And you thought the last post was bad....

This is an e-mail I wrote to friends in January 07. (At the time the kids were 3, 12 and 14)

Hi all, we are coming to the end of our ski vacation in Copper Mountain. It has been great but eventful. People must think I exaggerate but here's a sample of events:

1. We flew in from Chicago just as the storm blew in. When we heard they had closed I-70, we headed to a friend's in Boulder to stay the night. As we pulled into the driveway they said the road was open so we all had a pee and drove straight up the mountain in a blizzard. A one and a half hour journey took three hours, with trucks skidding off the road every mile or so. Never again.

2. First day was fine although Queenager and Little Guy both had really bad, snotty colds. Second day, Man-child looks like he has the worst hangover in the world - altitude sickness. Had to take him to the medical center for oxygen treatment and ended up with an oxygen tank in his room for three nights. I had to sleep with him as he kept pulling the things out from his nostrils.

3. Queenager wrapped her bottom and top retainers ($1,000) in a tissue and placed them on the coffee table. Because of the preponderance of snot around the place, the Ball & Chain threw the tissue away. Only took two roots through the trash/rubbish to find the retainers.

4. Little Guy has taken to opening the door off his bedroom and running about the public hallway. He manages to open and close it very quietly, and then can't remember which door is his so we find him running all over the place in his PJs.

5. Last night, the B&C and I went for a quick pint in the pub downstairs (in this building). About 45 minutes later we get a call from kids saying LG has burnt himself on "the thing" but is ok now. Naturally we race back. When we find it wasn't anything to do with the warm air humidifier, we wake him up to check. Sure enough there's a red mark on his knee. Then we see the coffee machine (without coffee pot) on the floor and plugged in, water everywhere. How he reached it and got it off the counter is beyond me, as is why he put his knee on the hot spot. When the kids heard him scream they couldn't get to him because he had carefully locked the adjoining door. Nor could they get in through the door in the hallway because the idiot parents had piled suitcases there to stop him escaping. They eventually talked him through unlocking it. We (the parents) lay awake for a long time thinking about what might have happened.

6. Oh yes, I left Man-child and a 12 year old friend in charge of LG, with two napping (adult) friends in the condo. Man-child and friend played Play Station for almost two hours without looking up,.....while LG emptied every sachet of sugar, coffee and tea that he could find, onto the carpet. Trashed our bedroom completely and then smeared sun block over all the bedding, clothes, oxygen tank etc. When I walked back into the condo he was standing stark naked, because he "got very wet". When I asked the boys what had happened they had no idea! Needless to say I will never leave man-child in charge (or any other male playing Play Station for that matter) again.

We have one more day of skiing and a journey back to Chicago, so god knows what else will happen. If it's eventful I will let you know. For those of you with older children, just take that smirk off your face right now!!!

And every word of that was true!