I picked up the boys from school on Friday and we headed on up to Aspen to stay at The Limelight Lodge.

The hotel was so conveniently located to town that we weren’t going to need a car and so we parked Vini-Man in the heated garage and entered the lobby.

It almost felt like home with its light and spacious living room and I plopped my tired and worn out body down onto the comfortable couch in front of the stone fireplace and stared into the flames as the kids raced around like dogs, exploring every niche. I reminded Brevitt of what happened the last time we stayed at the hotel and told him to be careful around the pool.

Read More....http://www.isdisnormal.com/2010/01/18/limelight-lodge-aspen/

If you and your family are visiting Aspen and need to recover from a beautiful day spent in the great outdoors than come drive approx. sixteen miles downvalley and visit Emily and Bel Carpenter's Bikram's yoga class in Basalt, and get your butt kicked.

Sweat out your worries in the 97 degree room and stretch all of the aches and pains out of your muscles. Believe me, if you drink enough water, you will be feeling a whole lot younger and sassier when you are finished, that is if you make it.

I have seen the most athletic men and women drop to the floor in exhaustion as they attempt to perform the twenty-six postures and have watched them come back for more the next day.

I have practiced Bikram's Yoga all over the country and I am always happy to come home to Emily and Bel's studio. They are expert practitioners and teacher's and we are fortunate to have them in our valley.

All I can say is, if you want to heal and rejuvenate your body than this studio is calling your name.

Check their schedule for kids yoga classes.

Don't knock it till you try it!

Winterskol happens this weekend, January 14 - 17, 2010 in Aspen and there is so much going on I don't really know where to begin.

Aspen with its beautiful streets lined with lit up trees is in of itself reason enough to visit but over Winterskol there is a smorgasbord of activities that will keep you and your family busy.

You can start by attending the Aspen Institute Dinner Discussion on "Why Goethe? Why 1949? Why Aspen?"

Next visit the amazing Anderson Ranch Arts Center's "Winterskulpt", forget snowman, we're going big with this 48 hour snow sculpture competition.

And for all of you who live to surf, come watch "Surfing 50 States" at the historic Wheeler Opera House.

To top off Thursday night go dancing at 9pm to Keller Williams at Belly Up .

Then the weekend starts with more wintersculpting for kids and adults as well as a health fair, apres ski parties, an Apple Strudel Downhill, a Snowmass Pub Crawl, Soupskol annual cook-off and more dancing to The Spazmatics.

Saturday night see the Fireworks Extravaganza display over Aspen Mountain and watch with your mouths open as the dazzling show fizzes and pops right above you.

There is more, more and more to list but go visit the ACRA website to get all of the details.

My three boys, my mother and I drove to experience Lion Country Safari in West Palm Beach.

I have always wanted to take the kids to Africa and driving through the Serengeti in Florida is a little like going to Vail, Colorado to get the fake Swiss experience but we must take what we can get.

While listening to the informative Safari CD we got slightly ahead of the information and pulled up directly next to the white rhinos. We were admiring their huge horns and commenting on how we had never been so close to a rhino before when we heard the narrator telling us not to ever pull up the car next to a rhino due to their dangerously playful ways. Whoops! Once again I felt like Chevy Chase in the movie “Family Vacation”.

We were thankful that the park was not full of busloads of people and we stayed until closing hours. We fed the giraffes crackers in the early evening light and admired the beautiful, graceful animals with big beautiful eyes. Axel thought that they looked sad and wanted to save them all and put them back in the wild. He also wanted me to yell at the people who were carving their names into the bamboo trees. I told him that I have learned that there are better ways to teach people to respect their planet and causing aggression is not one of them.

At the end of our stay, we closed the park with the boys playing in the incredible water park and they had a blast getting sopping wet in their clothes.

For more about Florida visit http://www.isdisnormal.com/2009/03/24/lions-rhinos-giraffes-oh-my/

Want to avoid the crowds? Want to find steep and deep terrain? Do you like X-Game terrain parks? Do you enjoy to eat fondue outside on the top of a sunny peak surrounded by breathtaking views? If you said yes to all these things and are hunkering for more than come ski at one or all of the four mountains that Aspen & Snowmass Ski Resort has to offer.

If your a beginner and want gentle and friendly go to Buttermilk. If you like wide, open slopes with access to a short hike to steep walls and cliffs visit Snowmass and go to the new Sweet Life candy shop in the landmark red barn in the new base village.

If you want mostly expert terrain with incredible views and a great lunch visit Ajax Mountain and eat at Bonnies, the local restaurant, and if you are truly an expert, looking for double diamonds and a hike that will leave images of jagged peaks in your mind as you go back to your everyday living and leave you wheezing for more, go to Aspen Highlands, where the lifties are throwbacks from the leather ski boot days and the Highlands bowl awaits you.