Weekend Ski Trip

At this point, it should be no surprise to you that my husband is completely obsessed with skiing. And while I love it too, it's a little easier for me to start getting bored doing the same thing over and over. Every weekend we drive for way too long, ski places we're pretty familiar with, and get stuck in traffic on the long drive home. Don't get me wrong, I still get excited to do it. It's just that, every now and then, I need a little change.

Early in the new year, we turned our weekend skiing into a little more of a vacation. And I like vacations. We went up to Steamboat Springs for two days with our friend, Dave. Really, it was the perfect plan for us. Matt got two days of skiing new (to us) terrain with his buddy, and I got a hotel stay and some vacation-y small town exploration. Awesome.

After our long, but beautiful sunrise drive on Saturday morning, we went straight to the resort. The temperature in town was a little terrifying (-20 degrees Fahrenheit), but thanks to the lovely inversion effect, it actually wasn't too bad at the top of the mountain.

Skiing! My favorite run was Frying Pan, just because of the name.

Matt and Dave

After a lovely day of skiing (and a little sitting and resting for me while the guys went crazy), we attempted hanging out in downtown Steamboat. We had tapas and drinks at Mahogany Ridge Brewery and Grill before enjoying dinner at the famous Rio. (It's actually a small Colorado chain called Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant, but it's generally referred to as The Rio. It's pretty famous across the metro area for delicious, but strong margaritas.) While our two stops were enjoyable, that was about all we saw of the town. It was just way too cold to wander the streets or pop in and out of shops. We gave up early, hit the pool and hot tub at the hotel, and retired for the night. After all, we had to be well-rested for day 2 of skiing!

Pretty morning.

The second day was pretty good for me. I felt like I was going a little faster than usual, and I didn't even crap out early.

After a quick pizza stop, we had to head back to Denver. But it was certainly nice to get out of town for a couple of days. It's amazing how easy it is to head up in the mountains and forget about your worries back in town. It's like a short vacation. And I like vacations.

Spring stuff!

To be perfectly honest, I'm getting a little angry at myself. I hate that I'm so behind on posting, and it feels like I will never catch up. I have so many fun things that have happened - and they just keep happening! And as long as fun things keep happening, I will keep falling further behind on posting.

Oh, well. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

So... a long, long time ago... these things happened:

• My awesome niece was chosen as one of eight finalists to perform at a music competition for Denver's Bringing Back the Arts Initiative. She was crazy sick, but she was still ridiculously awesome!

• Matt's folks came to visit a while back, and they brought a boat! We took it out on the lake to do a little fishing, and then made our way up to Rocky Mountain National Park for a nice hike.

We're on a boat!

RMNP is one of my favorite places ever. So pretty.

• Our little town is certainly not the quaint community that I often long for, but we do have the occasional festival that makes me enjoy (or at least better tolerate) where we live. Thorntonfest is the biggest of these celebrations. It's no Arkalalah, but they had some yummy food, fun vendors for the kids, and an awesome dog competition. And Belle and I held a giant snake!

Good, clean, family fun!

Wow. I think I may have made it through spring. Summer stuff to come... eventually!

Playing in the Snow

I've decided that February is just a good month for snowshoeing. Maybe it's because the preceding winter months are so busy that we don't seem to get around to snowshoeing until this time of year. Of course, Matt's skiing obsession has certainly helped occupy most of our weekends. Anyway, earlier this month we were finally able to get out and play in the Colorado snow (without skiing!).

Isn't Colorado beautiful?

Our first snowshoe of the year was up in Rocky Mountain National Park with Dave. The park has some of the best snowshoe hikes in the state, and it's especially beautiful when the sun is shining.

Playing on the hike, Matt and Dave pose for our thoughtful album cover, Dave does anything to get the good shot, and our little chickadee friend says hello.

Trying not to fall down the hill.

The following weekend, we were back out on the trails. This time, the sun wasn't shining, but we went to a great area that was free of any other hikers. We went along with our friend Rachel and her dog, Keva (you may remember them from last winter).

So serene.

Of course, we destroyed a little of the calm and serenity as we ran around and played.

Fun times.

Friends.

In a lot of ways, I like snowshoeing more than skiing (though I'm sure Matt would disagree). There's just something awesome about being off in the woods or in the middle of a frozen lake. While I'm already aching for spring, I'm hoping to get a couple more snowshoes in this year.

Friends are cool!

Ah, what a nice weekend! Snow, rain, slush. Being stuck inside for hours. Lovely...

It really was a great weekend, though. A couple of our good friends drove hours and hours to visit us. Because of the lovely weather, we spent a lot of time inside the house. But just getting to hang out with these guys was awesome.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. (What a cliche phrase...) Last week, before our company arrived, I held a huge spider! The Butterfly Pavilion came to our school and brought Rosie the Tarantula with them.

This is not me holding the tarantula. But this is the tarantula that I held.

It was pretty awesome. And I got a sticker.

Everyone knows that stickers are awesome.

I was very excited when some of the kids at school made me a cubby in their room!!

As a Special Ed. para, I go all over the school working and playing with all the SPED kids. So, I don't really have a classroom of my own. One of the rooms I work in decided I needed my own cubby for all the art projects they make me. I thought it was very sweet, and it made me really happy.

The weather was beautiful last week, which made the oncoming storm even more dreadful. The flowers in my front yard were looking gorgeous.

Before the awful rain and snow ruined them.

Our cool friends got in on Thursday night, and the rain/snow/awful mix stuff started on Friday morning. We got out for a short amount of time Friday to try and show them the awesomeness that is Denver. It didn't work very well. The storm wasn't awful, but it was not a lot of fun to be out in. The snow was heavy and wet, and (at least for a while) the flakes were HUGE.

But they got to see Matt's office and a little bit of downtown before we retreated to the comfort and warmth of our house.

Just to give you an idea of how crazy-heavy this snow was, this is our tree outside after a few hours of snow.

Matt thought it would be fun to go out and shake off the tree. What can I say? We were bored...

It ended up being beneficial to our poor little tree. Once the weight of the snow was shaken off, it bounced back.

That was pretty much our entertainment on Friday... We spent a lot of time playing board games.

But like I said, just hanging out and talking with these awesome friends of ours was fun. However, we were still very anxious to get out of the house on Saturday. Luckily, the snow turned to rain, and we were able to trek back downtown to the Art Museum.

We saw some cool art, had a nice lunch, and saw a little more of the city.

It's really too bad the weather was so crappy because we had great plans to go up in the mountains and do wonderful summer-like things. Oh, well. Next time...