College Move-In Day for freshmen is supposed to be a fun and exciting time, but in reality it can be a stressful, hectic, god-awful day.
The Big College Drop-Off Road Trip
September 1, 2019 by 5 Comments
A last-ditch effort to cram in a little mother-son bonding before the freshman college drop-off means a camping trip and kayaking.
Home Alone
February 20, 2019 by 3 Comments
We love to ski with our kids, but every now and again, it’s great to get out there with the over 21 crowd. Or in this case, mostly over 50.
Leave Your Mark?
November 7, 2018 by Leave a Comment
A family road trip to South Dakota raises questions about the line between vandalism and art. When I dropped my daughter off at school last week, I noticed a giant multi-colored splotch of spray-painted graffiti on the school’s brick wall. It was unsightly and amateurish. Clearly, this was vandalism. Yet, […]
Missing Persons Alert
April 21, 2018 by Leave a Comment
We love our kids to smithereens, but every now and then, it does a mom good to escape from the family unit and regroup with the lady friends. And when those girlfriends are all rippers, Vail is the perfect getaway. I can count the number of times on one hand […]
When Mom Joins the Kids’ Adventure Race
April 8, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Last summer, I got off the bench and got in the game for a thrilling adventure race with my daughter. The good news is that I survived it. The challenge was called the “Darwin Dash,” a name that suggested impending doom. Imagine a blue rubber mat the size of a […]
Locals’ Guide to Hiking Highland Bowl
March 1, 2018 by 2 Comments
Slogging up the ridge at to the top of Highland Bowl with my teenager in tow made me realize, there’s got to be a better way. Three locals’ share their wisdom. Hiking Highland Bowl at Aspen Highlands is a rite of passage for any diehard skier. It’s a 782-foot bootpack […]
The Alicorn and the Tulle Skirt
November 11, 2017 by 5 Comments
Why making a homemade Halloween costume is a supremely bad idea that will bring your child immense joy. My daughter announced she planned to be an Alicorn for Halloween. Yeah, I didn’t know what that was, either. It’s a magical combination of a Pegasus and a unicorn. “Pegacorn” makes more […]
Getting Wrecked at Copper Mountain
July 14, 2017 by Leave a Comment
And I mean “wrecked” in a really good way. When the kids go back to school, our July 4 weekend will be the trip they write about in that obligatory “What I Did this Summer” essay. In front of us, grey pads the size of lunch trays were suspended […]
Zen and the Art of Sea Glass Collecting
July 6, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Combing a pebbled-covered beach is a little like raking a Zen rock garden. I’ve discovered a new form of meditation: searching for sea glass. I’ve never been able to meditate in the traditional sense. I’ve tried. But my mind soon wanders and starts to churn on all of life’s crud: […]
Head in the Snow
March 23, 2017 by Leave a Comment
The best way to spend Trump’s Inauguration Day was to ski powder with a posse of hard-charging women at Breckenridge. This blog is rarely political. However, I must admit that one of my favorite days on the slopes this season was the day Donald Trump was inaugurated. You know how […]
Escape to Crested Butte
April 17, 2016 by Leave a Comment
When life gives you lemons, sometimes the best course of action is to pack up the car and head for Crested Butte. On Christmas night of this year, my 83-year-old dad had a seizure. It had been—unbeknownst to anyone, least of all him—precipitated by a raging gall bladder infection. His […]
We’re with the Band
November 27, 2015 by 7 Comments
A cluster of black socks paired with knobby knees, sneakers, and baggy shorts is a dead giveaway that you are in the general vicinity of a high school marching band competition. It’s not a Cosmo fashion “don’t.” Think of it more as Geek Chic. My son, who is a freshman, […]
What Bode Miller’s Crash Has To Do with Parenthood
February 11, 2015 by 2 Comments
Bode Miller crashed horrifically during the Super G race at the 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Beaver Creek last week. He was having an sensational Bode-style run that put him 0.56 seconds ahead of the leader at the splits. The run would have landed him on the podium […]
The Fudge Factor
March 1, 2014 by 4 Comments
Making good on a promise meant a very ridiculous day for this mom. There’s a very good reason I was skiing a week ago at Copper with an enormous stuffed bear on my back. Over the summer, when it was time to sign our kids up for ski racing programs […]
My Oatmeal Brain
August 8, 2013 by 10 Comments
My broken arm is making me a bad mommy. Really it is. Let’s review a few of the things that I fumbled in one week after I had my arm shortened. (That’s not a joke; I’ll explain later.) It would seem my brain has turned to mush. First, I forgot […]
The College Reunion
June 25, 2013 by 6 Comments
Let’s Do the Time Warp Again Under a giant white party tent, revelers buzzed in a convivial frenzy over glasses of chardonnay. A man leaned in, beer in hand, and whispered in my ear, “I’m going to give you a hickey before the weekend’s out.” Now this would otherwise be […]
Soccer Mom, Not so Much
May 7, 2013 by 19 Comments
Ski-Racing Moms: Support Crew with Benefits. Horse moms, swim moms, and soccer moms have nothing on ski racing moms. The proof is in the powder. A friend was recently telling me about the perils of being a horse mom. A corporate executive by weekday, she mucks out horse poop from […]
Bad Mommy Moments
December 7, 2012 by 12 Comments
True Confessions of Parenting Gone Wrong (and how you can create your own ad campaign out of it) Nobody’s perfect, right? Try as we may to channel our inner June and Ward Cleaver, most of us fall short every now and again. I like to call these transgressions from perfection […]
Gandalf From Scratch
November 3, 2012 by 5 Comments
Seriously. What Was I thinking? I had business lunch recently with a woman who I hadn’t met before. We soon discovered a shared pay someone to do your assignment history of overzealous wedding planning, a fondness for camping with kids, and the dubious distinction of having served as a laundromat […]
Leaf Creatures
October 9, 2012 by 8 Comments
Autumn is the Perfect Time to Turn Leaves into Roosters and Turtles. With the arrival of fall, leaves are bursting in fiery shades of gold, crimson, and orange. My favorite are the ones that remain stubbornly green at the center but rimmed with red and yellow. As if they’re not […]
Mountain Bikus Interruptus
June 26, 2012 by 4 Comments
I have a burly dual-suspension Proflex mountain bike that dates from the late 1990s. Amazingly, I now see this bike characterized on the Internet as “vintage.” Mine is in mint condition. In the first few years I owned the beast (the bike weighs about 7 million pounds), I did […]
One Weird Mother’s Day
May 18, 2012 by Leave a Comment
On my strangest mother’s day ever, I found myself ruminating on high school massacres and fetal microchimeras. This past mother’s day, while most other moms were out eating Eggs Benedict and French toast, I was on an airplane, flying back from a book event in San Francisco. For reasons unknown, […]
My Job as a Ski Tuner
May 14, 2012 by 10 Comments
There is a blob of red wax on my black leather Dansko clogs. This is my fault for not wearing work boots, I suppose, but still. The wax blob represents the indignity of my new job as a ski tuner. I can now add that to my resume, which currently […]
Dude Soup at the P-Dog
April 4, 2012 by 2 Comments
Twenty-five years after a rollicking spring break trip to Alta, Utah, one mom returns on a girls’ trip of another sort. There’s nothing better than being with your kids. Except maybe not being with them. If you’ve ever snuck away on a girl’s trip—or even if you’ve spent the evening […]
Kids Are Gross
March 19, 2012 by 6 Comments
I Love You, But Yuck! Let me start with this disclaimer: I adore my kids. They are delightful creatures: sweet, charming, and downright loveable. When I hug them, I bury my nose in the soft folds of their necks and try to breathe them right in. I would step in […]
A Day in the Life of a Ski Racing Mom
March 13, 2012 by 12 Comments
Or “Why I sent out my holiday cards in March” There’s a good reason I mailed my Christmas cards in March. Really there is. This season we can count three ski racers in our brood. And as long as we’re counting, consider these numbers: Our 11 year old has some […]
Sugarbugs & Cheese Weasels
October 3, 2011 by 111 Comments
Terms of Endearment “C’mon pumpkin butter, let’s go.” Pumpkin butter? I overheard a mom using this pet name on her toddler the other day. I thought I’d heard them all. Used them all myself. Bunny, sweetie-pie, dumpling. Considering the incredible amount of careful consideration and hand-wringing debate parents put into […]
