Skication Preparation

As I mentioned in the last post, the Lag Liv family is headed out on a highly (highly!) anticipated skication on Friday. I first emailed Dinei about using her ski condo about 6 months ago and this trip has been second in anticipation this year only to our countdown for Cora's arrival. As I've written about a million times, I love family vacations- they are the source of the brightest and happiest memories from my generally bright and happy childhood, and they have provided many of my favorite memories with my own little family. Our trips are rarely fancy- we almost always drive and they usually involve cabins or guest rooms and doing our own cooking, but we try to go on one every year and I do love getting away and exploring somewhere new.

From skication 2012; the big kids were so little!

And this year, we get to spend two of those vacation days on skis! Because the only thing better than a regular vacation is a ski vacation. I love skiing, it's probably the only physical activity I like as much and can do as well as JP (though he snowboards, as he corrects me constantly, but I feel like the verb of skiing covers both mediums), and since we don't get to take vacations with just the two of us very often (or ever, actually), it provides the perfect mix of grown-up and family time. JP and I ski/snowboard together all day, enjoying a quick lunch date between runs and lots of snuggling and talking on ski lifts, while the big kids are in ski school and Cora is in childcare, and then we regroup when the lifts close at 4 p.m. and spend the rest of the afternoon and evening together as a family (and then the kids pass out about 6:45 p.m. and JP and I are back to grown-up time!). It's perfect.

But before we get to the potential perfection, we have to pack and drive 14 hours to get there. 14 hours in a mid-sized SUV with a car-seat-hating 12-week-old, with a possible snow storm at the end, just for a special final touch. We've taken tons of long family car trips, so I'm honestly not that concerned about it- L&C are amazing car trippers, JP does all the driving, and I'll be able to jump back to the third row to feed Cora while we drive as necessary, but I'll admit that this is one of our more ambitious itineraries. No, the thing that's getting me down right now is the PACKING. All the stuff for 5 people, including a Cora with her many accoutrements, for 6 days away, including 2 full days in the car (so many snacks and coloring books and entertainment devices!), 2 full days of skiing (puffy ski clothes and many accessories!), and 2 full days of play (snow boots, normal clothes, swim suits because we're mixing it up with a trip to an indoor water park, and so much more!), plus all the baby gear and a stocked first aid kit and so much wine... I've lost control of this sentence, but basically, lots of things are being assembled in our living room to be packed into our not-huge Highlander and I have a lot of lists of things not to forget written on scraps of paper. And I baked cookies for the first time since Christmas because it seemed important to pack those too.

Luckily, the crossbars I thought we already owned when I sent JP over to a coworker's house to borrow their rooftop carrier (my coworker even asked me to double check if we had crossbars before JP drove over and I was like of course! there's bars up there! and JP took my word for it, but then when he popped his head up in the driveway of my friend's house he was like, where did the crossbars go?) were delivered today! We were concerned they wouldn't arrive in time, but JP installed them by flashlight tonight after swim lessons and went back to my coworker's and now we have a snazzy rooftop carrier to store all the puffy ski clothes while the wine and cookies stay snug in the car. So that's a relief.

Also on my packing list to do is the downloading of a few new books for my kindle- any recommendations? I'm at least a year late on a new RRA post, so I promise to do that after we get back, but I need some new authors or series or something. Remember I enjoy the frivolous, the well written historical, paranormal, or occasional modern romance. I need good writing, strong characters, something ridiculous about the plot. My recent favorites include Larissa Ione's Lords of Deliverance series, anything and everything by Kresley Cole, and the entirety of JD Robb's In Death series (thanks to free digital downloads from my local library, those books are like candy). I find a book I like and then read everything the author has ever written and then bounce around helplessly on amazon again, so take pity on my impending 28 hours in the car and let me know if you've read anything fun lately in the comments!

And finally, a picture of Cora today, because she was wearing an adorable sweater dress involving penguins and nobody got to see it but me, even though she was refusing to smile for the iPhone. The girl smiles constantly (constantly! it is so damn adorable), but she is completely entranced by the white rectangle of the phone, rendering the camera phone aspect of the phone nearly useless.

chins!

Summit County or Bust! Cora's pumped.