SolVista Basin at Granby Ranch: My family’s favorite small-mountain resort!

January 30, 2012 By

Me: “I have some bad news, Haddie.”
Haddie: “Oh no, what?”
Me: “I can’t find your carsickness pills and it’s a really windy road to SolVista Basin at Granby Ranch.”
Haddie: “Oh no. I’m gonna die!”
Me: “Don’t be ridiculous. You’re just going to throw up.”

Base Camp

Hadley somehow survived the serpentine mountain passages and two hours later, we were settled into our cozy condo at Base Camp One. Located in the heart of Granby Ranch’s 5,000 acres of mountain splendor, SolVista Basin is all about location, location, location. Many resorts tout “slope-side accommodations” but SolVista takes it one step further.

Or rather, about 20 steps, which is how far we had to go before were at the base area and the popular “Snow Turtle,” THE place where kids congregated to climb and slide.

(View of the Snow Turtle from our condo; lazy parenting at its best.)

Welcome to one of Colorado’s most family-friendly resorts.

SolVista Basin has a special place in my heart: it is where Hadley first learned to ski (check-out the sordid details at Confessions of a Ski School Dropout).

With 406 skiable acres that cover interconnected mountains it is small, affordable and the perfect place for young families to come together. Unless you’re like us and drop off your kids at ski school and enjoy a day by yourself.

Couple’s Lesson

SolVista Basin has launched a 2-hour private lesson for couples because, despite your best intentions, skiing together is often en par to martyrdom. Whether you have different ability levels or the misguided notion you can teach your significant other, it generally ends badly.

Tom McNamara was our instructor. A retired lobbyist who traveled the country whipping political campaigns into shape, he knew how to do the same with us.

We started on the bunny slope. Now, I know what you’re thinking because I had the same thought: “We’re not beginner skiers, Dude!” But Tom had a plan and that included observing our ability, knocking us back down to square one and then building us back up.

Jamie and I are comparable skiers. I have better form and he is faster and more aggressive. But we both agreed on one thing: it was humbling and frustrating in the beginning.

Tom taught us how to work with (and not against) our parabolic skis to seamlessly carve our turns. Jamie and I had different habits to break and Tom had the know-how to give us our own tools to succeed. I’m pleased to say I’ve never skied better.

And even more ecstatic to announce our marriage is still in tact. :-)

Sweetheart of a Deal:2-hour Couple’s Lesson, $180 (regularly $215) in February (equipment and lift tickets are extra). Bruised ego included.

Saturday Splendor

On Saturdays, sleepy SolVista Basin comes to life. Though it could never be deemed crowded (the longest I waited in a lift line was 1 minute), there is a fun line-up of activities kids of all ages will enjoy.

Free S’Mores

After ski school from 3-4 p.m., we enjoyed free s’mores by the firepit at Base Camp Lodge.

Tubing

The Snow Turtle has a small sledding hill attached to it but if you want more of a rush, be sure to try the Saturday night tubing. A snowcat transforms the bunny slope into a three-lane, lift-serviced thrillway. Well, as thrilling as a cuddly cottontail can be.

Confession: That hare-of-a-ride had me screaming.

Night tubing is $14 for a 45-minute session or pay $20 for both night skiing and tubing. Children must be 6 and older to tube. If you just want to night ski, it is a great deal: just $12.

How you know you’ve had a great vacation

Evidence #1 (right after ski school):

Evidence #2:

Evidence #3:

Me: “So, what did you think?” (After ski school)

Hadley: “I think it was a really fun day!”

(Literal) “retch-ed” beginning and all.

For more details of our trip, an event calendar including Kids’ Totally Insane Winter Blast, area activities and more, be sure to head over to Mile High Mamas today. Thanks to SolVista for hosting!

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Colorado, Family travel, Humor, skiing

How you know you’re raising Casanova

January 27, 2012 By

Bode is a man’s man. If you were to give him the choice between hanging out with boys vs. girls, he would choose boys 100 percent of the time.

However, when there are no boys available, he rises to the occasion and hooks his sweet sinkers into many an adoring lassie.

Case-in-point: yesterday we went to our neighborhood skate park. When we arrived, there were no girls on the playground so Bode hung out with Denai, a cute girl from his kindergarten class. Or rather, Denai hung onto him. Denai is a funny one and looked like she was having the time of her life.

I previously thought she was a bit of a tomboy because she hangs out with all the boys.

Now I know she is just boy-crazy.

As she went to leave, I overheard her boasting to another little girl:

“I spent the WHOLE TIME with Bode!!!!” Pause for dramatic effect. “YAAAAAAAAAY!”

And so it begins.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Bode, Humor

The Boy Conspiracy

January 24, 2012 By

Haddie is in the middle of what we hope will be her final round of swim lessons before she tries swim team. The schedule is later than I would like and we don’t arrive home until 6:30 p.m.

Our family thinks they are going to die if we don’t eat by 6 p.m. Anyone else seeing a problem here?

Though Jamie is great in the kitchen, I do 99% percent of the cooking and I’m hesitant to ask him for help because he’s so darn busy. But one night, I didn’t have a chance to prepare anything so asked him if he and Bode could be in charge of warming up leftovers so dinner would be ready when we walked in the door.

They both agreed and I was charmed to arrive home to both boys in aprons.

They even had flour on their faces and apparently had been working hard.

Or not.

There in the middle of the kitchen table was a pizza that looked suspiciously like it was purchased from Domino’s.

“Where did you buy the pizza?”
“We made that pizza. What do you think we’ve been doing the past hour?”
“Bode, be honest with Mommy. Did you make that pizza?”
“Yes, what Daddy said. We’ve been working hard!”

Gotta give the boys credit: they stuck to their story and I almost started believing them until I found the pizza box outside in the garbage.

Here’s a tip for the boy conspiracy for next time: destroy all evidence.

And do Pizza Hut next time.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Bode, Humor, Jamie

On Raising Ying and Yang

January 20, 2012 By

I couldn’t have had two more different kids if I tried. Where Bode is easy-going, Hadley is bossy. Where Bode can’t draw a picture to save his soul, Hadley is already a gifted little artist. Where Hadley can barely count to 100, Bode is doing equations in his head.

Opposites.

Over the past couple of months their differences have come into play, starting with their report cards. Bode excelled in math and reading and squeaked by in the arts. Hadley was just the opposite. Bode loves any sport with a ball. Hadley’s affinity is toward solo activities like skiing, hiking and mountain biking.

And then there is swimming.

Haddie is a fish in the water. Dear Bode is a beached whale. In November, we took swim lessons and their progress reports were very telling. Hadley skipped an entire level and will now be among the youngest kids in the very highest class. She even asked me if she could go swim laps.

After asking her what the heck that meant, I had an all-important question:

WHY?!

Then there is Bode. He flunked his Trout class but I’m comforted that this is his first time flunking that particular level and he only fell short on two skills: doing the front stroke and chicken-airplane-soldier unassisted.

I can’t do ‘em either.

We had a sordid history with Minnows, the previous class. The entire premise of Minnows is to dunk your head, something Bode refused to do for the first four years of his life. He failed that class two years in a row and I had lost hope until I bought a private swim lesson for him at a silent auction. The wonderful instructor gave him the confidence he needed and I excitedly enrolled him in Minnows for the third time.

He tried his best, he really did, but that teen-aged instructor ended up flunking him again for a really silly reason.

I’m not proud of what unfolded after that but he was so proud of his efforts and I just couldn’t damage the kid’s ego even more so I told him he passed the class.

I don’t regret doing it. He was en par skill-wise with his classmates in the next level and he’s doing much better in the water, His problem is he is my offspring and though he’ll dunk and is learning to do the front crawl without assistance, when he comes up for air, he looks like Fat Kitty clawing to get out of the bathtub.

It ain’t pretty. But we’ll keep trying.

And just thank our lucky stars he’s got other sports to fall back on.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Humor

In life, there are winners and there are losers

January 19, 2012 By

Hadley is getting cocky about her artistic prowess and who can blame her? She can out-draw me anyday.

So, when she started taunting she could draw a better peacock, I challenged her to a peacock dual. Mine:
And I’m pretty darn proud of it because I was sorely tempted to do a Google image search. I mean, what colors are peacocks really? How many feet do they have?

Then Hadley’s:
Actually, this isn’t her best one. As an overachiever, she made two drawings and gave the better one to her teacher. Basically, she blew me out of the water.

Of course, I wanted to cover my bases in our little dual.

Me: “If I win, you owe me a back massage.”
Her: “OK, what if I win?”
Me: “You still owe me a back massage.”
Her: “MOMMMMMY!”
Me: “Look at it this way: It’s a win-win situation.”

For me, at least.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Hadley, Humor

What vehicle are you driving?

January 18, 2012 By

I am officially in the market for a new vehicle.

Actually, I didn’t even know I was looking until I was asked by Nissan to be a part of their #HolidayQuest campaign to test-drive their 2012 Nissan Quest. As my kids eagerly explored the minivan and I inhaled that glorious new-car smell while fiddling with the iPod connectivity, I knew it was out with the old (my 2003 Honda Pilot) and onto the new (vehicle TBD).

I was originally supposed to test-drive the Quest over the winter break and we planned a road-trip to Utah. But when a house fire caused tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage to my parent’s home in Canada

CLICK HERE TO READ AT MILEHIGHMAMAS.COM

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Uncategorized

The Day I Thought We Were Going to Die–Part II

January 13, 2012 By

If you’re just tuning in, be sure to first read The Day I Thought We Were Going to Die, Part I.

So, where were we? Right. The Wyoming freeway was closed due to snow, wind and suicidal conditions and my dear husband came up with an alternate route.

I will never again trust his “alternate routes” without thorough research.

“Look here!” he pointed to his iPhone’s GPS. Let’s just take Route 14, which runs kind of parallel to I-90, connect with Route 16 and then cut back down to Buffalo. Then, we’ll be able to get back on the freeway.”

Several cars were heading in that direction so I figured it would be fine.

What was not fine was Plan B.

“Let’s keep calling the WY road conditions. If I-90 opens up, we’ll take North Piney Road back to the freeway.”

Can’t see North Piney Road on this map? That is because it is too small and sketchy to even be included. (It’s located north of Lake de Smet).

As we followed the caravan of cars along Highway 14, conditions were blustery but plowed and drivable. When we reached the turnoff for North Piney Road, I learned via WY’s road hotline that the freeway had reopened. “Let’s do it!” Jamie announced.

But then I spotted North Piney, which was the very definition of remote. Dread enveloped my body. As Jamie tried to turn off, we started sliding, almost causing an accident and augmenting my alarm.

“Let’s just keep going on Highway 14.” I begged. “This just feels wrong.” But Jamie was already en route. Within a couple of minutes, North Piney’s conditions worsened. Only one truck had dared to traverse the deep snow earlier that morning and Jamie attempted to follow its tracks on the unplowed road.

Yes, I did say attempted.

My coping skills were nonexistent as I replayed a television special where a young family got lost and then stuck in the snowy Oregon mountains after accidentally taking an abandoned service road. After several days, the father James Kim left his stranded family to seek help..and was found dead in a canyon.

I played it out in my mind. I would go for help. I was the Canuck. I was strong. I liked snow. I took a mental note of the few farmhouses we passed, determining they would be our lifeline.

And then we got stuck and all plans went out the window. I freaked. And cried. We didn’t have anything to dig us out and the road was A-B-A-N-D-O-N-E-D. To Jamie’s credit, he was calm as we rocked back and forth, eventually surging forward.

For the first time, Hadley looked up from watching a movie and clued into her surroundings. “THEY NEED TO PLOW THIS ROAD!!!!!”

Gee, you think?

We miraculously made it to I-90. “I didn’t think we were going to get out of there,” Jamie later confessed. And then I thanked him for waiting to tell me. Someone needed to keep it together.

That wasn’t the end of our troubles. We heard more reports the freeway was closed again in Casper, WY and Denver had its own problems with closures due to high winds. Casper was still two hours away so I prayed we wouldn’t have to spend New Year’s Eve stuck in Wyoming.

I started to make calls to local hotels just in case. When we arrived in Casper, freeway closure signs abounded. As we started surrendering to the inevitable, a miracle happened: in a decidedly Parting of the Red Sea-esque moment, the freeway reopened at the exact moment we arrived.

Just call us Moses. Or Aaron. Heck, Children of Israel works, too.

We squeaked into Denver that night several hours later than anticipated. I grabbed a bucket of KFC, toasted the New Year via last year’s Ball Drop on YouTube and was contentedly passed out by 9:30 p.m.

And there’s no way I would have rather ended a decidedly crummy 2011 than snuggled up in my own bed.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Family travel, Hadley, Jamie

The day I thought we were going to die–Part I

January 12, 2012 By

Last summer, I braved a solo trip with the kids from Denver to Salt Lake City to Boise, Idaho to Sandpoint, ID to Calgary, Canada. Jamie flew to Canada and we later drove back to Denver via Waterton and Glacier National Park, a total of almost 50 hours in the car.

When we made the last-minute decision to drive to Calgary for Christmas, I knew what that entailed: often-dangerous winter driving. But as I checked road conditions, the weather was clear. Knowing I couldn’t drive 19 hours straight alone with both kids, I opted to overnight in Billings, MT. I even found a great hotel, Big Horn Resort, that had the largest indoor waterpark in Montana.
I even willingly swam. That’s really saying something for me.
My intrepid travelers and I made the trip in record time—8 hours from Denver to Billings and exactly 9 hours from Billings to Calgary. Jamie flew up right before Christmas and we planned to drive back together before New Year’s. One would think the return trip would be even smoother. You know–family togetherness and all?
Only it wasn’t. My Facebook updates tell the story:
Day 1

Dear U.S. Immigration: Maybe try to use your resources to tackle your colossal illegal immigrant problem vs. detaining AND fingerprinting a legal U.S. Resident at the border.

And then a few minutes later:

On another note, we’re driving through Boonieville Montana and it’s swarming with Federal Agents and tanks. Either they’re 1) doing a huge raid/top-secret security 2) filming a movie or 3) onto me.

Day 2

Federal agents, border detention, that’s one thing (OK, actually 2). But nothing could have prepared us for The Sheridan Incident.

Shortly after we left Billings at 6:30 a.m., we encountered snow and slick roads. It was dark and I was driving—a bad combination. Though slippery, I managed to slowly navigate for the next 2.5 hours as Jamie promised he’d take over as driver once we reach Sheridan, WY.

But it didn’t happen:

I-90 CLOSED in Sheridan. Prospect of spending New Year’s Eve holed up in a seedy WY hotel is pretty much on par with the rest of our 2011.

I’ve been on numerous road trips but have never encountered an entire freeway closure without a detour. It had snowed overnight and that, coupled with extreme wind, make for white-out and icy conditions from Sheridan to Buffalo, WY. After an hour of waiting, Jamie found on alternate route. And then the games began.

Tune in tomorrow to read about our Shortcut of Death.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Family travel

A true story of honesty

January 10, 2012 By

Dad: Well, your mom and I were thinking about coming to Denver next year for Christmas.
Me: That would be great.
Dad: Especially after we got uninvited this year and you decided to go to Utah.
Me: What are you talking about? You were never uninvited to come visit us!
Dad: We weren’t?
Me: No. We never invited you in the first place!

As a side note, I did tell him they always have an open invitation. :)

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: holidays, Humor

A plea for help for a domestic daughter by a non-domestic mother

January 9, 2012 By

LinkAlready at 7, my daughter Hadley’s domestic prowess is surpassing my own. Her fuel was fired when she returned home from visiting my parents at Christmas with many of my domestic goddess mother’s crafting items in tow.

A glue gun!
Wreaths!
Ribbon!
Glitter!
Fabric paints!
Weird netting stuff I don’t know what to call it!
Rafia!

Those are her exclamation marks, not mine.

But it gets worse CLICK TO READ ON AT MILEHIGHMAMAS.COM

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Hadley, Humor
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