Staycation with Uncle Mark

John and I took a short vacation last week and went skiing in Colorado.  This was the first vacation we have taken just the two of us in 10 years.  The last one we took was in Belize where Hunter was conceived.  Let's hope that no babies are on the way.  HA HA!  That would be next to impossible.  Anyway, we had a fabulous time talking for days and days without interruption.  A little odd but something I got used to pretty quickly.  We went to Crested Butte, CO. 

A friend of ours owns a condo there and it was awesome!  We skied only two days but that's all our tired muscles would allow anyway (in a row).  It snowed three inches right before we arrived so we had fresh powder to ski on.  We also had fun shopping and eating out at some of the many hipster joints Crested Butte has to offer.  Our favorite was Ginger, a pseudo Thai place with The Secret Stash (pizza joint)

a close second.  They are famous for their "Notorious F.I.G." pizza which won the World Champion Pizza Challenge and of which I thoroughly enjoyed.  It was amazeballs!

Uncle Mark answered the call to our desperate plea to watch our small army while we were away.  He held it together GREAT and all of our kids LOVE Unc Unc!  I threw him for a loop when I planned chicken nuggets for one of their meals and we were out of ranch dressing but he managed to take Greyson to the store to get some.  It was particularly good for Greyson and my brother to bond a little bit because we moved away right before he was born.  Mark used to babysit for Hunter, Tyler and Brody very regularly so they all know him well but little Greyson never had that experience with us being a bit farther away now.  And during the day the other three boys were in school so Greyson got Uncle Mark all to himself.  I heard that they played Monopoly but Mark was hiding pieces so that the game would go more quickly.  Ha ha!  He mentioned on a few occasions when I called from CO that he was tired but all went better than I could have hoped for.  The boys all got to school on time each day, homework was done and the boys were well fed.  Speaking of which Mark couldn't believe how much they all ate.  But when I asked the boys how the week went with Uncle Mark in charge Hunter said he was "starving" and that Uncle Mark didn't give them enough food.  HA HA HA!!!  I don't buy it.  When we got home on Sunday night the boys had all been tucked in for the night but they heard us come in and raced downstairs to greet us with big smiles and lots of hugs.  Brody asked us, "Did you have a nice field trip?"  He makes my heart so happy.  All in all it was a great success and we can't wait to plan our next getaway.  Hopefully Uncle Mark will agree to do this

again!