Spring 2005-Aspen/Snowmass

Well, since I have a little free time, I decided I'd go ahead and write about the trip so far. We left on Saturday, the 12th at 9:30. We were all packed in the Suburban and ready to go. If you don't know yet, I'm in Colorado with the Smith family. They needed someone to come along to help with their 4 boys. They are Logan(8), Dylan(6), Caden(4), and Ethan(2). Obviously they would need some help! When we got on the road, Thomas (their dad), explained to me why they had 2 pink headbands in the car. He said that when the boys were bad, they had to wear the pink headbands. Within the first 30 minutes of the trip, Logan had to wear the headband twice. I noticed that Logan, being the first born, was much like me. He was stubborn and bossy with his brothers. I know I was the same way at that age, and even as I got older although I'd like to think I've grown out of that for the most part. Logan was however very sweet to Ethan, which was exactly how I was with Cory being the baby. Dylan was very much a typical middle child, just like Lindsey. He cried several times, of course it was usually because Logan had hit him. I felt like I was re-living my childhood all over again. Most of the trip I was reading All the Presidents' Pets and listening to my iPod, in between getting things for the boys. Logan also wanted me to play a game he had made up with his baseball cards so I gave in and played. The first day we were just driving to Amarillo where we stayed at the Residence Inn. The boys love this place because there is an indoor pool. We checked into the hotel, then went to eat at Hoffbrau Steaks. Of course I didn't have steak-you guys know that. I had some chicken that wasn't too bad though. After that we returned to the hotel to go swimming. We swam for about 2 hours, but Ethan had to stay in the room with Pam(their mother) because he had a fever. Once we all got back to the room, we settled down and went to bed.
Day 2-Agenda: Drive to Snowmass, Colorado (In case you're curious, Snowmass is one of the 4 mountains at Aspen.)
We got on the road around 8:30. I was pretty sleepy so I slept a lot that morning. We stopped at Arby's for lunch. I don't think I've had Arby's since I was in 5th grade, but I had a turkey sandwich and it was pretty good. After lunch people were dozing so I read a little and listened to an old NPR segment with David Sedaris on my iPod. There was a lot of snow storms during the drive, but it wasn't sticking so we were able to stay on pace. We were on I-70 when we listened to the traffic report that told us an 18-wheeler had flipped over so everyone was being routed onto Hwy 6. This wasn't good news because that would make the trip longer. We saw a sign that we were 5 miles from Hwy 6, but since traffic was only going about 3 mph this was going to take awhile. We were stuck in traffic for an hour and right before we got to Hwy 6, I-70 opened back up. Even though we had been stuck in traffic for a while, we were glad we could stay on track and not have to take an alternate route. After a long 11 hours, we arrived in Snowmass. We checked into our sweet condo, went to rent skis, then went to buy Caden a helmet since they were required for kids in ski school. His dad found one for him and for the rest of the night, Caden wouldn't take the helmet off. After that we ate dinner at a pizza place at the base of the mountain. We came to the condo and everyone went to bed since it had been such a long day.
Day 3-My first day with Ethan alone
We got up that morning and had breakfast. Then, so Ethan and I could get out, we all went to bring the 3 older boys to ski school. Ethan was crying a lot the whole time and it was frustrating for all of us. After the boys were all checked into their ski school, Thomas, Pam, Ethan, and I all came back to the condo. Ethan was so tired from screaming that he fell asleep on the floor. Thomas and Pam left soon after that to go ski. Ethan woke up a little later and we had lunch. Ethan said he wanted to go bye-bye, so I got him dressed and we were headed out the door. As we stepped outside, Ethan lost it. He was screaming again and just having a bad time. I decided it wasn't a good idea to go into town with Ethan acting so badly, so we went back in the condo. He decided he wanted to stamp, so I got his paper and stamps and he went at it. We watched a little of 'See Spot Run' then I put him down for a nap. Everyone got home around 3:30 and Ethan woke up. I played Sorry with Logan. He won the first game and wanted to play again. I beat him the 2nd game so we played a tie breaker. The whole time we were playing he was telling me that he hadn't lost this game ever. Well, I beat him the 3rd game and he got upset. Ethan was still a little whiny, and Pam decided to give him some medicine. He perked up after that and has been great since then. We all had dinner at the condo, then watched a little TV. It was bedtime so I helped get the boys ready, then I went to bed myself after a little reading.
Day 4-Downtown Aspen
We got up and had pancakes for breakfast-Thank you Pam! Thomas left early to go fly fishing for the day, so everyone but Caden was taking the day off. Caden had to go to ski school, so Pam left to bring him. Logan, Dylan, Ethan, and I ventured out behind the condo where there was a stream and lots of room to run. Logan and Dylan built a fort while I pulled Ethan on a sled. Ethan got tired of that so we went to look for the bird nest that we could see from the window in the condo. We walked to the back porch, but the bird wasn't there. The neighbor was so we talked to him for a few minutes, then Ethan got impatient so we went to wander around. Pam got home while we were outside. Ethan and I came in, found her, and she said we needed to leave in about 15 minutes, so I went to get Logan and Dylan. They came inside and then we all loaded up to drive to downtown Aspen. We had lunch at Boogie's Diner, which is a 50's diner, but there is also a lot of high-end clothing downstairs. After a great lunch, we walked around for a little while then headed back to the condo, because it would be time to get Caden soon. Ethan went down for his nap so Pam, Logan, Dylan, and I played Sorry. Logan and Dylan were being poor sports when Pam and I would use a sorry card on them. It was funny to watch them overreact. Pam and I just laughed at them until it was enough, and they were told to change their attitude. Logan sort of had a breakdown, but after a good talking to he was better. Pam had to go get Caden after that, so Logan and Dylan went to finish their fort while I stayed inside with Ethan. He woke up about the same time Pam and Caden returned so they all played together. Logan and I were playing Sorry again when Pam asked if I wanted to get out of the house for a little bit. I said sure, so I was going to go to the grocery store to get a few things. I was glad because I needed some sunglasses too, so I figured I could find some at a shop nearby. Logan and I finished up the game, then he came with me to be my helper at the store. We went out to the bus stop and began to wait. We saw a red fox across the street so Logan decided to go check it out. I stayed at the bus stop and waited for the #8 bus. Logan was still looking for the fox when a #4 bus stopped. I told the driver that we needed to go to Snowmass Center, and he said since he didn't have anyone else on the bus, he could take us real quick. I yelled for Logan and off we went. The bus driver was really nice and we thanked him for going out of his way to bring us to the store. Logan got a buggy in the market and we got the list out. We found everything pretty quickly so we checked out, then walked next door to look at sunglasses. Well, I'm prone to lose sunglasses, so I didn't want to spend a lot on them. The pair I liked the most were $46 and I wasn't about to pay that for glasses I would probably lose or break later. I told Logan I wanted to go look in the market again, because maybe they would have some cheaper ones. We started looking and Logan found the toy section. I told him to stay there because I could see the sunglasses. I found a good pair for $10.99, much better than the last price. Logan asked if I would get him this cheap looking toy with guns and arrows. I told him we had to get something for all the boys or it wouldn't be fair. I wasn't sure how much the toys cost at first, but then we saw a sign that said "All these items $1". So Logan went to work picking out toys for his brothers. Of course he picked the guns and arrows for him, a basketball game for Dylan, a soccer ball for Caden, and a truck for Ethan. We headed down to the bus stop with all our stuff after checking out again. It was 4:45, and the bus comes at 30 minutes after the hour and on the hour, so we had about 15 minutes to wait. Logan got a little impatient, so I showed him how to play Snake on my cell phone. The bus came at exactly 5:00, so we got on and headed back to the condo. Logan passed out the toys to his brothers. Caden and Ethan traded toys, but I was just glad they weren't fighting over them. They all played until dinner time, then we all sat down to eat. Thomas got home from fishing while we were eating and joined us. He was tired from the day, and everyone was pretty worn out so we all sat down to watch 'See Spot Run'. This was just one of the many times I got to watch this movie throughout the trip so far. All the boys love it. Dylan wanted someone to hold up his basketball hoop so he could play, but no one wanted to so he got a little frustrated. Pam laughed because he was getting so worked up about a $1 toy. After the movie we all settled down and went to bed. I talked to Lindsey for a little while, then fell asleep listening to some NPR reruns.

That's all for now..I'll continue more later. I'm going skiing tomorrow so maybe I'll have more stories to tell that aren't all the same! Oh, and I'll add pictures later too.