Trip texts:
From: Mom
Hi sailor, snowed 4 inches last night. More on the way. Hope you're having fun. Hi to all. Love you. Mom and dad
Feb 16, 8:02 am
From: 7626
Free Msg. Welcome to British V.I. Dial 1+ 10 digit number to call the U.S. Local calls Dial the 7 Digit number.
Feb 16, 7:13 pm
From: Mom
Sounds like a fantastic trip-Can'T wait to see you and hear all about it. Love you both, dad and mom
Feb 21, 8:45 am
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Kids' ideas of love
I love this kind of thing!
"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth." -Billy, age 4 Read more of these...!
"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth." -Billy, age 4 Read more of these...!
Friday, February 12, 2010
Thong, tha- thong, thong, thong!
In a couple days we leave for the Virgin Islands!
"Only one and a half more days! Tell Annie to get her bikini on 'cause I'm gettin' on my thong!" -Pop Pop (Rod's grandfather, who also asks us weekly when our hot tub is arriving so he and I can go skinny dipping)
"Only one and a half more days! Tell Annie to get her bikini on 'cause I'm gettin' on my thong!" -Pop Pop (Rod's grandfather, who also asks us weekly when our hot tub is arriving so he and I can go skinny dipping)
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Lake Tahoe Part 2
I love skiing!!!
We got back from Tahoe almost a week ago, and I'm just finding time now to update my blog. I skied again after that first day, and I did much better and had a better attitude about it. And, now I really enjoy it! (:
On the day we 'had off,' we went on a sleigh ride pulled by a 2,600-lb. draft horse named Captain who can pull twice his own weight. It wasn't nearly as romantic as I was expecting, but it was fun. That afternoon, we went on the M.S. Dixie II boat which took us on a cruise of scenic Emerald Bay. That was spectacular.
I have zillions of pictures that I'll upload to my next post -- I wanted to save this one for my skiing achievements...
Take a look at a video Rod took!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Lake Tahoe Part 1
Today is our third day in South Lake Tahoe, California. Actually, I'm not sure if we're in California or Nevada...to be honest, I think the hotel might be directly on the line. We got here on Sunday afternoon around two o'clock pm. I was really nervous about the flights since I haven't flown in five years, but I did great! The trip was flawless and our bags followed us - everything went well!
The hotel is amazing. We're staying at Embassy Suites, which I think is a subsidiary of Hilton, and it's really nice. We're on the first floor in a king suite. There's a complimentary breakfast every morning, and we have all sorts of discounts because we're with the Ski Club we belong to.
The night we got here, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner and just hung around...we were pretty wiped from the trip. Then, yesterday, we got up at 6:30am to get ready for skiing. We thought we were going to Kirkwood for the day, but the bus never showed up at 7:50am like it was supposed to, so Joe (our club leader) called the bus company and they had messed up apparently. So we switched things around and skiied at Heavenly yesterday, the mountain that we're right next to. Literally, we can walk out of our hotel, cross one block and jump on the gondola.
Now, it must be known that this was my first time skiing since I was maybe eight years old, and I hated it then. We used to go up to some friends' houses in Vermont and they are pro skiers pretty much. I remember being embarrassed because I was eight and going down the bunny slope in between my mom's friend's legs and her son, who was four at the time, was on one of the really experienced trails (I want to say black diamond, but I'm not sure if there's an age requirement for those things).
Anyway, Rod taught me a little in our hotel room the night we got here, and then yesterday morning we got on the gondola (which had beautiful views going up of the mountains and the lake) and went to the bottom of Heavenly Mountain, which had the lodge and the ski lifts. He had me practice on this tiny (and I mean really TINY) hill that was in between the lodge and the "Big Easy" ski lift to the top of the bunny slope (called "Easy Street" or something like that) and I fell twice. Just on this maybe four foot long slope that was really not much of a slope at all...people could ski UP it...which is what I tried to do at one point and that's when I fell forward with my legs twisted completely backwards under me and I started freaking out. It was not fun.
So, after that, I was pretty much determined not to ski again for the rest of the trip and just videotape Rod doing his skiing. I didn't want to get in his way, because he's an intermediate-to-experienced skier, but it seemed all he really wanted to do was teach me and watch me mess up and joke around and have fun. So after about an hour of sitting there stubbornly refusing to ski anymore, I finally agreed to go up this little slope that wasn't even the bunny slope, it was a slope that ski instructors were teaching adults on, and there was no ski lift except for this cable with handles on it that you could grab onto and it would pull you up the slope to the top or wherever you wanted to let go and start humiliating yourself.
The first time, I made it to the top of the slope and let go of the handle, and started to slide backward (as was expected) and let myself wipe out and laid there on my side for quite a bit until I figured out how to get up without taking my skis off. Luckily there was no one behind us on the cable thing. Then I fell a couple more times skiing down the slope sideways back and forth. BUT, I managed to teach myself how to turn a little and got more confident and had fun with it. SO, I decided to go back up and do it again, and the second time I got even better, I almost got all the way to the bottom of the hill without falling at all, until we got to the very bottom and it started to get steeper going down to where the lifts were and I started going too fast for my liking and instead of waiting for myself to turn and stop myself without falling, I just let myself fall so I could stop. :) But before that, I was actually skiing back and forth a couple times without stopping completely to start over, which is what I did the first time before that.
By this time I was exhausted. Even though I had only been skiing for maybe 20 minutes collectively, I had been out there standing in my ski boots and my skis for almost 3 hours. I was exhausted, and I have also been struggling with the altitude I think because EVERYTHING exhausts me, even going up one flight of stairs.
The only other thing I have to complain about is the dryness up here. It's great for the snow but HORRIBLE for your body, specifically your nose. My nose is so dry that it's uncomfortable, and the other day I had my first (sort of) bloody nose. It wasn't running blood or anything, but when I blew my nose there was quite a bit of blood on the tissue, and ever since then there's always a tiny bit whenever I use a tissue. But it's OK.
Other than that, it's GORGEOUS here and lots of fun.
We're doing plenty of other things besides skiing (Rod's out skiing right now and I might join him in the afternoon, but it's nice to let him ski on the bigger, more exciting slopes so he can actually ski haha). Tonight we have a Welcome Party put on by the hotel for our ski club in Joe's suite. Then we may or may not go to "Fire and Ice" for dinner, depending on how full we get from the hors d'eouvres they serve at this thing (it's a drink and appetizer thing, not dinner) and then tomorrow is our "Day Off" from skiing, and we booked a day cruise on this boat that takes you to Emerald Bay/Cove on the lake and we're going to take lots of pictures. Hopefully it won't be bad weather. I think it's supposed to snow a lot this afternoon.
Then on Friday, my cousin Kate and her boyfriend Logan are joining us for the evening. We'll probably have a nice dinner, maybe go across the street to one of these "Old Fashioned Photo" places where they dress you up in old-fashioned clothes and then take pictures of you. I've never done it, and I think it might be fun.
Oh and last night we went to the pool and jacuzzi, it was fun. Unfortunately, someone from our ski club broke her wrist yesterday. She wasn't even skiing, she went into the ladies' room for a moment and slipped on the stairs or something in her ski boots and broke a couple of bones and dislocated something, I don't know. We saw her in the elevator this morning and she was saying the doctor suggested she might need surgery when she gets back home. Ugh. Poor woman, and kind of ironic how it happened when you'd expect injuries from skiing, not from bathrooms.
Well, I've probably written enough! I'm sure I'll have much more to tell later. Right now I'm really online just to sign onto my classroom at Ashford to fulfill my attendance for the week. I'm probably going to go get my bathing suit on and do some laps in the pool, and then go to the gift shop and get some souvenirs and postcards.
Wish me luck this afternoon if I brave the "slope" again! :)
The hotel is amazing. We're staying at Embassy Suites, which I think is a subsidiary of Hilton, and it's really nice. We're on the first floor in a king suite. There's a complimentary breakfast every morning, and we have all sorts of discounts because we're with the Ski Club we belong to.
The night we got here, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner and just hung around...we were pretty wiped from the trip. Then, yesterday, we got up at 6:30am to get ready for skiing. We thought we were going to Kirkwood for the day, but the bus never showed up at 7:50am like it was supposed to, so Joe (our club leader) called the bus company and they had messed up apparently. So we switched things around and skiied at Heavenly yesterday, the mountain that we're right next to. Literally, we can walk out of our hotel, cross one block and jump on the gondola.
Now, it must be known that this was my first time skiing since I was maybe eight years old, and I hated it then. We used to go up to some friends' houses in Vermont and they are pro skiers pretty much. I remember being embarrassed because I was eight and going down the bunny slope in between my mom's friend's legs and her son, who was four at the time, was on one of the really experienced trails (I want to say black diamond, but I'm not sure if there's an age requirement for those things).
Anyway, Rod taught me a little in our hotel room the night we got here, and then yesterday morning we got on the gondola (which had beautiful views going up of the mountains and the lake) and went to the bottom of Heavenly Mountain, which had the lodge and the ski lifts. He had me practice on this tiny (and I mean really TINY) hill that was in between the lodge and the "Big Easy" ski lift to the top of the bunny slope (called "Easy Street" or something like that) and I fell twice. Just on this maybe four foot long slope that was really not much of a slope at all...people could ski UP it...which is what I tried to do at one point and that's when I fell forward with my legs twisted completely backwards under me and I started freaking out. It was not fun.
So, after that, I was pretty much determined not to ski again for the rest of the trip and just videotape Rod doing his skiing. I didn't want to get in his way, because he's an intermediate-to-experienced skier, but it seemed all he really wanted to do was teach me and watch me mess up and joke around and have fun. So after about an hour of sitting there stubbornly refusing to ski anymore, I finally agreed to go up this little slope that wasn't even the bunny slope, it was a slope that ski instructors were teaching adults on, and there was no ski lift except for this cable with handles on it that you could grab onto and it would pull you up the slope to the top or wherever you wanted to let go and start humiliating yourself.
The first time, I made it to the top of the slope and let go of the handle, and started to slide backward (as was expected) and let myself wipe out and laid there on my side for quite a bit until I figured out how to get up without taking my skis off. Luckily there was no one behind us on the cable thing. Then I fell a couple more times skiing down the slope sideways back and forth. BUT, I managed to teach myself how to turn a little and got more confident and had fun with it. SO, I decided to go back up and do it again, and the second time I got even better, I almost got all the way to the bottom of the hill without falling at all, until we got to the very bottom and it started to get steeper going down to where the lifts were and I started going too fast for my liking and instead of waiting for myself to turn and stop myself without falling, I just let myself fall so I could stop. :) But before that, I was actually skiing back and forth a couple times without stopping completely to start over, which is what I did the first time before that.
By this time I was exhausted. Even though I had only been skiing for maybe 20 minutes collectively, I had been out there standing in my ski boots and my skis for almost 3 hours. I was exhausted, and I have also been struggling with the altitude I think because EVERYTHING exhausts me, even going up one flight of stairs.
The only other thing I have to complain about is the dryness up here. It's great for the snow but HORRIBLE for your body, specifically your nose. My nose is so dry that it's uncomfortable, and the other day I had my first (sort of) bloody nose. It wasn't running blood or anything, but when I blew my nose there was quite a bit of blood on the tissue, and ever since then there's always a tiny bit whenever I use a tissue. But it's OK.
Other than that, it's GORGEOUS here and lots of fun.
We're doing plenty of other things besides skiing (Rod's out skiing right now and I might join him in the afternoon, but it's nice to let him ski on the bigger, more exciting slopes so he can actually ski haha). Tonight we have a Welcome Party put on by the hotel for our ski club in Joe's suite. Then we may or may not go to "Fire and Ice" for dinner, depending on how full we get from the hors d'eouvres they serve at this thing (it's a drink and appetizer thing, not dinner) and then tomorrow is our "Day Off" from skiing, and we booked a day cruise on this boat that takes you to Emerald Bay/Cove on the lake and we're going to take lots of pictures. Hopefully it won't be bad weather. I think it's supposed to snow a lot this afternoon.
Then on Friday, my cousin Kate and her boyfriend Logan are joining us for the evening. We'll probably have a nice dinner, maybe go across the street to one of these "Old Fashioned Photo" places where they dress you up in old-fashioned clothes and then take pictures of you. I've never done it, and I think it might be fun.
Oh and last night we went to the pool and jacuzzi, it was fun. Unfortunately, someone from our ski club broke her wrist yesterday. She wasn't even skiing, she went into the ladies' room for a moment and slipped on the stairs or something in her ski boots and broke a couple of bones and dislocated something, I don't know. We saw her in the elevator this morning and she was saying the doctor suggested she might need surgery when she gets back home. Ugh. Poor woman, and kind of ironic how it happened when you'd expect injuries from skiing, not from bathrooms.
Well, I've probably written enough! I'm sure I'll have much more to tell later. Right now I'm really online just to sign onto my classroom at Ashford to fulfill my attendance for the week. I'm probably going to go get my bathing suit on and do some laps in the pool, and then go to the gift shop and get some souvenirs and postcards.
Wish me luck this afternoon if I brave the "slope" again! :)
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