Even before residency began, we heard a LOT about the annual Via Christi Family Med Residency Bike Trip. Every September the entire first and second year classes leave Kansas for a retreat in the mountains of Colorado - leaving the third year class behind to cover all the inpatient shifts for an extra-long weekend! Some people have cited this bike trip as a factor in their ranking of residency programs. There are 18 residents in each class - with spouses and kids, that's a large group!
Prior to the trip, I joked with Brandon, as I have often in the past few months, that he would probably have a lot more fun in residency if he was single. (A lot of the activities and social get-togethers outside of work have not been kid-friendly nor compatable with children's schedules). He is always quick to assure me that, at this stage in life, he would much rather be married to me and Dad to our two kids, even if it means missing out on many [most] of the social aspects of residency. It seemed like this trip was going to be no exception. The itinerary for the retreat was not created with families/small children in mind. The schedule included such activities as: a mountain hike up to 14k elevation; a full-day bike ride up and then back down a mountain; fancy dinners out, starting around the time my children typically go to sleep; sleeping in. But.....a vacation is a vacation - and Colorado is beautiful! So we set off for Colorful Colorado, ready to have a great time and get know Brandon's new co-workers a little better.
Our trip started after Brandon got off work on a Thursday. On this first leg, we were heading as far as Denver for a stop-over to see the Weldons. Our plan to drive at night while the kids slept was only mildly successful. They took a long time to fall asleep, and then Jonah woke up at 1:00 am and stayed awake for the last 2.5 hours of the trip :/ But we only had a few more hours of driving on Friday, so we spent a lazy morning at the Weldons' before heading the rest of the way to Frisco, the cute little mountain resort town where we stayed.
Heading west out of Denver, you really start to climb into the mountains fast. It was a beautiful drive! I quickly became convinced that getting most of the drive out of the way the night before was more than worth it (even though we were both exhausted by this point). We were able to enjoy the last couple of hours much more than if they had come at the end of a long day of driving. Plus the kids slept most of the way :)
On Saturday, all the residents had to attend a continuing education seminar in the morning (the *real* reason for the trip), so the wives (plus one husband) walked up the street for breakfast. Someone said last year on this trip, there were four kids - this year, there we had thirteen, plus two more on the way!
Once the CME was out of the way, the rest of the weekend was open for hiking, biking, swimming and hanging out. It ended up being a wonderful, laid-back and relaxing weekend for our family. We opted not to do any hiking, as the idea of lugging our kids around on our backs was not very appealing :) The highlight of the weekend was the much-talked-about bike trip. Most folks took a ride up Vail Pass and enjoyed the coast back down the mountain to Frisco. Vail Pass is a paved bike path that runs from Frisco, up into the mountains and back down to Vail. To reach the top of the mountain from the Frisco side, it is a 12 mile trip, with 1,500 foot gain in elevation. Many of the bike rental places also run shuttles that will take you (and your bike) to the top of the mountain so you can just coast down - although a lot of the residents bike all the way up themselves. Brandon got it in his head that we should rent a tandem and a double trailer. I was a little nervous about this set-up, but it ended up being a ton of fun. Since I didn't have to worry about steering or watching where we were going, I spent the ride enjoying the scenery as we climbed into the mountains. (And probably not peddling as much as I should/could have - sorry, Brandon!).
The kids thought riding in the trailer was, meh. They both dozed off and on, Jonah seemed to enjoy looking at the scenery, and Cora was okay as long as we were moving. We didn't make it all the way to the top. Probably a little past half-way, we turned around and stopped for a lunch/play break. The ride back down was much faster - and fun! Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures, because there were not a lot of good places to stop, and I didn't feel comfortable carrying my camera while we were riding. When we got back to the rental place and unloaded the kids, Jonah kept saying, "No, we did not ride in a trailer up the mountain. We did NOT!" We had told him that's what we were going to do, but I guess he was unimpressed/unconvinced.
Sunday night was the fancy dinner out that we were sort of dreading. It started pretty late for our kids, but everyone did pretty well. We were seated right next to a door that opened onto a little deck/stairs (that may have been a fire exit?), so we ducked out there a few times. The only hitch was towards the end of the meal when Jonah jammed a crayon so far down his throat he made himself vomit - but Brandon managed to catch most of it in his hands, and I don't think anyone noticed :/
On Monday, our last full day in Frisco, we caravaned up Boreas Pass, another mountain drive heading up from Breckenridge. The other two vehicles were SUVs and our little Civic struggled a bit to keep up once the road turned to gravel. But it was a gorgeous drive! The Aspens were just starting to turn yellow, and we had breath-taking views as we wound up into the mountains. Once again, Brandon did the driving, while I just got to enjoy the view (and the kids mostly slept!). At the top of the mountain, we got out and did a little hiking. I didn't get many pictures, but here's some I borrowed from one of the attendings - which I think he took on his phone! Amazing!
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| The whole crew |
Our trip started after Brandon got off work on a Thursday. On this first leg, we were heading as far as Denver for a stop-over to see the Weldons. Our plan to drive at night while the kids slept was only mildly successful. They took a long time to fall asleep, and then Jonah woke up at 1:00 am and stayed awake for the last 2.5 hours of the trip :/ But we only had a few more hours of driving on Friday, so we spent a lazy morning at the Weldons' before heading the rest of the way to Frisco, the cute little mountain resort town where we stayed.
Heading west out of Denver, you really start to climb into the mountains fast. It was a beautiful drive! I quickly became convinced that getting most of the drive out of the way the night before was more than worth it (even though we were both exhausted by this point). We were able to enjoy the last couple of hours much more than if they had come at the end of a long day of driving. Plus the kids slept most of the way :)
On Saturday, all the residents had to attend a continuing education seminar in the morning (the *real* reason for the trip), so the wives (plus one husband) walked up the street for breakfast. Someone said last year on this trip, there were four kids - this year, there we had thirteen, plus two more on the way!
Once the CME was out of the way, the rest of the weekend was open for hiking, biking, swimming and hanging out. It ended up being a wonderful, laid-back and relaxing weekend for our family. We opted not to do any hiking, as the idea of lugging our kids around on our backs was not very appealing :) The highlight of the weekend was the much-talked-about bike trip. Most folks took a ride up Vail Pass and enjoyed the coast back down the mountain to Frisco. Vail Pass is a paved bike path that runs from Frisco, up into the mountains and back down to Vail. To reach the top of the mountain from the Frisco side, it is a 12 mile trip, with 1,500 foot gain in elevation. Many of the bike rental places also run shuttles that will take you (and your bike) to the top of the mountain so you can just coast down - although a lot of the residents bike all the way up themselves. Brandon got it in his head that we should rent a tandem and a double trailer. I was a little nervous about this set-up, but it ended up being a ton of fun. Since I didn't have to worry about steering or watching where we were going, I spent the ride enjoying the scenery as we climbed into the mountains. (And probably not peddling as much as I should/could have - sorry, Brandon!).
The kids thought riding in the trailer was, meh. They both dozed off and on, Jonah seemed to enjoy looking at the scenery, and Cora was okay as long as we were moving. We didn't make it all the way to the top. Probably a little past half-way, we turned around and stopped for a lunch/play break. The ride back down was much faster - and fun! Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures, because there were not a lot of good places to stop, and I didn't feel comfortable carrying my camera while we were riding. When we got back to the rental place and unloaded the kids, Jonah kept saying, "No, we did not ride in a trailer up the mountain. We did NOT!" We had told him that's what we were going to do, but I guess he was unimpressed/unconvinced.
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| Why aren't we moving??? |
Sunday night was the fancy dinner out that we were sort of dreading. It started pretty late for our kids, but everyone did pretty well. We were seated right next to a door that opened onto a little deck/stairs (that may have been a fire exit?), so we ducked out there a few times. The only hitch was towards the end of the meal when Jonah jammed a crayon so far down his throat he made himself vomit - but Brandon managed to catch most of it in his hands, and I don't think anyone noticed :/
Jonah and Brandon did lots of swimming in the condo pool and hot tub during our stay. Not a bad view.
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| Mountain hot tub |
On Monday, our last full day in Frisco, we caravaned up Boreas Pass, another mountain drive heading up from Breckenridge. The other two vehicles were SUVs and our little Civic struggled a bit to keep up once the road turned to gravel. But it was a gorgeous drive! The Aspens were just starting to turn yellow, and we had breath-taking views as we wound up into the mountains. Once again, Brandon did the driving, while I just got to enjoy the view (and the kids mostly slept!). At the top of the mountain, we got out and did a little hiking. I didn't get many pictures, but here's some I borrowed from one of the attendings - which I think he took on his phone! Amazing!
What a weekend! Thanks, Via Christi Family Medicine, for an awesome trip :)
On Tuesday, Brandon hitched a ride back to Wichita with another resident, while the kids and I made the short drive back to Denver for a visit with the Weldons. More about our time there in a later post!
1 comment:
I LOVE that you included the part about Jonah vomiting :) hahaha. i felt like that could have been us :) glad you had such a great trip and are settling in down there!
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