Saturday, January 1, 2011

Adventures

Or lessons learned I'm not sure... Anyways we had a really quiet holiday celebrations this year as it was the 4 of us again. I did manage to cook all day but I love that so no surprises there.
I made bread rolls, orange cake, filet mignon and potato gratin for dinner. The dinner was delicious, we were all dressed up and it was fun.
Christmas day was spent lounging around the house and getting ready for a our trip. We were going to Las Vegas the next day for the night then continue to Brian Head UT for two days of skiing, then back home to spend the last few days of vacation in San Diego.
Great plan! Well traffic to Las Vegas sucks and so we got there late afternoon. Lets be honest Vegas with kids is just not right. We were just swallowed by an ocean of people and I wasn't really in the mood for it. We stayed at the Luxor which is a bit tripy. After settling into our room which was really nice, we ventured out to get some food.
The kids eyes were like saucers and they were just soaking it in. We went over the MGM and decided to eat at the Grand Wok which offered stir fry dishes and some sushi. That was one of the most expensive and worst dinner experience ever!
I have no problems spending money on food but 2 day old tempura in a roll that costs 18$ leaves a bad taste in my mouth....
We went back to our room where I settled with the kids reading some stories and trying to get them to sleep, while B went downstairs to gamble a bit.
He came back 1 hour and half later 60$ richer, soothed the pain caused by the dinner expense!
The next morning after a stop at starbucks we were on the road again direction Brian Head UT. As soon as we crossed the border into Arizona then later into Utah the scenery changed to a stunning view of mountains and canyons. It was truly beautiful.
After a lunch stop in St George we finally made it to our destination. Everyone changed into their snow gear and we played in the snow for an hour before dark.
We also stocked up at the local store which was a trip. I didn't realize that ground beef came in the 27% fat categorie! Since there wasn't much choice and we had to eat something I was able to whip out some pasta with meat sauce which without being the healthiest was at least quite tasty.
We then all settled for the night into our tiny winy studio at 9pm.
Next day we woke up to a beautiful blue sky and headed to the lodge to buy lift tickets, rent out gear and get the kids to their camp!
We were once more greated by a flood of people! Wait weren't running away from Mammoth crowd.
Anyways 1h00 later we were all set and off on the slopes. We had a great 5H00 of skiing for me snowboarding for B. We then made our way back to see the kids come back to the lodge after their day of snowboarding for MAC and skiing for MEC. They were both thrilled!

Unfortunately for us severe weather was on the menu for the day after. We also decided that instead of spending the last night then head back to San Diego we would leave right after the kids camp ended. Well that was without considering the weather and the fact that my low profile sporty station wagon wasn't really the right choice for this trip.
The next morning after waking up to snow and howling wind, we packed up our stuff, cleaned up the fridge and loaded up the car. The plan being lets drop the kids at camp for the morning go skiing a bit more and leave after lunch! Great plan right well that was until B came back saying that the car was completely stuck in the snow! Oops. After working on removing the snow packed under the car with a neighbor we were able to move it back to its spot. We then all went back to the condo. At that moment saw the plow guy come by and ran out to flag him. 5min later we were once more running out the door to get out of dodge! This time no attempt to ski a few more hours the goal was to make it down the mountain!
A couple of hours later found us striping out of our snow gear back into normal clothes and on the road back to San Diego. 9h00 later we were pulling in our driveway! What a trip!

Moral of the story need the right tool for the job! A low profile sporty station wagon isn't a good snow mobil! We drove 18H00 for one awesome day on the slopes! Hopefully next year will see us more on the slopes less on the road!

I am also one year older and entered the late thirties category and while I am still young I feel a bit older!

B did a great job on both the christmas gift, a padded shorts to help when I fall of my mountain bike and a beautiful purse for christmas and the leather jacket I have been looking for for ages for my birthday.
Now I must get ready for a run because well between a few health hickups, a bit of holiday laziness and the travelling I haven't worked out in 10 days! Oops.
Happy new year 2011 everyone

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