Henry and "The Griz"

After I got the chance to ski a little slope with Henry, I told Robbie that I really thought we should put him in another day of ski school.  It seemed like a bad idea to stop his training the moment everything finally clicked.  The original plan was for Robbie to ski the next day with the girls, and I'd spend the day with the little two.  Of course, another day of lessons from 9 am to 3 pm equates to a dollar amount and another day of rental costs.  Robbie didn't argue the point, but he was thrilled to share that I had accidentally gotten Henry the best value of our entire trip.  Henry got an all day private lesson, because no other little kids happened to fall into his skill level that day.  He went up on numerous chair lifts, some of which were the high speed quad versions.  He skied down all kinds of green runs, some of which had more pitch that the ones I went down.  Yes, I'm timid, but Henry skied the real deal!  Robbie said that The Griz, Henry's ski instructor, really enjoyed his day with our son.  He took him all over the mountain.  Henry asked Robbie, "How come yesterday I couldn't ski, and now I'm good?"  Robbie and Olivia took Henry on the little slope once ski school was over, and Robbie said he pretty much went straight down the path in a little snow plow position.

Robbie had a lot of fun with the girls.  Even Ev went through the ski parks that day, and she caught a tiny bit of air on a ramp too.  He said Olivia moved much more toward parallel skiing.  He took her on blue runs after Vivian and I met them for lunch and returned to the condo with Evelyn.  Both girls really improved this year, and they have the desire to challenge themselves with tougher runs.  The weather was sunny and gorgeous that day.  I can't get over the majesty of the mountains.  I so loved looking at the view from our 4th floor windows.  I could see people skiing down the mountain on numerous runs, and they looked so peaceful from my distance.

We drove all the way home yesterday.  Robbie had us up at 4:40 am, and the kids were soon in trouble for wrestling and squealing on the floor.  They didn't seem to mind rising early.  We left the parking garage before 6 am, and a bright sliver of crescent moon hung beautifully above the dark silhouette of the mountains.  Gosh, it was a stunning sight.  We had a little early fright when the headlights didn't seem to be doing anything as we went around turn after turn high in the mountains.  I urged Robbie to pull off on an exit, and we wiped our headlights....problem solved.  The funny signs entertained us again.  Robbie said he was going to start using one of the phrases from a sign on me, "Truckers, are your brakes cool and adjusted?"  I am so thankful that my man makes me laugh hard every single day.  Plus, he can call a spade a spade.  The runaway truck ramps are a little disconcerting too.  We saw a sign near Denver that read, "Truckers!  Don't be FOOLED.  4 more miles of steep grades and sharp curves."  Ahead of that we saw a lane filled with sand and then about six rows of yellow barrels for the trucks to crash into to stop!

Robbie is wonderful.  He spent two evenings of our trip doing our laundry (the machines are not in our unit) so we'd come home with clean suitcases, did the majority of the packing,  and loaded the entire van.  Granted, he appreciated my pre-trip efforts and van loading.  We are a sensational team.  That's a quote from the spy novel that I'm reading (Code Name - Verity), which I had the privilege of reading all the way from Colorado to Kansas City.  I hate driving, and Robbie took care of it for us.  We had a fun, active, and safe family vacation, and we feel very blessed.