Ivie Family: Spring Break Family Ski Trip!

We had an absolute blast on our family ski trip this year. Both girls skied and loved tubing. Emma, our dare devil, can fly down the mountain, literally. I posted some videos of both girls at the bottom. Ryan did well too, but was much more timid. Emma would fly down the mountain and started to get really good at turning and stopping. Chris was so impressed and is excited for ski trips with his new "ski buddy" in the future. I think one more trip and Ryan will get comfortable and braver. We didn't even put them in ski school this year so we were very proud of how well they did. Here are some pictures from our trip, including a few from the terrible trek home.

PJ waving bye to Texas

Ryan and Emma were both excellent on the flight to CO.

Emma the goof ball!

Polly did pretty good. Lots of snacks!
It was nice to be able to pass her back and forth between Chris and I.

We found out we have another kid who gets motion sickness when Polly puked all
over the car seat and rental car while driving up to the mountain.
Chris had decon duty the next morning.

The girls playing in the snow our first morning.

Breakfast at one of Chris' favorite restaurants: Mountain Lyon.

He loves this meal!

Daddy's ski buddy

My big girl.

She wanted to be goofy.

54 degrees in Keystone!

Heading to the gondola

Polly walking with Daddy

First craft beers of the day at The Spoon

It was so warm that Ryan stripped down to just her long johns and vest!

Polly missed her dad while he was skiing.

We hung out a lot on this trip!

My pretty girl.

Little PJ in her bib :-)

One Fireball before we headed back to the condo!

Fro yo treat while waiting for the shuttle.

On the shuttle

Ryan and Emma were so excited to play this gross game.

They even made me try a few.

Emma spit out every one even if it was the good flavor!

We loved the hot tub!

I love this picture.

Sweet sisters

Miss Bossy Pants

The girls loved the heated pool!

Polly crab crawling out to the deep end!

Out to dinner!

We got to see Tiff, Lilly and Carter.
They came and skied a day with us.

Cousins

We got to spend two days with the Hammonds and Adolphs!

Ryan entertaining me.

Polly and me hanging at The New Moon

The wagons at Keystone were a lifesaver!

Goof ball in Emma in my jacket.

Chris took a bad step and went all the way in!

PJ at the ice castle

Emma doing the ice slide

Polly had enough- nap time!

The girls and I went tubing! So fun!

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Emma and Ryan were both able to manage their tubes on the carpet ride up.

Emma only wanted to tube with me. Ryan only wanted to tube solo!

St. Patty's Day green beers with the Adolphs!

Our trip was so much fun and we had no big issues, besides a little vomit clean up on way up the mountain. Well, this all changed Friday afternoon on the way to the airport. We left our condo with a little under 3 hours to get to the airport. Boy, did we underestimate spring break and rush hour traffic getting to DIA. About 30 minutes into our drive I knew we weren't going to make the flight. My GPS had us arriving at the airport 40 minutes before our flight took off, there would be no way to check our bags and return the rental car. We started to panic and look into later flights. There were none. We looked at flights the next day. The cheapest option for one ticket was $400!!!!! We really started to panic! I called Dad to let him know we most likely would not need a ride home from the airport and he started trying to figure out a way to get us home. After he looked at flights his advice was to rent a van and drive home overnight if we missed the flight. This idea sounded horrific with our 3 small kids!!!!! So, Chris decided he would continue driving like a bat out of hell and see if he could at least get us four to the airport in time to walk onto the flight and then he would rent a car and drive home all night. So, he dropped us off at DIA at 5:45, and our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:24. For some reason I was unable to check in on-line so I had to run into the counter and get our boarding passes while Chris packed a backpack with the IPads and diapers for me to take with us. The guy at the counter told me he really didn't think I could make it through security in time to make the flight. I told him I was gonna give it a go! I ran back outside, threw PJ in the stroller, grabbed the backpack and the girls and I took off running. We made it to TSA, and I begged the lady to help me cut to the front, thankfully she did. We made it through that and I was a sweaty, frazzled mess! Opening, closing the stroller in a hurry I smashed my finger and it started bleeding everywhere. I had no time to stop and wash it or get a band-aid and thankfully I didn't try to because we would have missed the flight. We hopped on the tram to our gate and got off at Terminal A to realize that our gate was the farthest one, of course. So, we took off running again! When we arrived at our gate they were paging overhead "last call for Ivie party of 3". I screamed "that's us!" and turned around to discover Ryan was nowhere in sight! I almost had a stroke! I started running back and spotted her leisurely admiring a kiosk of stuffed animals and I screamed at her to follow me. Sweaty, bleeding and crazy looking at this point. The girls and I made it on the plane and they sealed the door behind us. I was so relieved that we had made it! I couldn't believe it. I can still say to this day that I have never missed a flight. Poor Chris cannot. :-(
Once on the plane the flight attendant helped me get a person to move seats so we could all sit together. Can you imagine if they wouldn't???? We were the next to last row in the back and I was slightly annoyed because I knew we would be last off, but I was so glad to be on the plane that I decided to not stress about it. Little did I know how glad I would be that we were at the back right next to the bathroom! I took a happy picture of the 4 of us to send to Chris proud that we had barely made it on the plane. His scary driving to the airport was worth it and it was smooth sailing from here on out for me. I was so glad that I wasn't stuck in a van driving all night! I started feeding the girls snacks since we did not have time to feed them dinner. Polly was ravenous and devoured everything I put in front of her. The plane took off and the girls put their ear buds in and zoned out, Polly started to act fussy and I thought she needed to poop so I started bouncing her on my lap (facing me). Suddenly she started coughing and before I knew what happened she threw up. ALL .OVER. ME. In my mouth, my hair, down my shirt, in my bra, in my lap. I was in shock and looked around to see if anyone had noticed and no one had. The stench hadn't reached the nostrils of our surrounding passengers. Before I had time to think about what to do, round two happened. ALL. OVER. MY. LAP. This time the smell was unavoidable and when I looked around I made eye contact with the woman sitting across from our row and we both simultaneously mouthed "Oh my God!". She jumped up and ran to get napkins to try to help me. I was still in some sort of shock- just holding Polly out in front of me and she was screaming. There was a standing puddle of vomit in my lap, slowly seeping through my wind pants and into my underwear. Emma was dry heaving and Ryan was screaming. The puke-a pooloza spared no one. Everyone was splattered and the seat and my lap were covered. I went through about 20 seconds of complete shock and horror before I decided I needed to get up and try to clean us both up. This is when I became so grateful that we were the next to last row and close to the bathroom. Once I got into the bathroom I started bawling. I didn't know what to do. I grabbed some paper towels and started trying to wipe us both off. Then, I remembered that I had taken my vest off when we sat down because I was drenched with sweat from running through the airport. So, I cracked the bathroom door and asked the flight attendant to grab my vest from my chair. Thankfully is had been behind me in the seat so it only had minor splatter. I peeled my soaked shirt off, threw on the vest and put my puke covered hair in a bun. Then, I pulled off Polly's top layer and put all of our puke clothes in a trash bag that the flight attendant brought me. I was considering staying in the bathroom until we landed, but remembered I had two other small children to also attend to, so Polly and I did the walk of shame back to our seat. I thought I was done crying but began sobbing as I apologized to the women who was sitting behind us and whose carry on bag was not spared. Apparently the vomit dripped through the seat and onto her carry on which was stowed below us. She was wiping it down as we walked back. There was a tarp laid out for the girls and I to sit on since our seats were soaked. Another flight attendant was pouring coffee on the ground to mask the pungent vomit smell. This was when I hit rock bottom. I was mortified. A very nice lady was entertaining Emma and Ryan had stopped screaming so my big girls were doing good, but their mom was a mess. I continued to cry for a few minutes and then I got it together. I realized the worst had happened, and I would laugh my butt off later retelling what I had survived. The rest of the flight was uneventful (thank God) and we made it home! Poor Chris rented a car and drove all night only stopping to sleep on the side of the road for two hours. He walked in the door at 10:30 a.m. the next morning. What an adventure!

My bloody finger that I thought at the time was the worst casualty of the trip.
I would have slammed all 10 of my fingers in the stroller to avoid the puke on the plane!