We're in Vail, Colorado. This is Dan's dream, as we've been here many times in the winter, but never in the summer, and he's indeed dreamt of seeing it  in the summer.  I'm out-of-this-world happy because I was raised on out-west mountain vacations.  Of course, in my time, we got in the Dodge Ram Conversion and drove 12 hours at a time, my brother Kevin and I sprawling on the floor without seatbelts.

That's not the way Dan rolls.  We flew into Denver yesterday and rented a Ford Expedition, which is huge and requires safety.

We're in a fab VRBO with our bosom pals, Adam and Tracy and their three kids. Today we spent the whole day at a mountain-top adventure park with zip lines, ropes courses, and alpine slides. We're all tired and tan and ready for a chill evening of Netflix and hot-tubbing and of course, the card game that Adam and I generally lose but pretend to win.  Things could be so, so much worse.

Penguins of Madagascar Movie Review

The Benefits of Knowing the World's Best Librarian, JW

This has been a fabulous spring break in Vail with our kids and Dan's parents. Sadly, like all fabulous things, this too must wane. Goodbye, Vail! Goodbye, Ryan Sutter! I'll miss you, Lindsey Vonn!

In 48 hours I'll be back in Room 262 prepping a new unit on American Drama, and also standing on the edge of the precipice which is my blended English 10 class. This course is a mix of online and face-to-face instruction, and I'm using all kind of tech tools to try to get the kids to do new things and think in new ways about literature and literacy. It's a pilot, and I'm the teacher.

When I explained some of the details to my fifth hour class, one of the smarties raised his hand to ask, "And what if this totally fails?"

I was conveniently prepared to answer him, as I'd recently reconceptualized failure with the help of Gretchen Rubin, who encouraged me to enjoy the fun of it, rather than to avoid it by not being innovative.

Also, a great colleague keeps sending me helpful resources like this one about increasing engagement on a Ning.

I hope I can do a good enough job at being a blended teacher. I'm pretty sure I can.

I'm in Vail. Here's the problem: Dan, Mac, Shef and I are in Vail; but the rest of the W family is stuck in Denver because of the snow. They can't get here. Every moment that it keeps snowing, I worry about them not being here.

But, I have no control over this situation. I'll just have to sit back by the fire in my sweatpants and with my birthday presents and enjoy myself. There's no other way.

I am going to blog every day of spring break. So here I am. It's the first night of our vacation in Vail, and I'm blogging.

Here's what I learned today: Shef is almost a better skier than I am. For sure, he's already better at moguls.

Dan took this video to prove it. Shef is in the middle of the frame, above the snowboarder who is also in the middle. You might have to watch it twice to really see where he is. When you figure it out, you'll probably be impressed.



I'm so lucky there's no video of me doing this same run.

The children and I made it back from Chicago and are on a one-day travel reprieve until we sally forth to Vail, Colorado.  I will now professionally review our first 2016 spring trip.

Navigation: 5 of 5 stars for my beautiful and talented sister, Mary.  She sat by my side while I piloted the miniature van. She expertly and efficiently consulted Google maps and assisted me in paying my tolls online.  I paid online on purpose because who wants to stop and pay tolls?

Companionship: 5 of 5 stars.  There was minimal arguing and deft cooperation at almost all times.  The children preferred to Uber rather than walk, which was kind of disappointing as I'd rather perambulate of my own power. Still, we balanced the options accordingly to optimize everyone's happiness and comfort.  Of course, I reveled in the constant presence of my sister, who tends not to live in Minnesota or even the USA.  She still gets 5 of 5 stars, even though I have abandonment issues.

Sights, Attractions, and Dining: 5 of 5 stars.  Have you been to Chicago?  It's really one of my favorite cities.  This time, I visited some old stand-bys - Frontera Grill, the shops of Michigan Avenue - and had some new-to-me adventures, including SkyDeck (formerly known as The Sears Tower) and Lou Malnati's Chicago-Style Pizzaria.  I keep wanting to go to the Shedd Aquarium and not going to the Shedd. I know I'll be back in Chicago soon, however, and the Shedd will top my list.

Accommodations: 5 of 5 stars.  When we got to the Renaissance on West Wacker Drive, we were surprised to find the lobby stuffed with Iowa State basketball enthusiasts.  "What's happening?" we asked.  "The team is staying here," the crowd replied.  Sure enough, right during the chaos of check-in, very tall and headphoned individuals streamed off the elevators and high-fived the throng.  At this point, the desk agent tried to assign me a room with only one bed.  "That won't work," I said amiably. "I have four people, as I indicated on my online reservation."  The agent retreated to the office and came back with the news that I'd been awarded a complimentary upgrade to a huge-ass suite with a full view of the Chicago River, and less desirably, Trump Tower.  Huzzah!

Overall: Clearly, this trip was 5 of 5 stars.  Because the children were charming and agreeable and mostly appreciative of the experience, I felt like planning another trip.  "What city should we visit next?"  The answer was quick and definitive: LA.  Noah and Rachel, we're coming for you.

Big day tomorrow: the West men have decided to race one another down various runs at Vail Mountain. I can't say I endorse this endeavor, but I can promise to take video.

In other news, it's Pronto's birthday. He made a delicious surf-and-turf feast to celebrate, and Shef and his grandmother had a rap battle to punctuate the event. Have you ever seen a rap battle between a 9 year-old and his grandmother? It's truly something to behold.

Sneaking in a blog entry before we hit the slopes here in the Colorado ROCKIES. It's really warm here, too, and we're all discussing what layers will be appropriate for our first day on Vail Mountain.

Mac's going to real ski school, as opposed to day care this year. We'll see how this goes. He'll probably scream his head off for awhile. God bless the young ski enthusiasts who manage the Mini Mice class.

And, God bless the ROCKIES! ROCKIES, I wish you the best this season.

We've arrived in Vail. I started reading Divergent today (yes, late to the trend), and I'm going to read it more now.

In other news, Mac crushed everyone but Dan in Wii Sports wakeboarding. Dan relished his victory over our FIVE year-old.

Mac relished his victories over everyone else, marching up to each unsuccessful opponent, holding his hand like a claw in front of his visage and yelling, "FACE."

On his birthday, Dan and I gave Shef the good news we'd purchased a Wii plus Guitar Hero in celebration of our big birthday week.

The kid was thrilled and couldn't wait to play it when we got home from vacation.

Dan and I totally capitalized on this anticipation, and for three days in Vail, I told Shef I was going to "beat the pants off of him" in Guitar Hero.

Naturally, he thought that expression was hilarious, but in retrospect it was probably a mistake to break it out:

"I'm going to beat your butt off as soon as we get home, Mom," he said as we walked into the airport.

That was slightly embarrassing, but not as much as many of the other things that kid has said in public.

We'll be headed back to Minnesota in a couple of hours. We had a terrific vacation in Vail with Dan's family. Dan and I especially enjoyed saying, "schuss-booming."

"Shall we schuss?"

"I do love to schuss-boom."

"That was some very impressive schuss-booming."

"Schussing through powder is especially invigorating!"

You get the idea.

Shef is now officially five, I'm now 31, and Dan will be 35 tomorrow. I do feel a bit older this year, to tell the truth. I suspect it has something to do with my ongoing experiment with sleep deprivation. I think and hope that when I do start sleeping through the night, say in about four (three-and-a-half?) more years, I will suddenly become a towering genius with limitless intellectual prowess.

I can't wait until that happens.

Today at Vail, Dan and I sat on the chairlift next to a ski patrol guy whose name tag said he was from "RED SOX Country." The guy was quite personable and shared the news that he and his partner had not yet that day dealt with any serious injuries. I thought it was pretty nice of him to tell us he "hoped he wouldn't see us again today."

As it was, I did take a spectacular fall, during which Dan said I rolled over at least twice. Here's what happened: I was zooming down the hill on my last run in my new sleek helmet. I got into such a nice groove that I decided to pretend I was Lindsey Vonn, with my body pointed down the hill and my knees bent and my weight forward. WHOO! I was as hot as the RED SOX were when they won the World Series!

Everything went fine until I fell down and both my skis popped off and my whole right side now kind of hurts. It was kind of like the 2011 RED SOX season, in that the team finished 3rd in the AL East. I also finished 3rd in the AL East. The ski patrol did not need to come and help me. I got up and put my skis back on and finished in style, two places out of last.

This is Mac, the only snowboarder in the family.

It is, in fact, my birthday. 36. It'll probably be a good year. I mean, why not? I'm an optimist. It's unlikely that I'll contract another disfiguring facial infection this year. So, we're off to a good start.

An especially auspicious sign for a good year was that I greeted Lindsey Vonn this morning in Lionshead Village in Vail. You know Lindsey, right? Olympic champion ski racer?


We shared hellos and the kids enjoyed glimpsing her. She seemed cool. I didn't ask her about her questionable choice to become involved with Tiger Woods, but she did seem happy. Also she was perfectly made-up and wearing space-age boots.

Lindsey Vonn sighting and interaction. Good start, 36! Good start.

After hours of his hassling and complaining, we agreed to take Shef through some trees in the back bowls of Vail.

I made sure he knew I was doing this only for him. "Look," I said, "I don't want to go on this run and neither does Dad, but we're doing it
anyway. For you. So don't ask any more times about double black diamonds or trees."

That deal didn't work at all, FYI



P.s. Thanks to Pronto for figuring out how to do photos from our phones. He's feeling smug, as you can imagine.

Last night, we whisked away to Vail, Colorado, where so far, I have been working on my master’s thesis while gazing out at a gorgeous mountain view. Although I have written 54 pages – that’s up from the 28 I had on March 6th before I got myself a coach and a support group – I am stuck on this part about the importance of space. I look at the heading:

Space

and I just have a hard time starting to fill it in.

There was some sympathy expressed this morning at breakfast about me having to work on my paper while others hit the slopes, but I reminded everyone that I do not, in fact, have to teach school for awhile; so all is well.