Big Ole Honkin' Catch Up: Part 2 - Spring Break Colorado Style

In late January Andy decided he really wanted to take a family trip for Spring Break. My husband who is not afraid to ask for anything called up his high school buddy, Abe, if we could use his home in Colorado for a week. To my surprise, Abe said absolutely! He has a beautiful home just outside of Fairplay and was more than willing to let us stay there for the week. So we started making plans, borrowing ski clothes and getting ready.

I was taking my dance team to Houston for contest the weekend leading up to spring break. Thankfully my sweet administrator was willing to ride back with the girls so Andy, Lyla and I could get on the road. We drove the 17 hours, making a stop in Amarillo both ways. Lyla did great on the drive! She didn't sleep much, but for the most part was very easy to entertain. This was Lyla's first time to see moutains or snow! We were so excited for her to be able to experience it all.





(We ran into the cast of West Side Story along the way).

Abe's house is at the top of a very large mountain. Colorado had just had a huge blizzard days before we arrived leaving the mountain covered in snow. We almost didn't get up the mountain. Thankfully, Abe met us at the bottom a had us follow him on a different route to get to the house. His home was beautiful!! A perfect 3 bedroom, 3 bath, 2 story house. We could only get in and out from the garage because the snow stood 3-4 feet at each door. The blanket of white was breathtaking!!!

After a restful night, we made plans to go skiing in Breckenridge. We had a later start because I was suffering from a migraine. I've been to Colorado several times, but Abe's house was a little over 10,000 ft elevation. That's the highest I've ever been for an extended time and it sure was getting to me. We finally made it out to go rent Lyla's skis. Now let me just tell you that Lyla had been talking for weeks about skiing (even though she had no clue what that meant). Knowing my cautious daughter, I was prepared for her to not take to skiing. She completely fell apart in the rental shop. Bawling her eyes out just trying on the boots. She begged us to not take her skiing. "Please don't make me go Mommy. Let the boys go and we'll stay home." It was quite dramatic. We finally arrived at the ski lodge in Breckenridge. After another breakdown just getting out of the car I told Andy that Lyla and I would stay at the lodge and him and Abe could ski. I wanted Lyla to get accustomed to the snow and watch skiing. It took about 2 hours for her to even touch the snow and even longer to walk on it. Oh my cautious child!

The next day we headed out to Arapahoe Basin. It was a little farther of a drive, but a heck of a lot cheaper than Breckendridge. We booked Lyla for ski school so I could ski. Once again she bawled and clung to my leg, but finally let go. Andy and I enjoyed a couple hours of skiing. When we came back to pick Lyla up she was playing with her instructor and the other little girl in her group. I asked when she finally stopped crying. Her instructor replied, "20 minutes ago." It was a 3 hour class!!! That poor instructor. She said she got her skis on, but wouldn't even go up the magic carpet. At least she was playing in the snow! The rest of the afternoon Andy and I took turns skiing and playing with Lyla. She made snow angels, snow balls, and finally rode the magic carpet with me. We are hoping her next experience will be better.

Abe and Lyla became best buds. He was so good with her. He would ask her questions, play with her. He was so patient. He even tried to teach her the cardinal directions. That was entertaining. Abe is a radiologist and was on call his last night. He had a few scans come in and showed them to Lyla. She thought that was the coolist. Abe left after our day at A-Basin. We were sad to see him go, but excited to spend some time just the 3 of us.

On our last day, we drove into Breckenridge to shop and hit up a little kid park where we could sled. We pulled up to the park and once again Lyla wanted no part of it. I guess the one day at A-Basin was enough snow for her. We did ride the gondola and enjoyed walking through the town.

The next morning we packed up and made our 2 day trek back home. It was hard to leave the peaceful mountain. And especially hard to drive back in to the Texas heat! We are so grateful for Abe's generosity to our family. We are hoping to make our spring break with Abe a tradition. Andy and I would love to watch Lyla grow up knowing how to ski, something I didn't get to do. And maybe I'll eventually make it off the greens....but probably not! My daughter gets her cautious nature from her mother!