Spring Break Skiing in Colorado

For the boys spring break last year (2025) part of the trip to Arizona was two days of skiing.  The boys had a lot of fun and after our fall trip to Colorado, decided that this year they wanted to do a real ski trip, words Dad has been waiting to hear.  So on a plane and on our way to the spring break haunt of Dad's past, Breckenridge Colorado.

Day one was getting there, getting checked into our hotel (River Mountain Lodge right in town and at the base of 4 O'Clock Run), getting our ski rentals and finding some food.

The Blue River right outside the hotel

While we could ski home every day, getting to the slopes was a breeze as well as there was a bus stop right at our hotel's front door and the Breck Connect Gondola was literally a block away.  The boys were a bit nervous as this mountain was much larger than anything they had seen prior, and they honestly were less than excited for a few days in lessons.

We had four days of skiing planned with the first two the boys being in ski school to make sure they were really ready to explore and have fun on their own for the last days.  Whereas Dad tried to describe ski school to the boys as a fun time with great instructors and the opportunity to meet others from around the country.  Reality had a slightly different plan as their ski school class was all Atlanta-area kids with a few that went to school with the boys.

The good news was they boys had a great time and really improved over their two full days of lessons moving from relative beginners to new level 6 skiers which per Breckenridge means "You are confident and in control on all groomed blue runs. You are starting to explore un-groomed trails, light moguls, and easy groomed black diamonds."  

While the boys were in school, Dad took full advantage of his free time as a solo-skier fully exploring the mountain and looking for some of the more challenging areas including the upper bowls off the Imperial and Kensho Superchairs.

Just came down the Serenity Bowl

It was an odd spring as Breckenridge had one of the worst snow years ever, but luckily our first night included a good 6" snow storm and additional small flurries came on and off through the week.

Fresh pow pow!

12,000+ Feet!  Need a moment to catch your breath

After the boys lessons, they really had improved and we were able to do some fun runs at the end of the day and the boys even showed Dad a few areas including a few of the ski school trails through the woods that they enjoyed.

What was not expected but really added to everyone's fun was the boys finding friends from home while on the mountain.  Carter had one of his best friends (Jake) staying with his family at the Beaver Run Condos on Peak 9, for day three we were able to meet up with Jake and his Dad and Carter spent the whole day skiing and keeping up with them. They really pushed Carter and he continued to improve on his own taking on some good black runs by lunch.

Jake, Carter, and Parker

While Carter kept up with Jake, Parker and Dad ran into a friend from Smyrna (Ryder) who Parker has been playing Little League Baseball with since he was 8.  Ryder was a snowboarder right at Parker's skill level so Dad and Parker left Carter with his friend and we had a great day with Ryder and his Dad.

Ryder and Parker

With Jake being in town, we met up with them twice after dinner and completed some really fun and well themed escape rooms at Mountain Time Escape Rooms.  They were all well themed to the Breckenridge area and were the perfect level of difficulty where as a group we were able to accomplish both in time with only one hint in total.

The trip was a great success with both boys talking about possibly wanting to go again next year!

Winter Break in Savannah

For Avery's Winter Break she wanted to go see the Savannah Bananas play so the girls headed to Savannah for a full weekend of Banana Ball. Avery has been a fan of Banana Ball for a while but her interest has really grown over the past year so she was thrilled to get to go to the first games of the season.

First and most recent Banana Ball game

We fit in some Savannah fun around the baseball games including a trolly tour, pirate museum, ghost tour, shopping and good food.

Waving Girl statue

Avery's dinner choice.... Melting Pot

Ghost Tour

Pirate Museum

Forsyth Park

It was "pre-season" for the league (they called it Secret Peel weekend), so we were able to go to 3 games and see all 6 teams play. Up first were the Firefighters v. Loco Beach Coconuts. The Coconuts are one of two new teams this year and have a Hawaiian/Beach theme. We were able to score Banana Ball Backstage tickets to all three games which gave us access to pre-game player meet and greet, early access to pick seats and some fun extras along the way.

Posters for the players to sign

First Firefighter we met - Chief

Avery's favorite Coconut - Dalton Mauldin

Dancing Umpire

Chief tried to photo-bomb the background

Loco Beach coach

Signing the fan wall in right field

Avery picked front row seats right behind home plate

Banana Ball founder - Jesse Cole

Game 2 was Party Animals versus Indianapolis Clowns. The Clowns are the other new team and they were created with the Negro Baseball Hall of Fame to review the former Clowns team. The original team started in the 40s as part of the Negro league and continued until 1989 playing a "Harlem Globetrotters" type of baseball which made them a perfect fit for Banana Ball. There was a lot of care taken with preserving the history of the team and their pre-game introductions and entertainment crew were incredibly moving to watch. 

Avery's favorite mascot - Pharty

Hanging out in the dugout

Avery insisted we sit in the same seats again

Our last game was Savannah Bananas vs. Texas Tailgaters. Avery was very excited to see her favorite players, all named Jackson. We finally had time to check out the Banana's dugout. And we moved seats across the aisle (to Avery's dismay) but it was a great end to a fun filled weekend! And thankfully for Avery she has several more Banana Ball games in her plans for the year.

Avery got to radio in a shoutout request to the in-game audio team

She declined to try the unicycle

Avery's boots were a huge hit with the Tailgaters cheer squad

Princess Potassium

Checking out the Banana's dugout