that skis stick to dirt while Ryan went flying superman-style forward.  Then the boys, the poor boys, who snowboarded and caught edges all the time (less the more we skied) - face-plants and flat-on-their-backs were very common.  I never saw it, but I am told that on my nieces first run down ever, she fell at least 50 times.  However, when I skied with her, I didn't see her fall once.

Most improved?  Well, that's hard to say because all of my nephews and my niece had never hit the slopes before and all of them skied blues by the time it was over.  Well done, guys!

I really don't have anything more to say other than that it was fantastic and you all should go skiing.  It's absolutely the best vacation ever!