After 20 years apart, couple enjoys first family vacation at Beaver Creek
Courtesy photo
It took a while for newlyweds Debi and Chris Blanchard to take their daughters on their first family vacation. There’s more to this story, of course.
The Blanchards are taking a second shot at being married to each other. They’d been divorced for 20 years before deciding their breakup wasn’t working out.
The Blanchards, of St. Louis, along with daughters Paige and Madison Turner and Turner’s husband, Nathan, have spent some time in Beaver Creek this week. They’re having a great time.
The Blanchards divorced when Madison and Paige were very young, so there was never time for a family vacation. But Debi and Chris remained friendly even while they were apart. Friendly feelings started to deepen when the two met up in New Orleans for Paige’s graduation from Tulane University.
“Paige likes to say it was a parent trap,” Debi said of a trip for some music at the Bon Temps nightclub.
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“The sparks were flying,” Debi said. “But we kept it a secret.”
But those sparks were hard to keep under wraps.
Paige recalled that one of her roommates asked if her long-divorced parents were still in love. That brought a quick “no way!” from Paige.
Still, she added, “How can you not fall in love in New Orleans?”
When Madison and Nathan married soon after Paige’s graduation, the sparks flew again. But the Blanchards weren’t quite ready to give in.
“We need to talk to our therapists,” Debi recalls saying to Chris.
While the divorce lasted for 20 years, Chris said he and Debi both felt splitting up was a mistake.
“We both continued to think about one another,” Chris recalled. “I tried to get her back twice” with no success.
Then, Debi said with a laugh, Chris “admitted he was wrong about everything” and things fell into place. The couple remarried in May of 2023.
Debi’s familiar with Beaver Creek, having come for the past several years on trips with her female friends. When the idea of a family vacation came up for the newly reunited family, the choice was between a warm-weather escape or heading to the mountains. The vote was unanimous for Beaver Creek.
“We’re having such a good time,” Debi said. The family has taken some turns as a group, and even son-in-law Nathan is getting out on his first trip to Colorado’s mountains after a few lessons at a beginner area in Missouri.
“I don’t think this will be our last ski trip,” Debi said, adding that Beaver Creek was a “perfect pick for our first family vacation.”
Paige, who lives and works in Austin, Texas, said she’s “loving” this trip.
“To have everyone together has been … awesome,” she said.
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Madison agreed that the trip has been “incredible,” adding that she had only vague memories of her parents when they were together for the first time.
Debi and Chris are happy in their new life together, and they have the support of family and friends in this new adventure.
Mostly.
“You also hear, ‘Are you crazy?’,” Debi said. “We’re just making the best of our time.”
