When it’s your birthday not only do you get to pick what’s for breakfast (waffles), lunch (Mongolian noodle soup on top of Buttermilk Mountain), but you also have  a say in what’s for dinner. And my kid wanted ribs. She is a non-apologetic carnivore. I have no idea who first heard of this ribs restaurant, but it quickly became a place all the meat-lovers wanted to visit while in town.

After a long day my daughter decided that it was not all about her. Even though she was keen to eat at Hickory House Ribs in Aspen. She said that since her cousin Nick was not feeling well that it might be best if we just had pizza. This way we could avoid the 1/2 hour bus ride into Aspen. Well wouldn’t you know it, when Nick came in the door from a full day of skiing the first thing he asked was if we were going to Hickory House for dinner. When we answered that we could he quickly gave the two thumbs up and if I recall correctly he jumped up in glee. And that is how we ended up heading to Aspen with a kid with a bad knee and a boy with the flu.

The free bus system here is awesome. And in good company we all seemed to have a lovely time.

My nephew is too busy eating his kids size portion (still huge) of ribs to smile, but it is clear with the smile on Lana’s face that she is happier than a pig in s#&$, no pun intended.

Even my aspiring vegetarian son Nuno was happy with his meal. He got the mac ‘n cheese. My sister-in-law and I opted for the super cheap yet yummy and filing black bean burgers.

All in all it was a great night. Though having to walk a bit on a very cold night we all loved our night at the Hickory House. And if my daughter and husband have anything to say about it we will be back before we leave Colorado.

So she’s 10.

I will admit here that this birthday was not what any of us had planned. We all thought that we would be having a great time skiing with family on a mountain, but nope, we were on day 6 of being cooped up in our condo because of her bad knee. A nice condo to be sure, but cooped up nonetheless. Try as I might to make it a super day, I swear I did, it was still not the day my kid was expecting.

We started out the day with waffles. The toaster kind. Last year on her birthday we hadn’t been able to find them in the grocery store in Wanaka. And yes, I love making everything from scratch, but not in a caravan. This year I did get a complaint from my nephew that the toaster waffles were not as good as homemade, but mate, there is only so much a mother can be. I figure after they added the whip cream, chocolate sauce, maple syrup and sprinkles they wouldn’t be able to taste much of the waffle anyway. In full disclosure this picture is of the cousins eating their waffles the day after her birthday. I was suckered into allowing another morning of gluttony.

After breakfast Lana and I were left alone. I know, I know, it was her birthday, but after seeing Disney channel in the background for 5 days I was losing my mind. Then add to the fact that my kid who seemed to be on the mend two days before was all of a sudden limping again. It was a bit frustrating for us all. We were questioning our decision not to get an MRI. There were some tears and arguing, but rather than go to the doctor at lunch time (plan C) we went with our birthday plan B which was to try to meet the family on top on the mountain for lunch. Usually this involves nothing more timing things, but today we had to try to negotiate getting a kid with an injury but a season pass (can ride every day at no additional cost) and a mother with no injury, but no skis on either and no season pass and not willing to pay my albeit reduced daily rate to ride the lift.

Well aren’t we lucky that the ski lift attendant was a kind soul who also happened to be a Capricorn and let us on the lift. See no skis, just her mother’s nice boots.

We rode to the top where we met our entire family and my sister-in-law’s neighbors who they happened to bump into the day before in the lift line. No joke. Lunch was okay, but the view was spectacular.

Happy Birthday Lana Banana!

A great thing about spending a week with family is that you can share responsibility for watching over sick and injured kids. Not that I want my nephew to be sick of course, but his having the flu has meant that between aunties and uncles I have been able to leave the house. Thank goodness. Yet as we approached one week since Lana hurt her leg I was feeling all the greater need to make excuses to get out of the house. Both for my sanity as well as for an opportunity for her to test her leg. So on the one week anniversary we ventured out on a walk to the grocery store. We can easily get there on a free bus, but really, this is a much more fun way to get there.

Let me show you how we roll. First we walk across the parking lot of our condo complex. The pavement is heated. I know that sounds ridiculous. It’s not like you can feel being emitted from below your boots, but there is never any ice on the drive. That is awesome.

We took poles to help us will the hill. That was our reason, but we did also want to feel as cool as Auntie Diane and Ti Zé who go on ‘real’ caminos.

As soon as we hit snow those poles came in handy. My husband is already having a difficult time with my daughter’s injury, if she were to fall again he might just lose the rest of his mind. And speaking of my husband, he skied right past us. He did ask if we wanted to wait for him, but my thinking was me might lose our momentum if we stopped. So off we went.

So on we went…

The snowball fight initiated by my daughter is a good sign that her leg is feeling better.

Then we walked up hill. It isn’t too easy, but it’s manageable with good boots (Lana has on mine, thank you very much:)

Do you see the car at the top? That’s the parking lot of the grocery store and the town center. We all made it in one piece. And there you have it. Our camino to our little grocery store.

We are now in Colorado. It is one of my husband’s favorite places on Earth. Now that I have come here I can understand why. It is breathtakingly beautiful. However the other, probably greater reason that he loves Colorado is the skiing. He loves to ski. Understandably so as he is really really good at it. He is a thing to see when he skis. Really beautiful to watch.

I had not skied in over 10 years and I wasn’t sure how it would go, but I did just fine.

My first day out I did not have a helmet so I was quite careful. After finding out how much an adult lesson would cost I asked my husband for pointers. He was patient with me & I was patient with him and I will admit here that I learned a thing or two that first day.

The pictures make our day look much darker than it really was. There must be something about taking pictures on a snowy mountain that causes the camera to overcompensate for the brightness and hence results in a darkened photo. But I assure you, I needed the tinted goggles.

While we were out on the slopes our kids were in ski school. I can teach my kids to read, but I have no idea what to do on on ski hill. My husband may know what to do, but would lose his mind teaching our children. It would not be pleasant for anyone.

So we gave them a hug and a kiss and dropped them both off. Day 1 was great, Day 2 even better. To tell you the truth at this point I was thinking how lucky my children are. I was thinking what a gift we are giving them. Not only do they get to visit another state. But they get to spend our time here with family (visiting from NZ) and friends (our mates our heading over from Cali), but they get to have professional ski instruction on a top mountain at a young age. At a place that looks like this..

So on Day 3 I was a little surprised when Nuno told me he did not want to attend class. He said he wasn’t feeling well and wanted to stay home. People, my kids know me well enough to know that a day home with mom means NO technology or treats. And that is how we spent our day. Lana on the other hand went happily off to ski school. At one point in the day I remember thinking how far along she has come. 1) she was skiing. This in itself is a big deal. She is a child that would prefer to read than play with other kids on the playground for the one reason that  that play involves running around. 2) She wanted to go ski. Yep, that one leaves me speechless. 3) She willingly stayed knowing that her brother would not be with her. Not that they’d be in the same class, but this is a child that used to never want to be left anywhere without the ‘backup’ of family.

SOOOOOO you can imagine my surprise when I got to the pick-up area and was approached by Sophia’s instructor who was alone. He started by telling me that Sophia was doing a great job skiing. And then he said something about her taking a challenge to get to level 4 and deciding on her own volition to do a blue square and then hitting ice. I don’t mean to be flip, but this is not characteristic of my kid. My child is the one on day 1 who before lunch was feigning altitude sickness, not the one who challenges herself.

Nuno and I hopped on a gondola and made it up to the clinic where she had been transported to by ski patrol. When I walked in I was greeted by this gorgeous face.

Let me tell you. She was so cute. She started by recounting how she has been wanting to take gymnastics and that today she got to do a tumble turn. But unlike her desire to try in the safety of a gymnastics class on a mat, that she did one on the mountain, after hitting ice. She told me how she hit her head then banged and/or twisted her knee. She couldn’t remember exactly as it happened all so fast. But whatever happened it hurt and my baby cried for 10 minutes straight. Two seats over, at the clinic sat her buddy Will who fell on the same patch of ice. Possibly distracted by watching Lana fall. Poor kid, his shoulder looked more messed up than Lana’s knee. He was sweet and I thought how lucky that Sophia got to meet another wonderful person on this little adventure we call life.

Then we sat, we waited, the clinic was hopping. We were joined by my husband. He was stressed. It as funny to me as he seemed shocked that Lana could get hurt skiing. I mean really, did he think we had signed her up for chess lessons?

Finally she was seen by the doctor and the news was not horrible, but not good either. No broken bones, but she believed it was a torn ligament. That involves MRIs and possibly surgery. I was just happy my kid had a helmet on. Really happy. I am pretty sure his stress was about 1) his baby getting hurt doing something he encouraged her to do 2) his bewilderment at the thought of his bibliophile getting hurt doing a sport 3) the fact that this could be a reason for her to have surgery and 4) the cost, the insurance, the pain in the neck of it all. But whatever it is, he was not a pleasant person to be around.

Well, Lana was totally aware of her stressed out father. So much so, that when we were on the bus heading home she insisted that she was going to use her Christmas/Birthday money on her MRI. Wrong. I hugged her, loved her and told her, “No, we have insurance and daddy is just stressed, but it’s okay. We are okay.” But really, isn’t that sweet?

So we came home and went to bed with a knee brace on our Lana. I was still positive, but when I awoke at 1am I was feeling guilt. Horrible guilt. Here I though we were giving her a gift, but instead she got an injury. A possibly pretty bad injury. Did we push her too far? Did we make her feel like she had to do it to meet our approval? As I thought all these things, I looked over to my daugher who was asleep in bed next to me and in her sleep she mumbles, “I love you mom.” My heart sang. And my brain thanked her. I do not deserve this child. I know that, but I am still grateful for her.

We are at Friday and we somehow got an appointment with the Orthopedic Doctor. More for dad ‘s peace of mind truth be told,but I will be honest we are all happy with the news. It looks like this little monster may only have a bruised muscle and possibly a bruised growth plate. Fingers crossed she does not have a torn meniscus. If so she will be operated on next Thursday. But right now we are positive that she will be better. That we will walk away, without crutches, from Colorado, with smiles on our faces with only good memories of our time here.