First Race!

After several months of being "weekend warriors" so that Cienna could train, she had her first official downhill race last weekend at Purgatory Resort in Durango, CO. Thanks to our good friends Nick and Sayoko, we had world class accommodations which turned the weekend into a mini vacation for us. Since the race was Sunday, we decided to keep things low key Saturday and "hang by the pool." It was a pool unlike any other...

Why Yes, That Is A Ski Lift In The Background

We went to bed early, ate a hearty breakfast, were the first to arrive (see above re: world class accommodations), and Cienna was ready to OWN THE MOUNTAIN.

After taking the world's longest chair lift in near white out conditions, then having to shuffle (not ski) 100 yards to the starting line we waited anxiously for our little ripper to rip down the mountain.

This was it. The moment of truth. She was quick out of the gate. She flew past us, faster and more confident than any of the kids before her. She was navigating the course like a seasoned professional.

Going for it 110%, she approached the 5th switchback and disaster struck. As she described it, "I hit an edge and then my skis started to vibrate like crazy and I tried to turn but I couldn't and I just yard saled!" For those of you who are not familiar with the term "yard sale" it is when you lose most of your equipment and it is strewn about the mountain like items at a yard sale. After skiing to the bottom, taking the world's longest lift to the top, shuffling 100 yards and getting back in line for her 2nd run, she was told by the organizers that if she lost her ski again she would be disqualified from the race. She turns to me and says "do they think that I tried to crash? I couldn't help it if my ski came off!" She was pissed off. And I liked it.

After backing off for her second run, she was disqualified for missing the last gate. She took it like a true champion... by asking if we could warm up in the lodge!

Tony and I could not have been prouder of our little ripper. She truly gave it her all, showed no fear, and after crashing hard she had the determination to get back up there and try it again. I told her that crashing on her very first run of her very first race made us more proud than if she had taken first place. She left it all on the mountain last Sunday and came out the winner in our book!

Last Year of Single Digits

Ms. Cienna Elise Mazotti turned 9 years old on January 15th and with that I promptly realized that I can't possibly be old enough to have a 9 year old. I simply cannot be old enough to have a child who is almost in double digits. It is not possible.

After coming back to reality, we had to "negotiate" her birthday festivities. Cienna has been very excited about being part of the Wolf Creek Ski Team (Mom! Everyone has like 3 sets of skis!) but she did not calculate that sking every weekend during winter also meant no free weekends to have a birthday party. After "negotiating" for a spring time celebration we are hoping that she can finally put her friends, presents and cake behind her and focus on RIPPING DOWN THE MOUNTAIN this weekend in her first race in Durango, CO.

Speaking of ripping down the mountain, here is a picture of Cienna doing just that while sledding...

And AJ faceplanting while sledding...

So, back to the birthday girl. You are amazing. At 9 years old you love:

Lego Friends
American Girl
Target gift cards
Talking about the day that you might need a "trainer bra"
Liv & Maddie
School supplies
Vacationing
Ski team
Gymnastics
Riding your bicycle with gears
Taking showers every morning
UC Berkeley

You do not love:

Braces
Chores
Knots in your hair
Eating your dinner

We love you more than any words can say. You are our reason for being. You are our pride and joy. Thank you for being our baby girl!

Happy New Year!!! And Other Such Things....

Happy New Year! The Mazotti family welcomed 2016 "redneck style" complete with Fireball, Frito Pies and fire!! We spent the evening with the Webb family and their new, beautiful home in South Fork. With the construction on their house just completed and a large vast piece of property dubbed Rooster Tail Ranch, they had a pile of construction debris that needed to be "dealt wit" and that meant a chain saw and gas! We roasted like hot dogs in the -5 degree weather, while watching "kamikaze cottontails" douse themselves in water before running into the fire to rescue their babies who had been calling that debris pile home for the last several months. I know what you are thinking...those people are SICK! It was very sad indeed. But one helluva way to celebrate the end of 2015!

After achieving all of my goals / resolutions for 2015, I decided to give myself a break this year and pick something frivolous to focus on.

My goal / resolution for 2016 is to learn how to do a cartwheel. That is it. Boo yea!

My kids wanted to get into the spirit as well but they chose something that I AM SO NOT DOWN WITH. A cuss jar. They would like to hear less profanity in their household. I would like to have them in boarding school. We don't always get what we want. As of today I am "throwing the party" with $32 in the jar. I expect that I will not be successful in their resolution but as a lady I wish them the best of luck in their quest for a profanity-free universe.

I wish you all a happy and healthy 2016!

Merry Norovirus

Now that the holiday season is safely past us I can reflect with humor on the memories and mishaps that we encountered. The month of December was filled with many fun activities, including Tony breaking his knee cap AND the children's "International Cultural Celebration" at school. Cienna's 3rd grade class did a traditional dance from Mexico where she shinned like a star!

"Antonio's" kindergarten class did a fun "Baliwood" inspired dance from India. Poor Antonio was sick all week and had stayed home from school...but like the good stage mother that I am (drink this Go Go Juice AJ!), I forced him to go on performance day and shake what his mama gave him. He didn't exactly shake or shine and the teachers asked me to take him home as soon as they were done!

With the performances behind us we could focus on fun! Cienna started Wolf Creek Ski Team, AJ received a month of green faces (well they only went to school 3 weeks in December and 1 week he was out sick but those other 2 weeks ROCKED!) and we spread holiday cheer everywhere we went.

On Christmas Eve we went out to the geriatric active housing community where Mimi and Papa reside to read "The Night Before Christmas" with Ms. Claus (who BTW I overheard telling adult guests that she failed to put on undergarments under her outfit) and build gingerbread houses. All 3 of my children did a bang up job creating semi-edible real estate masterpieces!

We returned to Mimi and Papa's house for an afternoon of treasure hunts for presents and laced egg nog. I enjoyed my egg nog as much as the kids enjoyed finding their presents all over the house based on clues that Mimi made up.

In The Freezer...

The BBQ...

If AJ was exicted...

Then Cienna almost stopped breathing!

We headed back home around 2 so that Tony could go to the dump (typical) and the kids and I could assemble 4 dozen luminarias for the front of our home. Each Christmas Eve, our neighborhood puts out luminarias (paper bags folded at the top with sand and votive candles inside) and the city sells bus tickets to view them. It is my favorite part of Christmas Eve (well that and the tamales!)

Heading Out For The Unofficial Walking Tour

After all of our guests went home and the kids were tucked in their beds dreaming of sugar plum ferries, something happened that was neither happy, nor merry, nor magical. I must have made the VERY BAD LIST because I got a special delivery of the Norovirus! From 10pm - 4:30am I wished that Santa would run me over with his sleigh. And just when I felt well enough to sleep in my bed instead of on the bathroom floor the kids woke up and screamed "Santa Came!" It was 5:15am. I begged God to "take me now!" but my cries for help were not heard. True to my stage mom roots, I told the kids to go ahead without me...that the show must go on! But after 5 minutes of hearing their squealing joy coming from the living room I sat up, cried for a minute and crawled on my hands and knees to the couch to watch them open the gifts that they had been waiting for all year long. I even managed to snap 2 photos while in my own personal hell that was Christmas Day!

Twas' The Night Before The Norovirus

Oh Look! We Are Having Fun While Mom Is Dying On The Couch!

Merry Christmas to all and to all I hope you don't get what I did! Oh and don't break your knee cap either! That isn't fun as well.

Seattle

Last weekend we escaped ABQ and our children for a fun (and fast) getaway in Seattle. Our friends, Ian & Paige, flew in from Phoenix and met us for a weekend of cold but clear weather, drinking, seafood, shopping, drinking, eating and just the tiniest bit of wrestling. Our visit exceeded any expectations that I had for the weekend. Tony, Ian and I have known each other since junior college where they played football together until they both received scholarships to out of state schools. Ironically, their schools ended up being only 4 hours away from each other. The world can be a very small place. Ian introduced us to Paige after meeting her at Adams State and I remember thinking that she was a total bitch...which didn't last very long because she ended up becoming one of my very best friends and a bridesmaid in our wedding. After years of falling out of touch we reunited earlier this year and it did not take long to remember how awesome we both are. We instantly vowed that we would talk / hang out more often and this weekend was a great start to rekindling a friendship that I missed so much.

Reunited...And It Feels So Good!

We arrived Friday afternoon to brisk but clear weather. After dropping off our things, we began a walk down to the waterfront and our first stop of the night, Elliott's Oyster Bar. I enjoyed cocktails while the rest of the gang enjoyed oysters (and cocktails) and before long we were moseying along the streets of downtown Seattle, enjoying libations at each stop. We met nice people and strange people, stuffed ourselves with various seafood tidbits and failed to find an alcoholic beverage for less than $14. Seattle is not a place for those on a budget. After returning to our amazing crashpad for the weekend a wrestling match of sorts ensued...which ended in bite marks, slightly blackened eyes, bloody toenails, ripped shirts and undergarments and Paige doing her best impression of a spider monkey on Tony's back. How I managed to stay completely out of it (and therefore unscathed) I will never know, but I am pretty sure it had something to do with the fact that the room was on my credit card and I had signed my life away if any damage was discovered. Either way, all's well that ends well....there were no hard feelings come morning (but there was an awful lot of complaining!)

Us Before The Night of Debauchery

The next morning we began our day as tourists, heading down to see (and stand in line for WAY TOO long) the 1st Starbucks and Pike's Place Market. The market was my favorite. Local artists, local crafts, local food. Uh-Maze-Ing.

Get In My Belly!

After a little shopping we headed back to the room to begin preparations for dinner at the top of the Space Needle that night. We arrived just as the sun was setting and enjoyed a feast that included items like roasted marrow bones and crab cakes. Mental note: skip the roasted marrow bones. No matter how elitist they may be.

Our Unique Restaurant For The Evening

Although we talked about being in bed early Saturday night (Tony and I had to be up by 4am to catch our flight) we decided that sleep was overrated and time away from our kids was not, so we headed out for another night on the town. A much more mellow night on the town albeit but still out until midnight. Seattle was such a fun place to indulge on everything that we rarely get to do and most importantly hang out with great friends!

Happy Halloween

Another Halloween has come and gone, leaving me feeling nostalgic and the kids acting off their rockers. Never again will they be 8 and 6. Time is flying by. Life is happening now. I have moments where I am overwhelmed (and maybe the tiniest bit paralyzed) by wanting to hold on to an exact moment or feeling. These moments have a way of happening a lot during the holiday season when I am feeling particularly grateful for my life and those who I share it with. And then just like that...the kids are punching each other in the face and I am threatening to lie down in traffic somewhere!

Our Halloween festivities began with our (now) annual pumpkin carving contest that we have hosted the last 2 years. Last year we invited one other family over to carve pumpkins and watch the World Series. This year we invited 4 families, served pizza, listened to spooky tunes and purchased every carving tool that Walmart had on their shelves in the hopes that it would inspire creativity and make the kids excited for the holiday. What we found was that the kids do very little carving...or brainstorming...or scooping. We parents were exhausted carving, scooping, designing, repeat (we all have more than 1 kid who refused to do anything having to do with the actual process) and then we also got to clean up the mess! The kids then proudly stood by "their" pumpkin, which was really "our" pumpkin because we worked on the damn thing for an hour. Each. In the end it was all worth the blood, sweat and tears we put in to creating spooky creations for our kids. Because without it we would have never gotten this ONE amazing picture!

A few days after we recovered from the carving contest (an adult's design was chosen as the winner...IN YO FACE KIDS!) my little gymnast and ghostbuster went trick or treating. Our neighborhood is notoriously crazytown on Halloween so in order to cope I invite friends and bring (several) road beverages with me. Without these necessary items I would not be able to leave the house. It is that crazy. Or it was that crazy. This year it was like everyone took a Xanax (Benadryl for the kids) and chilled out on Halloween. There was no pushing or shoving or trampling expensive landscape to get a fun size Snickers bar. I did not witness one adult, pushing an infant in a stroller, hold out a Walmart bag and ask for candy "for the baby." It renewed my faith in God and people! Happy Halloween 2105!

AJ's Benadryl Was Kicking In!

Legoland

Last weekend the Mazotti family traveled to the happiest place on Earth for 6-10 year old kids...better known as LEGOLAND! Tony flew to the Bay a few days early (5 days actually, not that I am keeping count or anything) and I drove to San Diego with the kids by myself, never once day dreaming about where I was going to go when Tony watches the kids for me for 5 days. I drove to Phoenix the first night and stayed with our friends Ian and Paige, where AJ proceeded to play tackle football with their pit bull Rocko in piles of dog poop. After doing an unexpected load of laundry and showering we finally got a good night's sleep for our big day when we would meet Tony at Legoland!

We blew our entire vacation budget on the Lego Hotel but hell, YOLO! After checking in to our "Pirate Theme" room we headed down to the lobby for a little friendly Lego building competition. It took 4 of us, 2 hours and every black Lego they had in the hotel but we came up with a masterpiece that was truly a group effort. 51 kids stood up and presented their creations but in the end they were no match for our little witchy! Best Design goes to the Mazottis! Boo yea!

After winning the recognition that we, like obviously, deserved we decided to focus our time and energy on other important issues like minifigure trading. I had read online that the Legoland employees wear minifigures that you can trade with so I purchased 40 retro ones online for 75 cents a piece knowing that Cienna and AJ would have a ball with them. What I didn't expect was that Tony would actually hoard them and spend every waking moment plotting and scheming how he could trade for the ones he wanted most. We had more than one meltdown regarding "fairness" and "Legoland being for kids not adults" during the trip. I guess Tony didn't get the memo!

All in all, Legoland was a huge success. The lines were almost non-existant, the weather was beautiful, and our friends from Albuquerque joined us to make it an even more festive occasion. We rode rides, met characters, tried out the water park, and thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the hotel. I have a feeling it is not our last time at Legoland!

Before leaving southern California we could not resist a day at the beach. I have to admit... it made me miss my home state and dream about one day having a little bungalow somewhere near the water. We will see what the future holds!