Colorado

Just a couple of days before our 16th wedding anniversary we headed out to Colorado.  This was going to be a special trip.  Our friends have wanted to visit (read ski) in Colorado for ever.  So we were going to show them around.  Karyn and Ralph heard about the trip and wanted to come and Zeb and Abbie were happy to hop on board.  We planned to stay at my folks house but with such a big group renting a house became an option.  So we got a great house just off of I-70 in Silverthorne for a week.
Our first couple of days we caught up with our friends from Denver and my brother.  We got to meet my brother's new girlfriend Dani.  She was very nice and as one would expect with my brother she was also very pretty.  Rachel joined us for dinner in Longmont.  It was good to catch up.  We stayed at my folks house.  I think it was the first time I had stayed in that house without them.
Saturday we drove down to Denver to pick Karyn and Ralph up from the airport (using my Dad's Avalanche) and then we headed up to the mountains.  Our friends had driven out and met us up there later.  Zabbie had come in a day earlier and were with friends.  This was Zeb's first trip back after moving to New York from Colorado the previous year.

 There wasn't a great deal of snow when we arrived but it snowed early in the week and then twice more while we were up there.  Over two feet fell that week making it "the week" to be up there skiing.

The first day they drove over to Steamboat to avoid the crowds.  Afterward they hit some of the local hot springs.

Sounded like a great way to start the trip.

The second day Zeb showed everyone around his old work/play place Vail.  The snow was so so but everyone had a great time.
The next day it snowed so hard that everyone took the day off.

Then they skied Copper and Art was able to show everyone one of his favorites- Arapahoe Basin.

 We took our friends daughter to an apres ski one night and she got to sit in with the band.  She did a great job and had a blast!  She was even more excited when she made tips :-)

The weather could not have been better for our trip.  As we were heading down the mountain to drop Karyn and Ralph off at the airport we saw traffic backed up all the way down through Golden.  We headed up to Loveland and avoided the weekend hoards.

This was a beautiful sunrise.  I do miss my Colorado sunrises and sunsets most.

We were also able to catch up with our old college friends in Denver at BeauJos pizza, and I was able to catch up with my old Lord of Honor Paul and another friend we used to work with.  Such good friends we have :-)

While up in Loveland we had great weather.  Sunny and dry.
The deer were in the yard to welcome us home.  The elk moved through the next day.
The bunnies were a little shy but did pop out to say goodbye as our friends left.

We headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park to sight see and do some hiking.  We ended up at one of my favorites around Bear Lake.

We saw some big horn sheep and I think everyone had a great day.

Picture Perfect Day.

There was little snow and a well packed trail so we all did a little hike up and around the area ending with Bierstadt Lake. 


Sadly it was this day that we got the call.

It was Karyn saying that Mom was in the hospital again and how soon could we get to Tucson.

We made arrangements to head down the next morning.  Our friends stayed behind to close up/clean up my folks house and take us to the airport.