Breckenridge With Friends

Today we spent in Breckenridge with some neighbors from home.  The morning was beautiful and warm so we headed over to the sledding hill with the kids.  Lucky for Caboose, the sledding hill is right next to the dog park so he came along for the fun.  The mommies had kid duty in the morning, but we handed them off to the daddies after lunch.  I had a great time on the slopes with Laura in the afternoon.  And lucky for us the weather started to turn while we were out there.  First the clouds, then some fresh snow and because it was the afternoon the lift lines were shorter, so it really worked out for us.  :)

Caboose enjoying the dog park

The sledding hill was a popular place this morning

Headed back up the hill for another run

Day Before the Crowds Come

It's Friday before one of the biggest ski weekends of the year and the crowds have grown considerably since the beginning of the week.  Today we skied over at Beaver Creek which is slowly becoming one of my favorite resorts.  Every day at 3pm, they serve fresh, hot chocolate chip cookies and they always have live musicians after skiing.  They have lots of terrain, as much snow as Vail, and the free parking is plentiful.

The only thing I don't like... the sticker prices.  For 24 capsules of Advil, take a guess?  $7.70, yikes!  And, check this one out:

That's just the sandwich... we're not talking a "meal deal" here.

My favorite pictures from today:

Powder Day at Keystone

About to hit the sack for tonight, but I wanted to upload a few pictures from today... if only to make Katy homesick.  :)  Priya and Sanjay were dreaming of Ethan, Alex and Evelyn walking into the parking garage when we were getting all our gear on this morning.  What a great surprise that would have been, but alas they are still in Germany.  In any case, we had a good day at Keystone with some fresh snow making for great ski conditions.

The highlights:

While waiting for Daddy and Priya to finish skiing, we hung out in Ripperoo's Dog House

Having Coffee with Ripperoo Himself

I love that mutt!!

This afternoon I hung out with my boy on the mountain.  Before lunch he tried a double-black run with Daddy and Priya, and although he finished it without falling, it wasn't really his cup of tea.  He is desperate to keep up with them.  However, I convinced him to hang with me this afternoon and we had a fantastic time on the blue runs. 

Today in pictures:

Lionshead Village from the Vail Gondola

Tuesday at Vail

We are definitely getting spoiled by these warm temperatures.  Some snow along with colder air should be moving in on Thursday, so they say.  As much as a new layer of powder would be nice on the slopes, I'm not ready for these bluebird days to end.  Here are the pictures from today's adventures...

The waiter even brought Caboose a bucket of water

Valentine's Day at Beaver Creek

Today we headed over to Beaver Creek for a fun day in the sun.  The temperatures are unseasonably warm making today feel more like the spring conditions of late March rather than the dead winter of mid-February, but I'll take it.

Today is the day that I have come to terms with the fact that both my children ski better than I do.  I saw it coming last year, but wasn't prepared to fully face it.  It's a sad day in a way because they now prefer skiing moguls and black terrain to hanging with their Momma on a blue bump run.  :(  It looks like Bartee will be able to hang with them for a quite a while longer, so at least I don't have to worry about them.  Last year Bartee was upset that he couldn't get the kids to join him on runs and this year, as well as every year from here on out, it's my turn to ski alone.  

Daddy and Priya head into the sunset

Beautiful view of the moon

Slopeside Lunch

After lunch we hit the kids favorite trail!

While we were out Caboose spent the day at Doggie Day care... and that is why since we've been home he has been doing only this:

I love that mutt!

Annual Ski Vacation - First Weekend

We are up in the mountains of Colorado for our annual ski vacation.  Things got off to a rocky start on Saturday morning when we were pulled over for speeding before even reaching the slopes.  :(  However, a day at Breckenridge with our fill-in parents is always enough to wipe away our blues.  Blue skies, little wind and perfect temperatures made for a great first day to the vacation.  We stopped for lunch at Peak 9 and that's when the wind started to pick up.  It was the perfect time to duck into a building as the snow was pelting us like sand.  After lunch we headed up Chair 6 to some tougher terrain, higher on the mountain and windier conditions.  Bartee was leading the way down the bumps and he stopped to wait for us.  I didn't think anything of it because he always has to wait up for me.  As I got closer, he says... "My back is stiff; I went over that bump and it tightened up on me".  Within a few minutes he laid down in the snow to let the spasms subside.  Needless to say, that was the last run of the day.  We headed home where Bartee spent a lot of time icing, heating and taking drugs for the back.  So far the vacation wasn't turning out the way we'd hoped.

On Sunday we decided to take the day off from skiing so that Bartee could recover.  In the morning we walked with friends to a nearby sledding hill where Caboose even joined in the fun.  

You can see from these videos (Priya and Sanjay), that the wind was a little crazy.  The bizarre thing was that this wind was blowing in from a high pressure so it actually was a warm wind.  So from the video you may think that we are freezing out there, but that was not the case.  However, I'm glad we stuck to the lower elevations on Sunday rather than hitting the ski slopes.  That wind wouldn't have been much fun on the chair lifts.

Sunday afternoon was spent with friends at the outdoor hot tubs and pool at their timeshare in Breckenridge.  Even though we didn't ski, it still seemed appropriate to sit in the Apres Ski bar for a drink.