Monday 1 March 2010

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!

12 comments:

  1. Oh dear...... that is a typical of family life sometimes.... but surely not altogether?!

    Nuts in May

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  2. I feel your pain....but you are laughing about it now right!

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  3. I'm wondering - why do you go, again?

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  4. Erm. My daughter (4 at the time) decorated our entire bathroom with green suntan lotion...that's the worst that's happened. I know I'm tempting fate here.

    You did well to survive all that and still be writing about it!

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  5. Oh dear...you do have some great holiday experiences.

    The first time I went ski-ing, we were half way up the hill in my in-laws car and father in law was putting on the snow chains, when an out of control Frenchman came skiding down the road and smashed into the car. We had to dive into a snowbank to take cover. The car was a wreck.....not a great start!

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  6. NVG - that was why we didn't pull over to the hard shoulder when I was in dire need on the way up the mountain!
    And yes - even as the week above was unfolding, we did realise it was rather wild. I think we were more shocked than anything.

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  7. Ouch. Yeah, okay, you win again at worst holiday ever.

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  8. Didn't there ever come a point when you felt like quietly closing the door and slipping away? To Cancún?

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  9. So you come home again to relax, right? Argh! Even with a family of seven I can honestly say we have never had a holiday that compares with that.

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  10. I have never been skiing (well, once in high school for about 4 hours during which I perfected half assed skiing, i.e. sliding down half of the small moutain/hill on my butt!) but my husband is really pushing for a ski holiday next year with our very young daugher in tow! Your family skiing adventures are not are not selling me on it!

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  11. I feel like going to Cancun most days to be honest!
    Tanya - I couldn't look you in the eye and say that skiing with a small child was easy! Whether you ski or not, it's hard work.

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  12. oh my gosh what an adventure..........LG sounds like an active 3 year old, and MC sounds like a typical pre-teenage boy!!

    Gill in Canada

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The more the merrier....

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