The Josh and Dagmar Jewkes Family: Skiing at Arapahoe Basin, Colorado During Winter Break

We were so very excited to go skiing at Arapahoe basin in Colorado during winter break. We had found an amazing deal on a 2 bedroom condo in Keystone and the girls were in full day ski classes for the first 4 days. We rented a car, and were given a 6 seater pick up truck, perfect for our purposes, until we found out one of the seat buckles was missing. Ofcourse that wouldn't work for me, so we got a differnt PU truck. After loading all the kids, and all our stuff (at was 1 am by now), we were sent back, as the truck had a recall on it. SO after waiting once more, reloading all the very sleepy kids and our stuff into truck #3, we were on our way.

We first went to visit the girls favorite cousins, the Taskers, who had just received a family addition: sweet baby girl Mamie. It was so fun to see all of them again, and to have the kids play together, we sure love that family.

On Monday, we started an amazing week of skiing, wonderful weather, fun and patient ski teachers, fun time with the boys, taking turns watching Espen, and skiing with jasper, skiing behind the girls and see them having fun and learning quickly. After taking every day to the max. skiing every hour available, we would jump in the hotel's pool and hot-tub, eat and all fall asleep together reading books to the kids.

Jasper loved skiing, he skied most of 4 days! We had to hold him between our legs, as the school was for 3 years and up, but we loved taking him down. He also had no fear, which was good, as I get lost easily and accidentally took him down a blue pretty steep slope, oops. He loved going 'superfast' (he loves Littel Einsteins too).
One morning, Josh took him skiing and I had Espen in the baby bjorn watching all of my loved ones. After one short run on the bunny hill, Josh took Jasper over to another lift, so I thought he was taking Jasper on the big mountain. But then Jasper pretty much fell over flat on his face, so I was like 'what in the world..??' He can't have been hurt, as he never fell. So I ran over to where he was lying flat down with his face in the snow. Josh explained........
He had fallen asleep on the lift and was sound asleep on the way down and there in the snow. We took him up into the lodge, fully dressed with helmet and goggles still on, and he slept for another few hours on a wooden uncomfortable bench. :) Sweet boefje, he is such a joy! Espen was just a great sport, insoide or outside, he was just as content as could be. We bought him some sunglasses, so he wouldn't hurt his eyes outside with the bright sun and snow. Doesn't he look cute and funny?

On friday, we hired a baby sitter for the boys, and went skiing with the girls all day. It was another amazing day, with lots of fresh powder snow, and beautiful weather again.the powder was a little challenging for the girls sometimes, as it is a little different skiing that way, and it worked out well to have one parent leading the way (Josh) and one staying behind to pluck them up out of the snow (me). Of course, Lilian had to pick me up out of a tree, after I decided to ski with one leg on one side of the tree, and the other on the other side... that didn't work, and mom the dinosaur took quite awhile to get up! :) That was a good laugh! It was a special time to spend with the girls, and we were so proud of them for not being afraid, being excited about all of it, not giving up after falling, and seeing the fun our special 'date'. Jasper and Espen were in great hands, and I was able to go back to feed Espen w/o any problems.

On Saturday, it was unfortunately time to leave. We decided to take advantage of one more day of fresh powder snow, and to split up: Josh with Sofia, while I and Lilian watched the boys at the lodge, and then Lilian and I skiiing after lunch, with Josh and Sofia watching the boys.
Well, unfortunately, we never quite made it to lunch time. Around 11 am or so, I saw Josh.... alone. 'Go to the first aid, Sofia got hurt. I felt like I flew over there, I was so worried that she hurt her knee badly (that is what Josh seemed to think). As I arrived, it hurt so badly to see her so hurt. She was crying adn in so much pain. So sad, it still hurts to remmeber her face like that, my sweet little Fietje. Josh described she fell and her skies didn't come off, and her pain was in the middle of her leg, so it seemed quite obvious that she had a spiral fracture of her right lower leg. We gathered up all the kids, our stuff, moved around some car seats, and drove Sofia to Keystone's medical center, where they verified she indeed had a very bad spiral fracture of both the tibia and fibula. She ended up with a full length posterior splint for a few days, during which we traveled home. We again stopped for a day at the Taskers, which was wonderful as always, and then moved on to a quite difficult trip through the Denver airport, with a very very brave Sofia, who was in a lot of pain, but made herself breath through it mostly. We made it home alive and with a lot of help from Lilian watching Jasper. I was so proud of both girls, they sure behaved very mature and strong.

Sofia got to stay home from school for the next 10 days, which was a special bonding time for us. I was happy to be able to help her as much as possible, and probably more than necessary, as she is so unbelievably independent. She received her cast 2 days after we got home, and already the day before that, she refused pain medicine, even though I could tell it still hurt. She would defineitely be able to make the Olympics for 100 m dash on crutches if that were an event! :) She is one tough cookie! She has been very brave, and I have been in awe of her bearing her 'lot' without complaining. Especially considering how active she really is, she has not complained or expressed frustration about the things she has not been able to do, definitely something I can learn from. Lilian has been extremely helpful, and has gladly taken up some extra chores, that Sofia is unable to do. We all have truly learned about the importance of families, and how we are here to help and uplift eachother, a thick silver lining!

She has now been in a cast for almost 5 weeks, and will find out on tuesday what is next, and how much her bones have healed. We are hoping for a beautiful waterproof walking cast or boot! :)