As per Monday’s post, Jamie and I hit the slopes with Haddie for the first time on Saturday. To avoid waking up at 5 a.m. to beat the ski traffic, we opted to stay at the Beaver Lodge a few miles from the resort. Picture low-end and then go down a few notches.
Hadley loved the windy, fun house-esque stairwell and bought into our “camping” adventure story when we stuck her on the floor with a sleeping pad. Our evil plan would have gone well had she not rolled over, only to wakeup at 5 a.m. (you know: the hour we were trying to avoid). She screached, “I am stuck under the bed!” which still resonates in my mind today as her father did not even flinch. And yes, that is real wood panelling in the picture.
Our experience at SolVista was unquestionably the best ski day I have had since I moved to Colorado. The resort hooked Hadley up with ski lessons and even appointed a luminous mountain hostess to ski with Jamie and I. Kelly reminded me so much of myself during my jet-setting single years. Only she was exponentially cooler.
As we lunched in the lodge, talk turned to outdoor pursuits. Jamie and I expounded upon a backpacking trip we did in Canyonlands last Spring. Brazenly, Jamie queried,
“So, Kelly. Do you do any hiking?”
[Nonchalantly] Oh sure. I once spent 2.5 months backpacking the Pacific Crest Trail.”
End of that conversation.
Saturday night, Jamie, Haddie and I went to dinner and then played outside at the resort’s carnival. They had a dance competition for kids and Hadley delved right into the land of strobe and lights.
Now, something you should know about The Hurricane is the kid can’t dance. At all. She is even enrolled in a dance class in an attempt to counteract my non-dancing genes. But after watching her fumble around in class a few months ago, I called Jamie and confided that “We. Are. Wasting. Our. Money.”
But maybe being a good dancer ain’t all it is cracked up to be. During the dance contest, she flapped, she flailed, she spun and (brace yourselves for this) she won. Of course, they never actually divulged why she won but she was certainly the most entertaining kid out there.
Her prize was an ugly stuffed lizard and they immediately became inseparable. And extremely annoying. The kid even woke us up at 6 a.m. the next morning in our gorgeous two-bedroom slope-side condo (note: no wood panelling present) to inform us that “lizard was hot.” And yes, that would be twice in one weekend we were awoken before dawn.
It was then that Jamie and I debated the possibilities of sending hot lizard back to the desert where it belongs.
Or just get it bronzed as this will likely be the only dance competition the dear girl ever wins….
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 