When we made it to Winter Park, I was surprised to see a sea of avid skiers all stripping in the parking lot, literally people of all ages ditching their clothes and layering on their ski gear…which was great, because that was our plan as well. Daddy exchanged his jeans and tee for his ski pants, boots, and jacket. The weather was a balmy 40 something in the sun and he didn’t even need his heavy ski coat, just his ski jacket.
Because you had just woken up from a long nap, you were super cranky and hungry. You were not interested in the gondola ride from the Vintage Hotel to the Winter Park Ski Village ( which was super fun) and cried when we boarded. Even when we were mid air, you still weren’t interested in enjoying the ride. Once we landed in the village, we tossed Daddy’s ski gear into a quaint little wagon along with you too, and strolled through the village to the ski lifts. We left daddy at the lifts, and we took advantage of the 15 minute wagon limit and did a little sight seeing around the village.
While daddy was skiing at Winter Park, we decided to wander aimlessly through the little village. At first you were extremely grumpy (see attached photos) and started crying to go to "the hotel". As soon as the pizza place opened we went in and ordered. We got the mega-slice of cheese and you ate all but the crust and about 6 bites of what was really TWO slices of cheese pizza!
We sat across from a little boy (4 yrs) who jabbered most of the time we waited, and then tried to keep the conversation going while we ate. He was excited about his upcoming ski lesson and really pumped just to be alive it seemed. You were very shy and not really interested in answering his questions, or conversing with anyone at that point. (How old are you, what is your name, have you ever been skiing before, do you want to color???) His mommy even brought over a box of crayons and some coloring sheets and you were disgusted at the sight of the box of broken crayons…you are pretty careful with yours and I’m not sure you’ve ever even seen (gasp!) more than the occasional accidentally broken crayon!
After we finished the pizza, we headed out to the village and you finally started enjoying yourself. We started off your fun with a trip back to the Coke-a-Cola bear you refused to have your picture taken with when Daddy requested a photo earlier in the day. You were all smiles after the pizza! After the photo session with the enormous bear, we meandered into and out of a few shops looking for ski gloves your size, and any souvenirs (prizes) we could find. We ended up outside a vintage arcade and once you spotted the old-time race horse in the window, you wanted to venture inside. We did, and it was full of old video games like Pac-Man and racecar games. Even though your mood was much better...you were still not too interested in the goings on of a ski resort.
Soooooo here we are currently chilling out in the arcade. Very reminiscent of Wreck-It- Ralph we have't actually purchased tokens, but we have pretend-played all of the games and you have had a blast!
After the arcade, we ventured out to continue our hunt for gloves, and ended up in a general store with lots of souvenirs including a little wooden display holding many different rocks and stones indigenous to the area. You spent a ton of time going through the rocks and picking out just the right ones to fill your little blue felt bag with the words, “Winter Park, Colorado” printed on the front. Of all the souvenirs you could have chosen…and you picked a little bag of rocks?! The rocks were cool...I have to admit…you loaded up on several super shiny rocks. The magnetic pull between these pretty rocks is so powerful, your little finger was pinched between two at one point in the trip…
