Easter in March

Today was Easter.  When we saw the date, we were worried the weather might now cooperate, forcing us to have an egg-hunt indoors.  Fortunately, the high was forecast to be 65 and sunny.  The hunt was on!

Yesterday was egg-prep day.  Mommy was smart enough to remember to buy a dozen eggs.  Add that to the eight we had in the refrigerator and you get twenty eggs that needed coloring.  Bode Jackson, master egg-dyer, was up for the task.  Here he is, the master color man in action.

In this next picture, you can see the six eggs at once Bode is coloring.  He's quite adept at multitasking.

Here's a picture towards the end of the process--note the eggs are drying in their carton.

After dying the eggs, Bode was exhausted.  I went out and picked up some BBQ, and we had a pre-Peter Cotton-Tail feast.

Sunday morning, Bode was raring to go--first thing he asked when he woke up was, "Did the Easter Bunny come?"  He found his multiple Easter baskets and immediately wanted to go egg-hunting.  Mommy convinced him we needed to wait for the weather to warm up--still at little chilly at 8 am.  Around 1030, we decided to head out.  Here are the action shots.  Note Harley is quite adept at finding eggs--we had to pry a couple hard-boiled eggs out of her mouth.

Finally, we have a movie.  I can't really tell, but I think Harley has an egg in her mouth as she walks up the stairs.  It was right after we stopped this clip that I had to chase her down and get the egg from her.

Uncle Dave and Charlie are coming down a little later.  Bode said something about another egg-hunt.  Hopefully the bunny will come back and hide them again :-)

Skiing

It's spring break for my work, so we decided to take a couple days off and go to Breckenridge.  We were worried as our mini-vacation drew near, as temperatures on Saturday were only in the high-teens. Plus, we were getting snow (2-3 inches in the Springs), and the cold weather was forecast to stick around.  We were optimistic the forecasters would be in error.

We woke up Sunday morning to clearer skies, but still very cold temperatures.  The drive up was nice...to a point.  Around Fairplay, the skies had darkened, and there were flurries falling.  The road was clear, and we made it over Hoosier pass without any trouble, albeit we were traveling at a moderate pace down the steep switchbacks.  We arrived around 3 pm, checked in, and relaxed, watching some college basketball and getting Bode prepped for his big day on Monday at ski-school.  Initially, we were worried he thought ski-school was the ice-skating rink, but after a quick conversation, we realized he knew he was going skiing on Monday and that he was also excited about it.  Before we left town, we bought Bode a new pair of ski pants.  Rather than go the reserved, grey-black route, we opted for bright yellow--all the more easy to see you, my pretty.  Here's a picture of Bode in the condo, ready to go.

We dropped him off at ski-school around 0830, and were relieved he wanted to stay.  A quick, "See you Mommy, see you Daddy," and he didn't seem to need us anymore.  We headed out to the slopes (in the future, Bode needs to put up a little fuss, as we're quickly realizing we're simply becoming Bode's ride to-and-fro his activities...)

On the slopes, we met up with an old friend (he's 45!), Tim Tobik.  I know Tim from my Florida days, and Ashley knew him before that.  Tim and his family and extended family/friends were in Breckenridge for the whole week to do some skiing.  Here's a picture of Ashley and Tim at the base of the Quicksilver lift.

Note the beautiful blue sky--looks nice and warm, but the reality was temps were around 15.  Thankfully, the wind was nothing but a shallow breath...which sounds mild, but on the lifts, the slightest breeze in 15-degree weather is icily cold.  I took a few more pictures of Tim and Ashley, but I could tell my picture taking was eating into their ski-time, or, in this case, Tim's important phone calls :-)

At some point, we met up with some of Tim's clan--I won't even bother mentioning all the names (code for I don't remember them all).

We skied with them until lunch-time, at which point Ashley and I decided to eat and rest.  The three hours of skiing in great conditions really wiped us out (yes, pathetic).  After lunch, we decided on one more run, and also took time to take a picture of each of us in on the middle of Peak 9.

Ashley and I headed back to the room and relaxed.  We could have napped for the rest of the day, but ski-school ends at 3:30.  We headed over early, hoping to catch Bode in action.  We were not disappointed.  I must preface the following with a recap of Bode's first time in ski-school two years ago.  He never really let go of an instructor's hand and, in their words, "enjoyed the indoor part of ski-school."  Therefore, when we saw him on his skies, we were tickled pink.  He was easy to pick out in those yellow pants!

We saw him go up and down the "ski-lift" a couple times.  He still can't stop on command, but his instructor said he was doing his wedge and did great.  Here's a movie of a future 2030 gold-medalist in action.

We finished the day with a great meal at Breckenridge Brewery with the Tobik entourage.  We walked, which was a mistake, because on the way home, Bode wanted to be carried.  He's not light.  We stopped and took this picture of Bode and Mommy.

We had a lovely stay in Breckenridge.  We return to work tomorrow (yuck).  Fortunately, spring has arrived, with temps forecast to be in the 50's and 60's.  I'm anxious to run in something other than a hat and gloves.  Pleasant week to all, and Happy Peter Cotton-Tail Day.

Our Sea Otter

Today was a great day at the pool.  Bode has been trying so hard to earn his last sticker and graduate from being a Sea Monkey to a Sea Otter.  Here are some pictures and movies documenting this momentous achievement.  First, here's a shot of Bode getting pumped up for the lesson.

He was with Brian today--he hadn't had Brian as an instructor in awhile.  This turned out to be a good thing, as Brian was able to find some ways to help Bode accomplish the ever elusive bubble-down and float back up starfish.  This is when he goes underwater, kicks back up to the surface and floats on his back in the starfish position.  For awhile, Bode could not master the starfish, and he had difficulty finding his buoyancy.  The last couple lessons, Bode mastered this and was able to float on his own.  The bubble-down was causing problems, because Bode wouldn't keep his head back and he wouldn't kick properly.  Here is an example of Bode doing a poor bubble-down.

Brian decided to put the shark vest on Bode.  This gives him some added buoyancy.  He also wanted Bode to jump in from the side rather than do a bubble-down from inside the pool.  This might seem harder, but Brian explained jumping in from the side sometimes helps the "panic" response i.e. when they hit the water, the kids are startled and will instinctively kick.  Sounds plausible to me.  Here is a picture of Bode with the vest--note the fin on the back.

Here was his first attempt, which wasn't a very good one.  You can hear us on tape and also Brian telling Bode his hands were out of the water.  It's very hard for the kids to float without their hands.

Brian made Bode do quite a few of these.  This one is a great example of a good job.

After mastering the technique, Bode had to remove the vest and do the same thing.  This is a video of two tries--he does pretty good on these.

After getting a good feel for the technique, Bode then did some bubble-downs starting in the pool.  Obviously Ashley and I were very excited.

After all the hard work, it was time for some play.

We had a blizzard in Colorado today.  Well, the forecast was for a blizzard, but we hardly had any accumulation.  Lots of blowing snow, and it was very cold.  Fortunately, the forecast for the week is for highs in the 60s, so I am ready for some great running weather.  Pleasant week to all.