Snowshoe Fail

Matt and I were very excited about our brand new snowshoes we bought last weekend, so we were ready to get out on the trail to try them out. Saturday morning, we headed up to the Brainard Lake area with a couple of friends, Rachel and Dave (and Keva, Rachel's dog). We strapped on our fancy, new toys and set out. Sadly, the snowshoes left us feeling less than impressed. They're designed to spring up to keep from dragging. Unfortunately, when they spring up, they kick lots of snow up into the air and all over the person wearing them (which was me).

Covered in snow. There's Keva in the background. She was excited.

Not expecting the shoes to shower me with snow, I wore bad pants that were not exactly waterproof. Admittedly, that was a mistake on my part. But Matt was wearing his ski pants, and even he was annoyed with the flying snow. So today, we returned our pretty shoes. We are now snowshoeless once more.

But aside from my freezing wet toosh, it was a nice little hike.

Me and Rachel.

Since I was a little miserable, I gave up and turned around about halfway. I was embarrassed and disappointed, but once I plopped down on the awesome seat-warmers in the car, I felt much better.

Matt and Dave finished the trail, with Keva in tow. They made it to our intended destination, Left Hand Reservoir, which pretty much looks like a giant field when covered in snow.

Left Hand Reservoir. And lots of snow.

Keva didn't even notice that her mom had left her behind and gone back to the car with me. She was having too much fun barking at the snow.

It was very, very cold, but also kind of fun. Now we're back on the hunt for the perfect (and not insanely expensive) snowshoes. Someday we'll find them.

After the hike, we had a nice lunch/dinner at one of my favorite local places up in Longmont:

Yum. Eat here. It's good.

And on the car ride home, I got to sit in back with Keva. We bonded.

Ruff.

It was pretty awesome.

Scavenger Hunts Aren't Just for Kids

If there's one thing I'm pretty proud of, it's that I've managed to turn my husband into a Colorado Avalanche fan. I've followed the team since I was 12, so I'm thrilled that Matt now shares that love with me. But I never suspected that he would actually surpass me in the level of obsession for the team. He's now reading tons of articles about the games, and following multiple Avalanche bloggers. But hey, at least he's enjoying himself.

Anyway, one of the bloggers for the Denver Post was having a little Avs-themed scavenger hunt the other day. When Matt saw online that a group of items (a book, a Patrick Roy rookie card, and a ticket from the very first Colorado Avalanche game) was hidden somewhere in our neck of the woods, we headed out to find it.

In the dark, looking for Avs stuff.

I suppose it wasn't a true scavenger hunt, because we were only given one pretty specific clue and we were only looking for one item (or group of items). But regardless, it was fun. Melissa is not a huge fan of the Avalanche, but she is a fan of adventures and fun stuff, so she came along, too.

Melissa.

The initial clue made us think the location was right down the street from us, at some water towers just a few blocks away. So we went climbing hills and walking through snow until we realized there was no way to get past the fence with barbed wire, designed to keep punks like us out. Matt was checking the website on his phone, and a second mini-clue was given: the name of a bar not too far away. So we were off to a second location.

We found another pair of water towers behind the bar, and there sat a giant pile of rocks. We were sure this was the right location, so we started digging.

Sadly, we didn't find anything in the rocks. After looking around, and still not finding a thing, Matt saw online that we were too late and the Patrick Roy rookie card was long gone. While we were traipsing around the wrong water towers, someone had beaten us to our prize.

Oh, well. We had fun climbing hills and digging through rocks. And I've decided that this should become a monthly event. Who doesn't love a good scavenger hunt?

We didn't win, but we had fun.

On another note, yesterday was Valentine's Day. Matt and I took it pretty easy. We watched the Olympics and made a nice dinner at home:

Matt even put a candle on the table. See how romantic we are?

And we bought snowshoes:

Yay, snowshoes!

So next time we have to go climbing hills looking for Avalanche memorabilia, we can wear our snowshoes.

Snowshoeing and Making Beer

This weekend we finally got up to the mountains again, this time to do some snowshoeing. I was very excited, as I've been wanting to do this for a while now. We hit up our friend, Dave, who's pretty much a Colorado outdoors expert (at least compared to us), to show us how this snowshoeing thing is done. He took us up a short trail to Zimmerman Lake.

Excited and ready to go.

Along the trail.

Dave's also really into photography, so he was taking pictures along the way.

Matt.

Chatting.

The following photos are much better than the previous pictures, which should tell you that they were not taken by me. These were stolen from Dave, and they're his handiwork.

Pretty, yes?

Though I really dislike the cold (really), I had a lot of fun snowshoeing. It's just like hiking in the summer, except everything is covered in snow and completely beautiful (and you have giant shoes strapped to your feet). I can't wait to go again.

After the hike, the boys had a date to brew some beer. Unfortunately, I had already taken too much time away from my homework, so I hid in the other room and got some work done. Based on the pictures Matt took, it looks like they did a little work and a lot of standing around. But hey, in a few weeks we'll have beer. So that's cool.

Ingredients.

Working hard.

Adding the malt.

GIANT bowl of sugar.

Boiling wort.

Yum. Makes you thirsty, huh?

I'm looking forward to trying the beer in a few weeks. And to more snowshoeing, too.

Sing and Dance (la la la hey...)

We started out last week by singing and dancing the night away. But not to DMB, as my title suggests (though that would have been awesome). Maybe instead I should say we started out the week takin' it easy and listening to some great Eagles music, as performed by my dad's awesome band, The Long Run.


The band was playing at a pretty cool, old opera house up in Longmont. Most of my family went out to have some fun!

Everyone loved them. The dance floor was packed!

You may remember my dad's band from earlier this summer. They are Colorado's tribute to the Eagles, and they're really good.

The women in my family had to get up and dance! Sadly, the men (my husband and brother-in-law) did not join us.

Later in the week, we enjoyed one of our favorite activities: an Avs' game!

There was a super cute kid sitting in front of us, who made a sign for the game. When they left to go to the bathroom, I was able to sneak a picture:

This picture is actually upside-down so you can read it. Super cute, huh?

This time, we were able to go to the game with my folks and my aunt in honor of my aunt's birthday. Sadly, we lost. And we lost to the same team at the last game we attended. Oh, well. It was fun, and our guys still have pretty good chances for the playoffs!

Before we lost.

On a completely unrelated note, I got a new toy:

My inversion table!

Finally, this weekend, we had another birthday. With my expanding family all living so close, it seems like we have a birthday party every weekend! This one was for one of my nieces. It was a surprise party, so we all got to hide and look silly.

Waiting...

After we surprised the kid, she ran away and hid upstairs for awhile. Once she decided to come back down and join us, we were able to do all the traditional birthday stuff.

So we had lots of fun singing and dancing this week, since I basically sing and dance wherever I go. Try and find some time to sing and dance in your life!