Posts Tagged ‘Family’
As I’d mentioned last week, we went to Colorado to spend Christmas with my family. We left Orlando Wednesday morning at 8:17am and arrived in Denver at 10:30am. It was snowing! But it wasn’t the kind of nice, light snow you see in commercials. It was windy and the sky, roads and everything were the same color — white. To top it off, our rental car was rear-wheel drive, so we learned quickly about turning into the skid…
The rental car company had a deal where they would pick the car we’d have — and it was guaranteed to be a medium size or better, depending on what was on the lot. They had plenty of cars; even ones smaller than a medium, but they still insisted on giving us a Dodge Charger. The Charger is a great car — don’t get me wrong — but it’s rear-wheel drive and not the best on slick, icy roads and turns. The rental company said they’d give us a smaller, front-wheel drive car instead, but we’d have to pay $15 a day extra for the smaller car. The rental agent even warned us about driving in snow with a rear-wheel drive car, but in the end he sided with profit and not the safety of his customer. He was also a turd attitude-wise.
You remember in rental car commercials how they show the stalls with the rental cars are covered and the rental agent runs out with an umbrella and assists you with getting your luggage in the car? Well, that’s sheer fantasy as far as this rental company goes at Denver International. The stalls were out in the open and all the cars were covered with at least half a foot of snow and the windows were iced. I went to the car and found a brush and a scraper inside and swept the snow off the hood and windows. I then scraped the ice off the windows, which froze my fingertips, even though I was wearing lined leather gloves — OUCH. I found the key and backed the car up to the SO [Significant Other] and our luggage. We loaded it up, fired up our GPS [which we call Chickie-chickie] and we were on our way; albeit in a relatively good mood, but things could have started out much better.
My folks weren’t expecting us until the next day; we had told them we were taking a much later flight on Wednesday and so we wouldn’t be able to get out to their house until Thursday morning. My sister Melanie was already there, as she had flown in from Seattle a little bit after we had landed. My folks picked her up — we hustled when we landed so we wouldn’t all run into each other at the airport — that would’ve kind of ruined the surprise! I wish I had taken a picture of my Mom’s face when she opened the door and saw us standing there; it was priceless. First confusion, then surprise, then fake anger! The first thing she yelled out was, “you little liars!” 
It was great to have the whole family together. As mentioned earlier, I hadn’t seen my sister Mel [she's one year younger than me] in over 12 years. My youngest sister, Leigha [she's 8 years younger than me], came over a little later in the day after she got off work. The SO took a great family photo of us:
[caption id="attachment_223" align="alignnone" width="392" caption="Leigha, Dad, Mel, Mom and Me"]
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You can tell I live in Florida — I’m the one with the tan.
Silly sister pic:
Gratuitous snowy scene [the sun FINALLY came out the next day]:
And my sister Melanie and I had a great reunion after not seeing each other for over 12 years. Sisters, just like best friends, just pick up where they left off:
With regard to training… I ended up just running on a treadmill and using a stationary bike in the hotel workout room. It was just too cold for my lungs and I didn’t have the correct cold weather gear to even attempt a run outside. Not to mention that the initial snow had packed down and new snow had fallen over it, freezing the old snow. I didn’t feel like breaking a leg out there. Even inside on the treadmill, the altitude and the lack of oxygen in the air [lack of oxygen being relative...] made it difficult to breathe. Just walking up stairs would make you temporarily winded and exhausted.
We had a great time, but it was wonderful to get home. We stepped off the plane, breathed in the warmer, humid Orlando air and knew it was good to be home. A cold front had come through just before we landed, but compared to Firestone, Colorado, it was a heat wave.
In just a little over a week, the Disney Half Marathon will be here! I just hope this vacation didn’t add any pounds and that I didn’t lose any fitness due to my limited training while gone.
How was your Christmas holiday?
