Trip to Summit County

Alex and I have become avid skiers since we moved to Colorado.  Last year despite being pregnant I still skied until I was just over 6 months; when my balance became to unstable to do the fun runs so I stopped. This year with a 3 month old we weren't sure how we were going to make it work.... Yet we are determined to find a way.  We have several friends that have offered to babysit for us but it is just so hard to be away from our little guy.  So.... this past Sunday we put the skies in the car top carrier the baby and clothes in the back seat and headed out for a day on the slopes.

I skied in the morning while Alex watched Matthew and then we switched and I watched Matthew in the afternoon while Alex skied.  It all worked great until.....  we were headed home around 3pm and found out that they were "metering" traffic at the tunnel.  This means that they stop traffic for 20 minutes and wait for traffic to clear and then let a few cars go through the tunnel.  What this adds up to is a 3 hour wait just to get to the tunnel and then hours after that of bumper to bumper traffic on the other side.  We didn't want to sit in the car the whole time with Matthew screaming.... he really doesn't like being in his car seat... So we decided to wait it out.  The traffic didn't get somewhat better until well after 7pm!  Somewhere around dinner time we lost Matthew's bottle and my breast pump batteries died and Matthew refused to breast feed.

It's now been 10 hours since I last pumped and I felt like I was going to explode, my child was hungry and I had no way to get food in him.... oh yeah and the diapers I brought were too small so every time he peed it came out the diaper and soaked all of his clothes (he had been peeing all over himself all day).  And then around 8pm I ran out of diapers and non pee soaked clothes and had to use my scarf and long underwear for a diaper and pants for the little guy.

Thank God for my iphone.... the pictures and music on it helped to calm Matthew and thus keep Alex from going off the snowy road due to the screaming baby.   We finally made it home around 11pm and then of course Matthew decided that he was wide awake and not at all sleepy.  I have to send a huge thank you to my husband who rocked him to sleep while I crashed.

So you might ask.... was all that worth it.... hmmm.... I'm not sure.  It was at least an adventure and I learned a lot:
1) always make sure to take the correct size diapers with you and bring more than you think you will need
2) Always bring more than one bottle, because you never know when you might loose one and when your breastfed baby will decided he doesn't like your boobies.
3)Singing songs to your baby is not only calming to him but also to you as your nerves start to go... you can sing really loud and see if you can sign louder than his screams.
4)Be thankful for your spouse.... I could never have done it on my own.

Below are a few pictures of our adventures:

Matthew and I at the Summit House at Keystone

Matthew in the Gondola on the way down.  Don't worry we didn't ski with him on our backs. : ) This was the only nap he took all day. 

A very long dinner trying to waste time at Ruby Tuesday.  I think this is where our bottle vanished, I may have left it on the table. 

A sleeping baby and a tired dad in Borders.... waiting... waiting....