Beaver Creek, Colorado day 1

It is a beautiful day . . .

. . . well maybe not exactly but it isn't horrible either. Colin is looking forward to hitting the slopes while I hit the computer. As part of my Hyatt status we get free breakfast. Trust me we will be taking advantage of it since it is valued at $38 per person and they even let you get it to go! I would prefer to eat at the restaurant but trying to get someone out the door on time is a bit difficult so I must adjust and lower my expectations. My breakfast in a box was yummy . . .

. . . but with my view it couldn't be bad. Even though Colin is a teen, he is in the adult ski class today, why? He is not vaccinated and in order to be in a youth class you must show proof of vaccination, however if you are over 15 you can join an adult class and opt out of showing proof of vaccination . . . go figure, right! They are still requiring a proof of vaccination to eat inside on the mountain dining restaurants but he can go inside to get his food but must eat outside. It was a trade off and will see how that works out for him. 

I returned to the room to do my work. The state of Texas passed a law (HB 3) in 2019 that all teachers in grades K-3 must take a Reading Academy to "learn" how to teach reading. It is a 60 hour online course that you have one year to finish. I started in mid-July of 2021. Now let me just complain for a bit. I teach math but since I am in a building with 3rd graders then I must take the class. I have not taught reading in over 20 years so you can imagine my excitement when I started this journey. As I started the class, I read every single slide, watched every single video, took notes, and stressed over every quiz question/discussion post. Oh yes there are quizzes and you must make an 80 to move to the next section. The class has 12 modules with 2 projects. As you can imagine this has been a huge task and required a lot of time. I am thankful I have a very flexible schedule but feel bad for regular classroom teachers trying to get this done. "They" said it would take sixty hours and let me tell you I spent that many hours on the first half so I don't know what genius did the entire course that fast but man it is a lot of work. I was determined to get the last project in Module 10 done today and that I did! I had already spent a ridiculous number of hours on the draft and fixing mistakes my cohort leader said needed attention, but it was submitted!

Anyway . . . Colin finished up his first day of ski school . . .

. . . and somehow he bypassed indoor dining restrictions at lunch and was able to eat inside with his group. He had a nice ski group of two moms one which was apparently a super cool surgeon. I picked him up from ski school and we headed out for dinner at Coyote Cafe.  I had some decent street tacos . . .

. . . and then to one of the best things about the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek . . .

  

. . . a fire pit and free s'mores kits. It was so fun, warm, and yummy.