It's occurring to me I will NEVER get those vacation photos posted because tomorrow I am going on a business trip for a few days, and after that I will be spending the next two weeks convincing the little angel I'm really not leaving again until I leave again to go to BlogHer Business near the end of March.  SO.  On the off chance I really do post photos tonight instead of frantically packing and fast-forwarding through the DVR-ed Oscars, I'll just illustrate my story then.

SO.  Vacation stories.  Let's see.   First day: Acclimation.  We got to Denver around 10:30, took the shuttle (I highly advise the shuttle, and I'll explain why in a minute) to Breckenridge, got off the shuttle and WENT IMMEDIATELY TO THE BAR.  This is how you acclimate.  Drink equal amounts of water and alcohol immediately.  You'll still get a pleasant buzz, but you won't get so dehydrated.

And for those of you who won't drink alcohol immediately when you go on a child-free vacation, go read someone else's blog, because I don't know how to relate to you.

Tuesday we decided to actually, you know, ski.  I learned to ski just about eight years ago, as an adult, and I have never been an ambitious skier.  I'm scared of hurting myself.  I have bad balance.  I had high anxiety for the first three trips, even though I steadily advanced from bunny to green to blue.  This was actually the first year I felt confident and loose going down the harder blues. I credit the change to a few things: 

1. My iPod Shuffle.  For some reason, it's hard to be so tense about killing yourself skiing while listening to Eminem or Laura Branigan.
2. Pilates.  It really does affect your balance, especially the strength in those core-y areas so necessary to correct oneself from overbalancing.
3. Shame. I'm sick of being scared of skiing.  I never get to go on vacation, and I was just determined to enjoy it.  Also, I was trying to impress my beloved.

Skiing was good. The first day was a little crusty, the second day it started to snow about 2 and kept on snowing until the minute we left a day and a half later.  We woke up at 9, we went skiing until 2ish, then we drank, sat in an outdoor jacuzzi with snow falling on our heads, took naps, listened to bands, ate good food and did other things adults who are vacationing without children do.  It was a good time, and I don't care if the little angel is mad about it - I'm glad we went. We needed to go.  We needed to have that time together to have fun like the irresponsible kids we were when we met at 25.  We got engaged in Steamboat, and skiing has always been about frivolity for us. 

Interestingly, the first time we went skiing post-angel, she was eight months old.  We were overwhelmed still, and I think I was actually suffering from a little depression. We decided on that trip not to have any more children, so we could get our lives back to normal.  We couldn't stand the chaos.  This time, exactly two years later, we feel back in control of our lives, and we spend about a half hour of the vacation agreeing on boy names and girl names for the second child we may now have.  If anything, looking at one ski trip to the next has reinforced for me how quickly circumstances can change, and how hard times truly do pass eventually. 

Oh, and yes, I did win the Whale's Tail hula hoop contest on the night before we left.  There were a lot of incredibly drunk people in the bar, which improved my odds.  The singer/comedian kept calling everyone Little Miss This or Little Miss That. I was Little Miss Kansas City.  When I won, I got to take a lap around the bar carrying a plastic liberty torch and an American flag, and I was gifted some Mardi Gras beads, which I gave to the little angel upon my return. I told her I won the hula hoop contest, and she said, "What's a hula hoop? Can I have one?"

Child of the media, she is.

The only bad part was that little period of seven hours during which I-70 was closed while the state patrol dynamited the mountains so we wouldn't be covered by an avalanche and die, and during which we missed our flight back to Kansas City.  We did find (after five hours of listening to the extremely verbose driver) that the CME drivers have to pass ridiculous driving tests, including tests with the state patrol in which a 600-pound sled is shifted back and forth in the back of the van to induce intentional skids. FUN. But I did feel much safer than say, if my beloved had been driving in inclement weather at a 45-degree angle.  Just saying.

The only backlash has been the sleeping and the daycare drop-offs, both of which I'm happy to say are improving.  After a bad sleeping situation on Friday and Saturday nights, we told her last night that she couldn't go to her friend M's birthday party at McDonald's tonight unless she slept all night. Even though it took an hour and a half to get her to sleep, once she fell asleep she slept until 5:45, which I considered a victory. I gave her some bubble gum (drat her teacher for telling her what it is), which she promptly swallowed (Mommy! I ate it all up!), a Backyardigans puffy sticker and told her we could go to M's party.  She still threw a bit of a fit when I left her at The Emerald City, but I think the appearance of M with birthday cupcakes quelled the fury of the spurned redhead. There really isn't much in a two-year-old's world that cupcakes can't fix, after all.