Breckenridge

John, Jimmy, Angela, Chris, and Diana


Our ski trip this year was such a blast! Chris, Steph, Levi, John and I landed in Denver Saturday morning, rented our car, and got on the road to Breckenridge, CO. We stopped for lunch at Red Robin, where we were about 15 minutes early for lunch, so Levi waited outside their door (no pressure, Red Robin). We met up with Kristin and Carol, Brian's mom, in Frisco, where we got some nice pictures and walked around a bit.

The group in Frisco, CO

We then went into Breckenridge, thinking we could park and do some window shopping, but there was NO place to park for Chris and the guys, plus we couldn't get a phone call through because AT&T was so jammed in that area. We next decided to see if we could check into our condo early without Matt. When we got to the place, we couldn't find a main office and all we managed to find was a sulky teenager who told us a different address to check in. We went there and the woman looked puzzled by the name on our reservation, then asked if maybe we were supposed to be checking in the next day. After a brief moment of panic, we called Matt, who was driving with Brittany from Oklahoma and had not had any electricity for three days; therefore, he had not printed out the email confirmation. I think he called his mom and had her look up the info, and we finally found the address of the place to check in. However, we were unable to do so without Matt in person, so we went ahead to the ski shop to pick up our rentals. This, finally, went smoothly. We then waited outside for Matt and Brittany, who were only ".2 miles away," which turned out to be the longest .2 miles I've ever experienced. FINALLY they got there and some of us went grocery shopping while they went to get the condo keys. Grocery shopping for twelve people was quite an experience. We were very proud to get out of the store for only $27 a person for 4 days, plus it was quite a feat to fit all those groceries in the car along with our luggage and 4 people. Levi and Chris ended up packing it all around Stephanie and me! We were exhausted and cranky when we got back to the condo, and then had to fix dinner for all the hungry people. By that point, Diana, Bryan, and Jimmy had arrived and Kristin and Brian were on their way back from dinner. That first day was a bit of a nightmare, but we went to bed excited for the first day of skiing.

Brian cooking breakfast Sunday morning

Chris and Angela waiting for the shuttle to the resort!

Sunday turned out to be a beautiful, temperate day for skiing in Breckenridge! We packed our lunches and rented a locker, then hit the slopes. Stephanie, John, and Jimmy had never skied before and Brittany hadn't been in a loooong time, so we took several easy green runs to get everyone used to it. Everyone did well and Jimmy immediately went off with the experienced guys to try his luck on some blue runs, and even a blue-black (I won't go near those). Steph had a pretty bad fall that Jimmy witnessed--he saw her tumble and crack the back of her head on her own ski, and he thought, "Whoa! That poor girl just ate it... oh... that's my sister!" That fall and subsequent knot on Steph's head made her more cautious and paranoid about the whole skiing thing. Kristin even joined us and we did several bunny slope runs with her and Brian, getting used to the skis. After awhile, Brian somewhat tricked me into trying my first blue run, but he was nice and took me to a fairly easy one. Throughout the three days of skiing I mastered the concept of parallel skiing, so I didn't get so worn out trying to slow myself down. Plus, I got much more comfortable with speed, so I came to really enjoy the blues. Sunday evening we went back to the condos and Steph cooked delicious lasagna. The fiasco with this was that our condo did not contain a cheese grater, so Brittany brought over one from the other condo--which turned out to be a zester. Steph had bought three huge blocks of cheese, probably a pound each, and we spent about an hour taking turns zesting the cheese. Yes, after all that time, genius me says, "Hey, couldn't we just slice the cheese thinly and it would melt on the lasagna just fine?" I got a death look from Steph, but it seemed to work. We went to bed EARLY, exhausted and sore.

Getting our nerve up before conquering a blue run...

Jimmy and Chris (with the helmet he bought)

Monday morning started out chillingly cold, probably in the low teens, and overcast. This is NOT my favorite ski weather, especially when the strong winds cause the chairlifts to sway and blow the snow so much that it's hard to see where you're going. Combine this with Chris wanting to ski blues right away, and it made for a tough morning.

John, Angela, and Chris contemplating bank robbery in our future

We even took a break to warm up with Kristin inside, and took some silly pictures.

Levi and Kristin

Stephanie and Davy Crockett

Jimmy, Diana, Stephanie

The sun came out that afternoon and we enjoyed a few more runs, plus one little incident. As Diana, Chris, John, and I are getting on a chairlift, I hear a bunch of commotion to my left and feel the chair kind of rattle as it's scooping us up. As we settle in for the ride, I say, "What happened??" and Chris replies, matter-of-factly, "John lost his skis." Sure enough, I look down and John's boots look rather forlorn without their skis attached. Apparently, John didn't move fast enough and got his skis tangled in Chris's, so when the lift pulled him up, his skis popped right off. When we got to the top and skied down the hill, John had to run quickly in ski boots, which is not comfortable nor easy. Luckily, his skis were sent up with someone else so it didn't really slow him down. We quit a little early that day, too tired and (in Chris' and my case) sick to push it until the lifts closed. That evening we went to downtown Breck for dinner, at a place called Downstairs at Eric's. Our table decided to split a pizza four ways, so we went for what is called the "Gigantor"... and it was! After about half a beer, Kristin couldn't stop talking about how we had to conquer the Gigantor... I think we were all a little delirious from the skiing, altitude, and good pizza and we just couldn't stop laughing at her. After dinner we went to the Frisco condo and those of us who are brave tried out the outdoor hot tub, which was incredible. Of course, the guys had to turn it into a manhood test and outdo each other at jumping and rolling in the snow, then running back and getting into the hot tub. When they got out, their skin was literally steaming and apparently, getting back in was the most painful. Despite all the fun we had, we were still wiped out from all the exercise and we probably were in bed by 10:30 (well, at least the Breck condo was).

Angela at Peak 7

Tuesday turned out to be the warmest and most beautiful! After a bit of a late start, Diana, Chris, Bryan, John and I took the gondola over to Peak 7 where there are a lot of blue runs that are more scenic and different than those on Peaks 8 and 9. We spent a glorious morning on these runs, then met everyone for lunch at a restaurant at Peak 8. Our lunch ended up costing more than dinner the night before! It's criminal, what those places charge for food. We got a full afternoon of skiing in on Tuesday, and I even convinced Steph to go on a steeper green run twice! I don't think she was very happy with me, but she was a good sport. The fun thing about skiing is that once you get someone on the lift, there's really no turning back. She saw how steep it was but had to go for it, because she had to get down somehow! She did great, though.

Angela, John and Stephanie DOMINATED the greens

Meanwhile, Jimmy was doing the T-bar (which he somehow screwed up and he and Bryan ended up hanging on with their arms and being dragged up the mountain) and tons of black runs. He was fearless on skis. You'd think, since he has further to fall, he would be more cautious! Chris and I ended our day with a couple of blue runs with Brittany and by ourselves. We headed back to the condo for taco soup and a movie, then just relaxed and had a nice evening visiting with Stephanie, Kristin, and Brian.

Brittany and Angela on the gondola Tuesday

Wednesday we slept in and ate Levi's egg souffle for breakfast, which was delicious!! We went into Breckenridge for some shopping, then split off and our small group headed back to Denver to return our car and catch our late afternoon flight. We met up with Jimmy and Diana in the airport, then came home to our sweet little boy, who enjoyed his visit with Nana, Pandy, Mamie, and Pappa Doo! He modeled his souvenir for us and made sure to let me know that he would be coming on the next trip.

"I Moose Have a Hug"

This is the portal to vacation

Yay Breckenridge! We'll miss you!