You can learn a little Olympic history in Lake Placid at the Olympic Center (www.whitefacelakeplacid.com).

Park City Mountain Resort wants to know. Visit www.snowmamas.com  for details on how to enter a contest searching for true Snow Mamas and Papas to offer tips  to families heading to snow resorts with their kids.  Lots of goodies for those who are chosen.

Finally. I get to relax. After the extended family heads back to Denver and Connecticut, after my college freshman daughter and her friends head back to school, my husband and I head to Vail where we check in to the Arrabelle at Vail Square--a beautiful boutique hotel celebrating its second anniversary. (http://arrabelle.rockresorts.com )

 Sorry, Cinderella. Five-year-old Hannah Sitzman has forsaken all things princess to be a Winter Queen, she announces as she makes her way to the huge ice throne in a castle at the top of a ski mountain that took more than 75 tons of snow and two full weeks to build.

DAY 8 -- Yes, a ski trip can work whether you are five, 19 or 60-at least for our family, at least at Keystone Resort (www.keystoneresort.com) that is the most economical and most kid-centric of Vail’s Colorado resorts.

DAY 7 -- The kids take turns sitting on the ice throne, sliding through an tunnel and clamoring to the top of the fort that’s made out of ice –some 75 tons—that will sit at the top of Keystone Resort’s Gondola past the end of ski season.

DAY 6 -- Ever since they were a young married couple in Indianapolis, Peggy and Jerry Throgmartin talked about buying a ranch.

“This is my husband’s dream since he was seven, said Peggy Throgmartin. It took till the couple was in their fifties to make it happen—here at Vista Verde Ranch (www.vistaverde.com) about 25 miles north of Steamboat Springs.

Our 2010 Colorado winter adventure continues. DAY 5  -- Think four wheel drive. Think four wheel drive on skis. I’m in the back country of the Vista Verde Ranch—some 560 pristine snow covered acres at 7800 feet above altitude—trying my hand at back country skiing. (www.vistaverde.com)

Who says college kids have all the fun?  I've spent spring breaks hunting for the "perfect" Sand Dollar on a Sanibel Island beach, watching major leaguers at spring training games, along with my little leaguers, and exploring the Grand Canyon with a couple of young hikers who were thrilled to become Junior Rangers.

DAY 4 -- It’s just after 9 a.m. and the spanking new Kids Vacation Center at Steamboat—it has doubled in size this year—is in full swing. (www.steamboat.com. The babies and toddlers are playing in the day care area; the littlest skiers aged four to six are alternately eating Goldfish, drinking apple juice and coloring at tables with their groups. The older kids—including the popular teen groups that are run during busy school break weeks—are meeting on the snow.