April 4, 2007

Mountain Madness and the recovery process

Whew, who said spring break was a break? It is true I need a vacation after the vacation…especially when the vacation is with my entire family. Bloggers, I love and adore my family just as they love and adore me but a week of family fun? Some might say it is a week too long.

All in all we had a great time. Every year we head to the mountains to Deer Valley, Utah for a dysfunctional family ski trip. The only intelligent decision we have made in recent years is to rent separate condos rather than the big house we used to rent. This year we balanced out at ten adults and ten children. Number 3 in our family was a first time skier and actually surprised us. Number 1 and 2 are avid skiers and have far surpassed our abilities, although I am not too shabby on the skis. And baby Number 4 stayed home with his blankie.

We dined out every other night without kids and cooked in the others. As many Americans, we are completely taken with American Idol. My oldest brother (that I am convinced should have been my sister) is obsessed with Idol. So last Tuesday was family fun with Simon, Paula and Randy. And Sanjaya could not have been more helpful with his outlandish stage presence. I just can’t take watching him, so sad. People we need to NOT vote for him.

The place we stay at has a big Suburban to drive residents into Park City for dinner. And our driver LOVED us. Not because we were nice. Not because we were considerate. He clearly stated on the last evening that we make his family look pleasant and quite normal. With all the screaming and bantering in the Suburban, what would make him say that? He looked forward to driving us every night. I tell everyone that we are like the Osborne’s without the great British accent, thus just another group of dumb and obnoxious Americans.

Little Mama made her first trip out with the family. She showed up in every glittered item on the retail market. My mom had a serious agenda with “Rhinestone Cowgirl” on the top. And the Chief (my dad) couldn’t do anything to stop it.

The last day of skiing is always interesting. We have one family that defects from the whole group claiming much needed alone time. Alone time? What the heck is that on a family trip? That is unacceptable. While they make every attempt to avoid us, we like to play a little game. It’s called “who can find them and count the most sightings”. Ok, maybe it doesn’t have an official name but you get it. It’s like Where’s Waldo but we are related to them…and they are trying to dodge us at every chair lift. Really, it’s a fun game for the last day and we find it hard to accept their quiet time.

Back at the ranch, I always try to get back into the groove as quickly as possible. It’s somewhat like a recovery process. You have to mellow out. But can you believe they actually called to go out to dinner and the movies on Sunday night? I didn’t think twice before telling them I had no intentions of seeing them until the next obligatory holiday…only to realize, Easter is this weekend.
Posted 3 years, 8 months ago on April 4, 2007