Hitting the slopes in Keystone

This weekend Jude, Anna and I went to Keystone. Marcy is still recovering from foot surgery so she decided to stay home with the pets. We skied a full day yesterday cruising all over Keystone and then today Jude and I just skied in the morning so we could get back and watch the Packers game that started at 1pm. The kids continue to get a lot better and Anna likes to go off by herself these days. She knows the mountain pretty well and she spent this afternoon by herself skiing, doing five extra runs.

Socially distant lunch at the Outpost

You can only do lunch on the mountain by reservation and they keep the restaurant at 25% capacity. It worked out really well, you get seated at your own table instead of having to fight for a lunch spot as in previous years.

Jude’s first time behind the wheel

Last weekend Jude had his very first time behind the wheel. While he has driven a golf cart from time to time he has never driven an actual car. He is only 10 months away from when he can get a learners permit and he is keen to start learning. So, we went to the local parking lot and I gave him his first lesson. He circled the lot successfully about four times, pulled into a parking space and reversed the car out. He said it was a lot of fun and wants to do it again soon.

Anna working on her school project

Both kids went back to school on Tuesday, Jude with online school and Anna went in-person. Jude is back tomorrow with in-person school which he is very happy about.

Anna had to do a passion project for school which involved cooking several dishes. She baked scones, sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies, hot cocoa cupcakes and thumb print cookies. She also cooked a dinner with salmon, green beans and potatoes. She had to do a presentation to her class on her project and her teacher sent us a note afterwards telling us how great she did. She worked really hard on it so it was good to see it come together well in the end.

Jude cheering on the Cleveland Browns tonight

We didn’t do much this weekend. The weather wasn’t great, it was a cold and snowy Saturday but Jude was fine – all he wanted to do was watch football. While he didn’t watch every minute of all three games each day he did manage to catch some of every game. And it all culminated with the Cleveland Browns beating the Steelers on Sunday night. We are all Browns fans here, since Marcy spent the first eight years of her life there. We got Jude a Baker Mayfield jersey for Christmas which he proudly wore for tonight.

The kids did get outside some. They went sledding this morning with the neighbors, jumped on the trampoline with the neighbors a few times, and Jude and I went to the soccer field to play both days.

Setting off party poppers on New Years Eve

Like everyone we were all very happy to see the end of 2020. We celebrated with a sushi dinner and party poppers that shot confetti all over the dining room and kitchen. It was a lot of fun but Olive did not like it at all, going upstairs and not wanting to come back down.

Jude and Anna decided they wanted to stay up to midnight this year, so I stayed up with them. We watched the Avengers and then just before midnight switched to NBC to watch the (delayed) Times Square ball drop. At 12:05am it was off to bed.

Jude solved the megaminx, a massive 12 sided Rubik’s cube-type puzzle

New Year’s Day was quiet and the kids were a bit irritable after staying up so late. One of the themes of this year’s holiday season was solving Rubik’s cubes. Jude has conquered the 2×2, 3×3, 4×4, 5×5, the pyraminx, the megaminx and a twisted 3×3. He has become quite the expert and enjoys the challenge of trying to solve them quickly.

Anna solves the skewb

Meanwhile, Anna has been getting in on the Rubik’s craze at the Renton household. She took it upon herself to solve the “skewb” (yes, it is a thing) pictured above. She is the only one who has figured that puzzle out so far.

On the Santiago lift at Keystone

Today, we had our first ski day of the season. It was one of the few activities I have done during the pandemic that didn’t feel that much different. The lift lines are better spaced and the crowds are smaller but overall I would say it is a better ski experience. We only skied for four hours and did over 17,000 vertical feet. Apart from the first lift of the day we didn’t wait more than two minutes in a lift line. The kids had a blast, as did I.

Marcy continues to recuperate from her foot surgery and that is actually going quite well. However, she had a tumble down the stairs a few days ago and when she went to get x-rays found out that she had two fractured ribs. She is in a lot of pain when she sneezes, laughs or moves around too much. So, it means she is stuck with an even lower key recovery than planned.