Mostly paid for vacations rock: Day 1

Totally T-Oed!  Hotel wireless internet kicked me off an hour and a half ago.  Didn't know until I hit "publish post."  Lame.  Here I go again.  Ugh!

It has been a few years since we have flown with the kids.  They don't remember ever flying so they were excited for their "first" time on an airplane.  Two things that I noticed were way easier 1) Walking kids means no stroller and no 500 lbs of baby gear through security.  Awesome, especially when they are actually walking in the right direction. 2) Hand held game devices.  Thanks Nintendo-DS and Leapster-maker-people for making my job easier.  You weren't really just trying to get my money, you were trying to make my job easier, weren't you?  So thoughtful.  When I got out his coloring book he said, "Uh, I brung a marker."  He was referring to that one black marker that he packed and I edited out (markers and hotel rooms don't mix well.  I learned the hard way).  Luckily, I distracted him out of throwing a fit. 

 

Why do complicated things like go on trips when all we really need is a moving walkway?  Though security (and most parents) disapprove, we (and an amused stranger, I noticed) pull out the camera.  You can see how proud Karl is.  Samuel "snowboarded", he break danced (broke dance?), he spent so much time walking against traffic to stay in one place that we finally had to pull him off.  Sister, so Eva-ly waited, while brother was so Samuel-ishly being hyper-hypo.

   

I Christina-ishly researched the best place to eat lunch way before we even left for the trip.  I read about these "Juicy Pork Dumplings" at a place called Chopsticks.  I was hoping they would be like the soup dumplings that I had in New York.  I love those things.  They are the first thing that come to my mind when someone says New York (sorry Times Square, Statue of Liberty, and the like).  No luck, though.  They were still pretty good.  I loved how they served them with fresh shredded ginger.  The pan fried dumplings were better.  The hot and sour soup was tasty, too spicy for the kidlets.  The chicken with the forgettable fancy name was the favorite.  It was flavored with tons of garlic and basil.  The kids loved it.  I finally (after 6 months) learned how to put a movie on my iphone.  I love this picture of my kids watching it.  I love that it doesn't capture them fighting to be the closest one to it.  I love that it doesn't capture Eva yelling at Samuel for pulling on the earphones, again.

   

Rachel Ray told me that this gelato place was worth a visit.  She probably said it was yum-o or something like that.  They had some funky non traditional flavors that probably put them on the map.  I hate making decisions.  I get all nervous.  I need lots of information and lots of time if I am going to make a good decision.  I started getting embarrassed that I was getting so many samples (which means lack of info) and people were starting to line up behind me (which means lack of time) and out of panic I ordered a small s'mores and mango on a waffle cone.  Weird combo.  It was seriously tasty but the food obsessed me still wishes I would have tried the pomegranate.  They also had a bunch of little cookies.  Karl ordered a bunch of them but they all kind of tasted like my cone.  And since they weren't encasing delicious gelato, I wasn't a fan.

   

Full of quality food, we made the supposed two (but felt like three) hour drive from Denver, with plenty of "I wish we were there right now"s and "STOP FIGHTING!"s.  It made it a little easier that Hertz dished us out a sweet ride with XM radio (for us non-techies, it was amazing) and lots of gadgets.  It has one of those back up camera things that lets you know not only what is behind you but what angle your car is aimed.  Every single one of my accidents could have been prevented by one of those things.  I want that.  Let it be known that it took me all but 30 seconds to figure out how to start the car (push on brake, push start button).  Whereas, Karl (AKA the "smart" one) had to refer to the owner's manual. 

We finally pulled up to the hotel.  It is the kind of fancy place where I feel stupid that I could replace my entire wardrobe with the cost of one night's stay (note: in the hotels that we can afford I am afraid to walk barefoot and sit on the bedspread) and it shows.  At least we weren't pulling up in our own always dirty, not quite so fancy, car.  

 Dinner was at the resort pizza  place.  The crust was the thin, chewy kind that I love.  The rest of the meal was ok.  Plain black olives and flavorless oily dressing on a Greek salad?  Lame.  Eva drew this Eagle on the paper table cloth cover thing.  I thought she was a genius.  Then I saw that she copied it from her kid cup.  Still genius.

 

I am amazed at how quickly our family is able to "make ourselves at home" and totally clutter any car or hotel room.  What can I say?  We are just adaptable that way.