Denver! baby

Last year at winter vacation, we were probably the only family staying at home. The whole school was gone out of state. This year, we joined the club. Ha ha! We went to visit Dave and Tena in Denver, the mile high city.

Denver is at just 2 - 2,5 hours flying distance. We are so used to fly overseas that it felt weird and great to be at our destination in such a short time. Even with the delay due to de-icing of the plane, we were at Dave and Tena's at the beginning of the afternoon. Leaving the snowstorm in Chicago, we were in sunny Denver! Date: Feb 10Th.

The mountains in Denver are gorgeous. I realized how much I miss mountains as I saw the snowy peaks. From flat Holland to flat Chicago... I miss mountains. We spent 3 of the 4,5 half days vacation visiting them. I didn't get enough!

Beck was waiting for us at the neighbors. We could see that he was excited to have F over. He asked if F could bring him to school (he has pre-school in the afternoons). Dave was helping at Beck's class that day and F was allowed to stay. P and I had an afternoon with A. We decided to take a walk in the neighborhoods. We walked for two hours, got some flowers and wine for Tena and Dave, had a drink at a French style coffee place (we sat outside!) and went back to Dave's. Miss A had a great time, getting all the attention from us. It was cold, snow on the ground, but the sun shone and it felt warm.

That same day, we also met the altitude sickness. We felt lightheaded and nauseous. I suffered a bad headache. The only way to get rid of altitude sickness is to drink lots and lots of water. It took me that whole first day and night to get better! Luckily, the kids didn't seem to be affected.

F slept in Beck's room and A with us, in her little bed. We could hear F and Beck giggle for hours (which went on every night!).

The next day, Dave took us to Evergreen, a picturesque village on the foot of the mountains. After a nice lunch, we went ice skating on a frozen lake. The kids had a blast! even Beck who, as we heard, not so confident about skating, did very well. I was on skates, too and I didn't fall a single time. Gosh, I was proud of myself! I know nobody is interested in how I did but the kids. They did great! F is getting quite used to skating. P gives her sometimes instructions and she is following them. She dares to speed up, she has good balance. A is very cute on her double-blade skates. She runs couple steps and then slides for a meter, then runs again. She keeps on going.

I think we spent almost 2 hours skating. We all were tired when we came home. We were lucky that Tena had dinner ready for us. What a treat!

Friday was our big day of skiing. Yes, we went skiing. We left at 7 am to Winter Park, a nice ski area 1,5 hours from Denver. F and A had lessons, so we brought them to the ski school right away. I was so nervous, I could hear my heart pounding. The kids were, though, excited. It took us a 40 min to get their stuff and set them off at their classes.

Miss A went to her class (called "just because I am three") like she was going to school. Her program was to ski for a while, play, have lunch, ski a short while again and play etc.

Miss F was nervous, like me. she was going to ski the whole time, except for lunch.

They both had class till 3 - 3.30. A whole day!

After we dropped off the kids and got our stuff, we went to join Dave Tena and Beck. Beck goes to ski quite often, so he can join his parents.

We are not good skiers, so Tena and Dave took us to green and blue runs on those beautiful mountains. We did miss the sun, but it was a nice day for skiing. Too bad after a while Tena felt sick and decided to stop. Beck wanted to stay with his mother. So we continued with Dave. He took us to different runs. All of a sudden, it was 2.40, almost time to pick up the kids. We had to rush to the base - bad parents! - We unfortunately didn't get to see the kids with our own eyes - very bad parents! - And I had said that I was stopping early to see F. We just lost track of the time. To our surprise, Tena had taken pictures of F and we even had a short film taken by Beck. Thanks!

We found both the kids at A's class. They looked super happy. A had all the time over "at my ski class..." F wanted to go to the mountains with us. I think it was a bit too early to get her on even the green runs. We didn't do it. A was very disappointed that she was not coming back the next day. I was a bit sad, too. It was such a good start and just too short for both. We have to take them skiing again, I hope we can soon. We finished the day watching the opening ceremony if the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Saturday, it was P's turn to feel sick. He looked miserable the whole day, fighting a headache and feeling nauseous. He did join us, though, at our visit to downtown Denver, the"Red Rocks" and the Dinosaur Ridge.

Downtown Denver is small but looks friendly. We went to the 16th street, a street closed to cars. we had a nice lunch at the Rock Bottom Brewery Restaurant. Good food and nice entourage. Lunch potions were huge. My salmon fish and chips were one of the best I had.

Red Rocks is a stage, an amphitheatre set up between a natural formation of rocks that creates great acoustics. Many well known performers, Beatles, Santana, U2 gave concerts at the Red Rocks. In the winter, people climb the stairs for training - and we are talking about a lot of stairs - It was quite impressive.

Dinosaur Ridge is just couple minutes further from Red Rocks. At one spot, the rocks forming the side of the hill are covered with dinosaur foot prints. Pretty cool! It is quite hard for kids, especially for A, to understand that the dinosaurs are extinct. She wanted to see them, she was quite sure we would see at least a baby dinosaur. I don't know what she understood of the foot prints, but when she grows up, she can look at her pictures next to them. F has of course a better understanding and she is lately interested in dinosaurs. Such an interesting place to be for her.

The kids also enjoyed climbing on the rocks. They proved us that they are little monkeys!

Just a hundred meter from the dinosaur foot prints, starts a trail going to the top of the hill. Beck and F went up right away in such a speed that Tena and Dave had to follow them. I though we would have to carry A all the way up, but she was amazing. She went all the way up, almost running on her small feet, and all the way down. I am supposed to tell he teacher at school that she climbed a mountain top and went back all by herself. She repeatedly asked me to tell her teacher. Maybe I will write a note to her on Tuesday. P and I were so proud of her endurance. It was quite a climb for a little girl and she did it!

Sunday morning, Beck was sick. Looks like we had a virus going around, first Tena then P, then Beck. That was too bad, because the kids couldn't enjoy the last morning before we left. Our plane was at 12.40.

I think most of all, F is going to miss Beck. The kids played so nicely for the whole time, without any fight, it was amazing. The two older ones were sometimes picking on A, but she was okay with that - or she simply didn't understand. Dave and Tena were great hosts. Good food, good friends, what can we ask for more??

We arrived to Chicago on time, which was good, too. P didn't even come home but left for Paris. He brought us to our car parked at long term parking and we brought him back to the Departures. Back to normal life!