Coming Home

We had extra time to spare on our day coming home, so we drove over the Continental Divide. It was the only time we saw snow falling the whole week.

I have some videos of Jacob skiing that I will try to post as soon as Shane can show me how. We are glad to be home and able to breathe through our noses again (man, is it dry up there!)

Day off in Colorado

On Tuesday the guys took a break from skiing. We slept in and went to breakfast at our favorite breakfast joint, Sunshine Cafe. In the afternoon, we took Jacob to see Race to Witch Mountain. It is a good movie. It has lots of action and no bad words or subject matter, so a good movie in our book. After the movie, we went bowling. I hadn't bowled in years. The boys had bowled recently with our small group but I was unable to participate as it was too soon after surgery. It was fun and I did better than I could have imagined. OK, so I beat Shane at bowling (I know he is waiting for me to brag so I might as well get it over with).

We weren't quite ready to return to the condo yet, so we went down to the old part of Dillon by the lake. There is a playset there and one of our favorite restaurants, Arapahoe Cafe (great bbq - the only thing Coloradoans like about Texas). Here are some pics of the lake:

Here is another view of Buffalo Mountain from Lake Dillon (ignore the chain link fence). At the bottom of the picture (behind the fence) is the Dillon Ampitheatre where they have free concerts in the summer.

This is a great view from the top of Breckenridge. You can see some runs of Keystone on the left side.

Colorado - Our View

These are pictures of the view from our condo. As you can see we are very high up. Our condo is at about 9000 feet. It is hard enough to acclimate to Denver. Our condo is on Buffalo Mountain, named for the shape of the mountain. I believe the mountain is up to 12,000 feet (??). The mountain is made up of condo's (both owned and rented) and homes. From our balcony, you can see the backside of Keystone. On nights when there is night skiing, you can see a small part of the mountain lit up. It seems so close but is actually several miles away. You can also look down at part of Lake Dillon and the towns of Dillon and Silverthorne.


View of Buffalo Mountain from backside of our condo. You can see where there have been avalanches in the past and trees are starting to grow back.

View from balcony

View from balcony - if only the parking lot and trash were not there :) You can see a little bit of the lake below

View of the backside of Keystone from balcony

Ski Trip in CO

For spring break, we headed to our usual place...Colorado. Last year, the weather was cold, lots of snow and we didn't see the sun too much. Shane loves this kind of weather as it is the best to ski in. This year, it got up into the 40's every day and the teens at night and was sunny every day. I love this kind of weather but it is not good for skiing.

We arrived in Colorado on Friday and drove up to the condo right away. Usually on our arrival day, we spend the entire day traveling (it is about 1 1/2 hours from airport to condo in good weather), grocery shopping, renting ski equipment, etc. The next day, Shane and Jacob headed straight to Keystone to ski. Shane says it took Jacob a couple of runs to get his ski legs back and then he was off...although he does tend to ski doing the "toilet seat squat" position...Shane is working with him to stop this and to start parallel skiing, which he was more or less doing by the end of the week.

On Sunday, my brother Randy, drove up from Denver to see us. We had lunch and then the boys went skiing (Remember I am still on restrictions from surgery so no skiing for me this year. I look forward to trying out ski blades next year). The plan was for the guys to night ski but when they got there they found out that Keystone was closing early that night so they only got to ski for about 2 hours. I was excited for Randy to see Jacob skiing. Jacob likes to ski in the trees, which reminds me of Randy when we were little.

Jacob at Keystone on the first day


Randy and Jacob going up ski lift at Keystone

Jacob taking a break in the snow

Shane and Jacob top of Arapahoe Basin

Shane and Jacob headed to A-Basin one day. A-Basin is a more difficult resort than Keystone. The runs go above the tree line and are wide open. Jacob loved it there (except he missed the tree runs). By the end of the week they were skiing all blues and blacks (and they want me to join them next year :o

Next post...some more pics from our trip.

Wedding

Shane's brother, Tommy, married his fiancee, Farrah, on Sunday, March 8th. It was held at the Hotel ZaZa, a very nice hotel on Hermann Circle. I told Shane anytime he wants to surprise me with a night out that he could take me there. Apparently, it is frequented by famous people. While there, we saw Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, and Hershell Walker. I will say that although it is a nice hotel, it is very weird too, meaning the artwork is kind of out there. When it was time to go, Shane and I ran up to the groom's room to get his bag. While in there, I used the restroom. On the wall in the restroom was a racy picture of an almost nude woman that looked like it belonged in Playboy magazine. What was the purpose of the picture? Is that room always a groom's room? Are there pictures like that in every room? Weird!


Anyway, the day before the wedding, we all met up at the Hotel ZaZa for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal dinner was held at Benjy's. Benjy was a client of mine when I worked at Arthur Andersen so it was neat to see his place finally. It is in the Village off of Dunston. I highly recommend it as the food was great. We ate off the brunch menu. Here are some pics from the lunch:

Tommy and Farrah

Us

Shane's brother Bill and wife Rebecca

The next morning, or the day off the wedding, Jacob woke up with a 101 degree fever. Mom and Dad were nice enough to keep him so I could attend the wedding. The wedding was beautiful. I wish I had a better picture of Farrah in her dress (my camera battery went out and the extra was in my other purse...man, was I mad at myself.) After the ceremony, we had a four course meal, which was delicious, and then dancing. Here is the only picture I have of Farrah. Far left is Christy, Shane's sister and a bridesmaid. Also in the picture is Shane in the very back, Shane's dad, Shane's grandfather and his brother Bill.

Here is the best pic of all...Shane dancing with Lillian. Lillian is Shane's grandfather Thurman's girlfriend of many years. We consider her just another grandmother. She really got down on the dance floor.

Tommy and Farrah were lucky enough to honeymoon in Costa Rica for 10 days. We are excited that she is a part of our family and very happy for Tommy.

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Jacob continued to have a fever for a couple of days. He missed 2 days of school. He had a sinus infection and bronchitis...I didn't even know he was sick! That makes me feel terrible. Well, he seems better now and did well last week skiing in Colorado. I have lots of pics to share from our trip...next post!