Dan and Jen’s Blog

A few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of going on vacation with Dan’s parents, Bob and Lisa, and his sister and brother-in-law, Katie and Jeremy, and their little girl. We had a blast! It was such a great time and we’re happy to report no major injuries although we hear that Trent was hoping Dan would break his leg. Luckily there were no breaks, although we thought for sure Dan’s left hand was broken before we went to the ER. It turned out to be a bad “contusion” that swelled up to “fat hand” for the rest of the week.

We drove to St. Louis from Louisville to meet up with everybody before we caravanned in two cars starting on Friday evening at 9:39 (yes, Jen did note the exact time) to embark on the 14 hour trek. We drove all night and got to Colorado at about noon, went to Wal-Mart, went to lunch, went to the grocery store, then got to go to our home for the next week. The house was fantastic! We each had our own room and adjoining bathroom, the kitchen had plenty of space, there were three living areas including the theater room, there was a washer and dryer, a hot tub, and plenty of hot water to go around! Our favorite was the unlimited supply of hot water. Dan, Katie, Jeremy, and Jen each skied– the boys and Jen skiing 5 days and Katie skiing 3 days. Bob and Lisa stayed with our niece when Katie was out skiing and we all had such a great time.

We had great food, some wonderful relaxation, and then got in the car on Saturday morning and drove home. Since trying to blog about our vacation in narrative form seems really daunting right now, we’ve compiled a list of highlights from our trip that we’ll post instead (in no specific order).

Highlights:
– the overhead bags - After Bob (the alleged perpetrator of the fabled IHOP pecan waffle incident) reamed out Amazon.com for not being able to deliver the overhead bags he ordered for the trip, the UPS guy showed up at their door with four bags from another order that they didn’t think was ever placed.
– the bossy double-bagging cashier at Wal-Mart in CO who also placed a jar of jelly in its own bag…
– Wonderpets - “what’s gonna work? Teamwork!”
– our niece skiing - It was fun while it lasted… for about seven minutes.
– our niece ice skating - Once again… seven minutes.
– our niece “making biscuits”
– sitting in the hot tub while it snowed on us (and the configuration of the four of us in the hot tub)
– Dan and Jeremy’s “contest” in the hot tub - Dan, of course, won the Quadrennial Born-Blaine Man Challenge by keeping his torso out of the water, in the freezing cold, for longer than Jeremy. (Note: While he claims to have misunderstood the rules, is it our fault he was educated in West Virginia?)
– crepes - more like crepelicous.
– Jen writing Dan’s final by hand - Due to Dan’s “fat hand” he could not write so he typed and printed out it for Jen to copy into the blue book)
– ginormous knitting needles - Jen bought some 19 and 35 size needles which the lady informed us were ginormous (with an inordinate amount of emphasis on the “i”)
– killer uno - Even with very limited use of his left hand, Dan still came in second.
– Dan’s pillow fort
– Dan’s trip to the ER (see Memorable Falls below)
– fat hand - He’ll never look at the hand in the same way again.
– 12″ of snow on the picnic table – with which Bob was entirely preoccupied… before long he’ll be watching the Weather Channel all the time.
– units of measure - Dan changed the thermometer in his parents Yukon from Fahrenheit to Celsius… they were shocked at how cold it was on the mountain
– Bob and the weather - see 12″ of snow above.
– Lisa and the direction of honking - Lisa made a right where she should have made a left because Katie, in the car behind her was “honking in that direction.”
– Jeremy and skis on the gondola - When we first got to the ski area, Jeremy wanted to know if we got on the gondola with our skis on. Here, you have to realize that the gondolas were only about the size of a small elevator… not to mention the complications of getting everyone in a small space, in a short time (because they don’t slow down or stop, everyone just gets off and on within about 3 minutes), with skis on. See West Virginia education comment above.
– Dan driving all the way across Kansas BOTH WAYS
– Jeremy’s goggles - Jeremy had to buy new ones because his old ones kept fogging up so that he couldn’t see anything, no exaggeration.
– Jeremy and Dan’s 2.5 hour adventure to get goggles, crepes, and starbucks
– Dan’s pants - Dan’s old ski pants didn’t fit anymore (sounds like it’s not just “fat hand”) but luckily the extra pair Jeremy ordered fit him.
– Dan’s ski boots - Dan’s old ski boots didn’t fit either so Friday, about two hours before our departure, we went to buy him some.
– Dan’s skis - Upon purchasing a new pair of boots, we realized that Dan’s new boots would not fit in the bindings on his skis. So we had to go back the ski shop to get his bindings re-drilled (let me repeat, all of this was done within hours of us leaving).
– the nice officer Dan and I met on Friday - after the boot / binding debacle we, more like Dan, was in quite the rush to get home and just as Jen gave the telltale “You need to slow down,” the lights went on… flashing lights. Mercifully, the officer gave us a break - just a warning.

Memorable Falls:

Katie - the parking lot on Sunday, face plant on Sunday - mid-mountain and could NOT get up without taking skis off and receiving Jeremy’s help
Dan - face plant on Tuesday - his skis and poles behind, and his hand getting fatter by the minute.
Jeremy - moguls, powder on Thursday
Jen - cartwheel fall on Thursday, “great” falls, powder falls on Friday, snowboarder on Thursday who decided to sweep her legs out from under her and cut her pants

Let us know if we’ve left anything out.