Reunited

We took Judah on his first road-trip this past weekend. I was pretty nervous about having him in a car for 10-12 hours at a time, but I was pleasantly surprised.

We left Saturday morning for a trip to ski in Colorado. Of course, Judah was not planning on skiing, but it was his first trip to the Rocky Mountains. It was his first trip out of Kansas.

For the first few hours of the trip, Judah was great -- he slept. I was worried that he would not sleep at night if he slept all day, so I sat in the backseat with him to play and talk. He did so great. He didn't seem at all bothered by the increased altitude at all.

The first night, he was awake until midnight and up at 3:00am. So was I. Neither one of us slept well that first night in Colorado, and I was supposed to ski on Sunday. I was exhausted when everyone else was awake and (well-rested) ready to hit the slopes.

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So, Sunday we (Jake & myself, Josh & Bethany, and Tanner & Tonya) decided to ski in Beaver Creek. We got there with very little trouble, and we were ready to be on the mountains with our skis.

<--This is what we found upon getting off the first ski lift. It's Old Man Winter. It was really cool. (Dad: This pun's for you! Yes, two in one!)

I really liked skiing at Beaver Creek. It's a nice place with good runs. What I found out about Beaver Creek is that the Black Diamond runs are not too difficult. We all ended up on a Black without really being prepared for it. Jake said, "A woman skiied by with her 6 year old kid and said this Black run is the easiest she's ever been on." So, we all followed, and the start of the run was pretty great. It got a little more steep and difficult in the middle. I was struggling with my ski boots, so I kept stopping to try and gain some control over them. It was terrible. My boots were too loose, so I didn't feel like I had control over my skis. I was having to work extra hard to control where I was going. My feet and legs were wearing out fast! I was pretty frustrated by the time I was almost at the end of the run. Okay, to be honest "frustrated" is kind of an under-statement. To hear Jake tell it, I was livid. In his words, he got "scolded" pretty harshly.

After we were finished with the first Black Diamond of the day, we went on . . . with the hot steam cooling off in the falling snow as we skiied. We had fresh powder to ski in all afternoon. It was beautiful. We were very happy to find that Beaver Creek was not busy at all, and we had several runs where it was just the six of us.

To the right is a picture of me skiing on a Black Diamond. I have terrible form, but I didn't fall!

The day went on, and we were all rushing to different ski lifts, trying to make the most of our time before the lifts closed. We went up one lift and found a couple of Blue runs. We were all game for that. Unfortunately, halfway down, the Blues all turned to Blacks. No way down except down a Black Diamond. Well, we'd already tackled one, so we forged ahead. It was not bad at all. My legs were burning, and my feet hurt . . . but there was only one way out -- down.

So, I skiied several Black Diamonds and did not fall once. NOT ONCE. I was so proud of myself for that, especially since I was having so much trouble with my boots and ski-control.

By the end of the day, it was snowing pretty hard at the base of the mountain, and we were all cold and wet. We'd been skiing in the snow most of the day. It was a challenge because we would ski down the mountain, sweat, then catch a lift up and freeze because we were wet with sweat. Even so, we all had fun.

That night, we got back to the condo -- tired and hungry. We went to eat at a Mexican restaurant. It was voted number one in 2006. Jake commented after dinner, "I would not vote that place the best in 2008." The food was not great at all, and we were all pretty disappointed.

Lucky for me, Judah and I both got to sleep very hard and fast that night. I was so exhasusted from having 3 hours of sleep the night before and the skiing all afternoon. My legs were sore, and my boots had rubbed blisters on my shins.

The next day, I stayed at the condo with Judah, so Dave and Jan could join the group and ski. Jake woke up to have stabbing pain from his kidney stone, so he decided to stay back as well. Bethany also was exhausted and not feeling good, so she stayed to rest. We had a good day just lounging around and playing with Judah. That night, we played cards and watched a movie. It was really fun.

Tuesday, everyone awoke with very little motivation to go skiing. Jake said he couldn't do it because of his kidney stone. He was in quite a bit of pain. So, we left for home.

Judah did so great in the car on the way home. He slept a lot, but when he was awake, he wanted to be sitting up and out of his carseat. He kept doing situps, trying so hard to get out of the seat. But, he did relax, and we got home with very little fussiness.

On our way home, we stopped in Denver to say hello to Elan. She had not met Judah yet, so I wanted her to see him. He was in SUCH a great mood at her house. He was just talking and smiling a lot! He really seemed to like Elan! He doesn't always do that great with someone he doesn't know, so I was excited to see him happy with her.

We made it back late Tuesday night, and when I tried to put Judah in bed while he was asleep, he woke up. So, I fed him and rocked him back to sleep. He slept until 7:00am, which was so great!

We had such a great time on our trip, but it is always nice to be home. We're glad that Judah did so great with traveling. We asked quite a bit of him to be in his carseat for such a long time, but he did so good. He's such a mellow and easy-going kid. He was pretty much in awe of the house when we got home. He kept looking around, seeming to recognize that this place is familiar to him. He seemed glad to be back in his home, playing with his toys in the living room this morning.

I'm glad to be home, too.

Here is a little more of Judah from the week before the trip.

<---This is our family on my birthday.

This is Judah just chilling in his chair, watching me cook. ...