My next few weekends were just as much fun as the first two of the new year. I told you I had a lot to look forward to!
The third weekend of the new year, the long weekend of MLK Day, my parents were in town for ski trips. I make that plural because they each were on their own ski trip, although they did overlap slightly. In honor of them being in town, I took Friday off work and headed up the mountain directly after work on Thursday. I spent Friday skiing with my mom and brother, and my dad arrived in the afternoon with one of his friends (he was on a "man-cation" with some of his friends - this is why it was 2 separate trips, you see). After spending the afternoon with us, he and his crew of friends went on to Steamboat Springs, while Mom, Brother and I stayed with my Aunt & Uncle in Silverthorne.
The next day was Saturday, and my mom wanted to take a day off skiing, so we did out next favorite thing to do in Summit County - shop the outlets!! And boy did I find some gooood sales! I need to brag for just a minute and tell about the deals I found at Eddie Bauer. First though, you must know I had been wanting this thigh length down jacket since approximately November (p.s. Confession: that's not the exact same jacket, because it was an outlet store which has different products than the retail website, but it's close enough you can get the idea). Anyway, I had been holding out on making this purchase just hoping it would go on sale. Jackpot! Patience wins again. I got the jacket plus 4 sweaters all for $30 less than the original cost of the coat. How awesome is that?! Pretty awesome, I know.
My mom was leaving the next day, so after some serious shopping I headed on to Steamboat Springs to spend the rest of my long weekend with my dad and his buds. I had never been to Steamboat in the winter, so I was really looking forward to snowboarding there. I had heard fantasies about the champagne powder this resort always boasts, but unfortunately I didn't have high hopes due to the poor snow reports all around Colorado this year. Good thing too; I would have been sorely disappointed if I had been expecting anything more.
The snow was really pretty awful; I was riding on pebbles, twigs, and weeds just as much as I was on snow. I have to hand it to them though, they did have a lot more runs open than any other resort I have been to this year. It just wasn't as well maintained. Then again, Dad and I didn't really know the mountain or where the best places to ride were. We asked some locals and they sent us over to the blue area of the mountain. We thought that would be great, but turns out Steamboat's rating system is a little different than the mountains we're used to. The blues were rather gradual and quite a few beginners were over there. When we realized this, we headed over to the black runs, which were more comparable to blue runs at say, Keystone. Our day got much better at this point. We weren't dodging beginners, spending times on cat tracks, or getting bored. We had a great afternoon and called it a day after a full day of sunshine & fun.
We decided not to ski on Monday because of a combination of reasons: it was crowded because of the long weekend, it is expensive, I would have to leave early to miss traffic and an impending snow storm, and the snow was awful. Dad would have the rest of the week to get in some days skiing, and I was fine to take it easy and hang out around town. So that's exactly what we did. And it was wonderful! Plus, I got a really cute headband/ear-warmer thing. I'll have to show you another time. Luckily for my dad and the guys, the snow moved in that afternoon and they got 11" plus another 8-10" later in the week. Not so lucky for me, I was driving home in a white-out at occasional locations. Honestly, it wasn't too bad.
The very next weekend, it was Donnie's birthday, and we had a couple friends who happened to be in town. To celebrate, we spent the day at A-Basin, then headed down to Golden for dinner and beers, and finished out the night at Southern Sun in Boulder. It is a local brewery with a very casual atmosphere. They have an entire cabinet filled with board games, so after ordering a local brew we pulled out Yahtzee and proceeded to play a full game. Although I was the only one to roll a Yahtzee - on my very first turn - I still came in second. Ironically, our scorekeeper won. I think he may have cheated.
As much fun as the past four weekends have been, I cannot tell a lie, I'm looking forward to doing nothing this weekend except errands and chores. I need a weekend to relax & rejuvenate. I'm hoping this gets accomplished...because next weekend the fun begins again!
