Day 4: Vail, CO (a.k.a. The Day I Lost 2 Kids at the Peak of Vail Mountain when I was at the Base of Vail Mountain)

Oh what a day!  You might want to get a cup of coffee and put your feet up for this one.  It’s a doozy….

The day started out well enough.  We woke up in Buena Vista, CO at our camp at the base of Mount Princeton and we were so thankful it didn’t rain during the night while we were sleeping because that would have made packing up camp an even bigger pain in the behind than it already is during the best of circumstances.  (Can you tell that camping isn’t my “thing?”)  Anyways, it took us about 2 hours to pack up and then we started the drive to Vail.  It was a pretty quick 90 minute drive through the Tennessee Pass (3 cheers for Tennessee!)  and we were all mesmerized by the ski village in Vail.  I have never been skiing and have never been to any type of winter resort town, so I was just as in awe of the whole vibe (Hello Switzerland-ish town!) as the kids were.  Michael is an old hat at Vail….he went several times in high school and college. 

We bought our gondola passes for the day ($109 for all 5 of us to have unlimited gondola rides all day and included a $15 voucher/person for food and activities at the top of the mountain at Adventure Ridge.) There are 2 gondolas (ski lifts weren’t running in the summer).  The employee at the ticket kiosk suggested that if we (the parents) wanted to take a little quick break from the kids today, we should let them ride the gondola round trip by themselves.  He said he lets his granddaughter do that and it’s just a fun little excursion for her and perfectly safe and only about 20 minutes round trip.  What a GREAT idea!  I’ve been needing just a little space from the kids.  More on that later.

After our ride on the gondola--such a perfect day! Nothing could possibly go wrong!

Relaxing while waiting for the boys to finish Disc Golf

We opted to ride up on the newest one, Vista Baun, and the kids pretty much thought it was the best thing ever.  (Well, I did too…it’s just a little better than the one at Ober Gatlinburg that I rode in 8^th grade.)  ;)  At the top, we had a short hike (30 minutes) to the next spot where we let the kids each pick an activity to do.  Maddy and Will did a trampoline bungee thing that was pretty cool (it looks like they’re jumping higher than the mountains!) and John wanted to do Disc Golf. 

Lunch was next and in true resort form, we got to experience what a $12 cheeseburger and a $10 hot dog taste like. 

$10

Here’s where the day starts to get interesting. 

Michael was dying to hike all the way to the top of the mountain where the black diamond slopes were. 

The kids were dying to NOT hike all the way to the top of the mountain where the black diamond slopes were.  There was moaning and groaning and lots of complaining (see, LWOW is not all rainbows and unicorns!) but he was pretty insistent that it would be worth the hike.  It was a 1.5 mile hike, almost straight uphill. 

Father of the Year:  piggy back rides for the whiniest

Carrying 3 backpacks at a time.  I am woman, hear me roar.

And I’m proud to say:  We did it.  It wasn’t pretty, but by golly, we did it.  There was some crying.  There was some flat out refusal to continue on the path.  There were even some mild expletives, if you know what I mean.  I had to go “Jillian Michaels” on the kids once or twice like a bad trainer at the gym, but hey—whatever it takes. (This was before Maddy started sobbing but after Will took his shirt off in protest and refused to budge one more inch.)  At the top, Michael lit a cigar to celebrate and the kids sat down and cried and said it wasn’t worth it.  Can’t win ‘em all…. 

Smoking on the top of Vail. Just like high school, he said
(just joking, kids!  Just say no! He didn't inhale!)

 

Hiking down was a heck of a lot easier than hiking up and the children were glad to get back to the REAL reason anybody whose anybody goes to Vail:  More Gondola rides!!!  We all rode down on one together and then the kids asked if we could ride again. At this point, we remembered that trusty employee’s tip to let them ride by themselves and decided they could ride again and we would just wait for them at the bottom of the mountain.  Will kept going back and forth about whether or not he wanted to ride with John and Maddy.  We all did our very best to convince him to stay with them, but in the end, he chickened out and stayed with us.  So, with a plan to see John and Maddy in about 20 minutes back at the same place, they took off in the gondola up the mountain and we went to a few gift shops (got me a new hat for when I’m no longer in Colorado having all these fabulous hair days).  Michael, Will and I went back to the gondola station to wait for the kids and we suddenly realized that the lift was not moving.  NOT MOVING.  Signs were up at the entrance saying the ride was closed. 

Oh. My. Gosh.

So…here we were at the bottom of the mountain, and John and Maddy were either stuck in the air on the gondola, or as we later found out, had been made to exit at the top of the mountain because a thunder storm had sprung up on the mountain and everybody had to get off and wait at least 30 minutes after the last thunder boom before the lift would open again.

And at that moment, I realized with great certainty that there truly is a God in heaven and that He truly does love my children because CAN YOU IMAGINE (can you imagine?!?) if Will had gone up with John and Maddy on this ride?  CaN YoU ImAgInE???  I shudder to think about what he would have been like (especially since he was already scared to begin with) if we’d made him ride with them?  Can you even imagine John having to be solely responsible for a “very active” 5 year old who was nervous about going on this excursion to begin with??? 

And to think:  I thought the Grand Canyon was going to be the place where I was going to have to be hyper vigilant about losing children (a la Carol Brady)!

SO….as it turns out, they were stuck at the top for about an hour. 

How did they handle it?  Oh just fine.  They played on a little ropes course, bought some $3.50 M&Ms, and hung out with a family from Denver who I think they are now going to be life-long friends with. 

How did I handle it?  Well, I said I wanted a break, didn’t I?  Be careful what you wish for, right?

The prodigal children have returned!