Sheol St.

Sweet Daddy and Andrew moment peering out the airplane window together. Be still my heart! Yes, we've been on another airplane ... this time, a ski trip to Durango given to the entire Mobley clan by Phil's parents!

I really hope you're all enjoying a mental image of me whipping down some slopes in all my bulbous glory. :-) Fortunately for me and my Nibblet, the closest thing I did was attempt to don a ski bib to take Andrew out to see the incredible piles of snow (I think we got, like, 3 feet just while we were there). Aunt Jessie (Phil's brother's wife) is also expecting ... I think we look pretty hot.

Andrew endured getting dressed up in all his snow gear, eagerly anticipating getting to go outside and "slide."


This was by far the happiest moment outside, just standing here on the back porch. I'm not sure exactly what he'd had in mind (slides like at the park at home, perhaps?), but walking in mounds of snow and sitting in a sled were definitely not on the list.


The only time he wasn't crying was when I was walking through the snow with him on my hip, which was challenging for me (deep snow, big belly), Jessie couldn't do it (also with the belly), and poor Nannie tore her ACL right before the trip (which totally stunk since she loves to ski), so her trying to walk around in the snow with a brace on her leg and a 2-year-old on her hip made me nervous. In the end, when I just couldn't carry him anymore, I had to plop him on the rejected sled and pull him screaming back to the house.

Oddly enough, we decided to spend the rest of our time there indoors, peering out the window at the incredible scenery and waving at the people going by on the ski lift that practically went through our living room. The house was huge and beautiful and came with many new captivating sink pipes and a Foosball table, which thrilled Andrew to bits.

And the skiers had an incredible time! Phil even went down a couple of black diamonds, the mad man. I'm really glad he didn't die.


Our dear Melvina wouldn't hear of being left out of this adventure. She pouted up a storm when she found out they were out of her ski size, but then we introduced her to Johan, the elk head on our wall, and she cheered up. (Don't worry, Carrothead, it was a strictly platonic relationship.)


After the big skiing extravaganza, we drove back to Nannie and Papa's condo in New Mexico where they watched Andrew for 2 days while Phil and I had a romantic get-away in Taos.

Melvina was supposed to stay behind to give our injured Nannie a hand, but once she heard the rumor that the rich and famous frequent Taos, she stowed away in our bag and made a pitiful attempt to camouflage herself in a vase of roses. (My favorite part of this picture is my disembodied camera hand eerily floating in the mirror.)


Despite Ms. Porkbag's intrusion, we had wonderful time! Andrew thoroughly enjoyed basking in all of his grandparents' attention while Phil and I slept in, strolled though beautiful shops, tried on fantastically expensive fur-lined boots and hats just because we could, and enjoyed the wonder of eating meals uninterrupted by spilled milk and the slicing of chicken nuggets.


The sights around the town were incredible - when I'm rich and famous, I'm totally going back.


The only bummer was that I was rejected by a pirate. Yes. Moi. Rejected. By a pirate.

We stayed at the LaFonda hotel (LaFawnda is the best thing that ever happened to me), and our package included dinner at the fancy schmacy restaurant downstairs. We had a beautiful table up on this little raised platform and were served by a somewhat snooty waiter with OCD (who, I confess, always made sure we had the proper forks and lined them up just so). The other's on the platform were waited upon by a guy with really awesome dreadlocks and a goatee. Oh, he was so piratey. I had a crush. Phil made sure to point out that I was probably 10 years older than he was, but he made up for it by running up to our room to retrieve my camera. When I asked our server if I could get a picture with The Pirate, he was so confused, which in turn baffled me. "The Pirate," I repeated in a loud whisper, not able to process his confusion. Phil then stepped in and explained to whom I was referring, which did at least bring a small smile to the face of Mr. Snoot.

Soon after that, I noticed my pirate began serving his tables over the platform rail whenever possible (as opposed to walking up the stairs right by our table), and under no circumstances would he look in our direction. I totally freaked him out! Snoot came back moments later to inform me that my pirate was too busy to take a picture. Too busy with his 3 tables. Rejected.

It was all worth it the next day, though. Phil and I were walking through a little toy store when one of the ladies working there asked if, by chance, we'd eaten at the restaurant in The LaFonda the night before. Turns out she was also a server there and was dying to know if Carlos ever took the picture with me. Apparently the whole kitchen was taking bets on it. Awesome!!!

All-in-all it was quite an adventure. Thank you, Nannie and Papa for loving us so much!! We're all praying for an amazingly quick recovery from yesterday's knee surgery, Nannie.



P.S. Just in case you thought setting up Melvina's photo shoots was easy ....