Colorado Ski Trip

Jeremy and I went to Denver to visit my brother David and meet up with my cousin Jess and her husband, Karl. They just got married last May and we unfortunately didn't make it to their wedding in Baltimore because I was so close to delivering Elliot. Jeremy had hung out with them at my other cousin Matt's wedding, so I was so excited to finally meet him! I also hadn't seen Jessica in about 7 years, way too long. Anyhow, we arrived Wednesday and drove to a condo near all the ski slopes. My brother and about 15 other residents rented the place for the winter. It's a four bedroom condo with a hot tub and Foosball table. Everyone just comes and goes as they please, so you never know who's going to be there or if you're going to have a bed to sleep on. We thought this would add to the adventure. Well, we all had plenty of room to sleep, but the hot tub ended up being the adventurous part. More on that later.

Thursday morning, we got up early and headed right to Vail for our first day of skiing and the first time I've skied since Carter was a baby. We had gotten about 5 inches of fresh powder overnight, so Dave said the conditions were great. I later learned that I only like skiing on the groomed runs. Turning in powder is not so easy.

We took it to the green runs at first. Then, we headed for the back bowls of Vail, wide open runs that are a bit more challenging. This was sort of intimidating, but we all survived. The view was amazing and the large dose of sunshine warmed us right up.

Here's the group at the beginning of Day 1

There's Jeremy in the powder blue hat. He had found it at my mom's house before we left. It says Vail across the front. We all made fun of him the entire time for wearing it, but it did make him easier to spot. Not many other powder blue Vail hats with a pom pom on top.

Here's Karl...he moved here from Germany about five years ago (I think?). We had great conversations about all sorts of things, even politics! One smart and well studied guy... loved the challenging and interesting discussions. Funny thing about Karl, Jeremy kept calling him "Jan" by mistake. Must have been the accent that reminded him of our good buddy, Jan. Welcome to the family, Karl!!

A view of the village

Here we are hiking around the village after we returned our skis. It felt so good to get back into shoes.
And, the hot tub. We all couldn't wait to get in after using muscles not used in years. When we got to the condo, we told some people staying there, we were headed for the hot tub. They responded, "Oh, about the hot tub....., well, it's a bit slimy". So, we dumped a bunch of chemicals in and about an hour later (and after many drinks), everyone got in (except me). I was later talked into it though. We didn't put the jets on for fear of what would be floating around. It was pretty gross and I only lasted about a minute when I did get in. Jeremy and Karl took turns jumping in the snow and then getting back in the hot tub. I think the drinks had something to do with that too. Here are Jess and Karl posing with their drinks frosting in the snow.
And Day 2, we headed to Beaver Creek, a much smaller resort and in our opinion so much nicer. We loved it. The lines were shorter, the people super nice, and the village was awesome. Karl had packed a little Maker's Mark for the occasion . Here are the guys taking a break at the top of a lift.

And, here's Jess passed out with the Maker's Mark. She really slipped off the edge of the bench, attempting to sit down next to Karl.Dave and I, Jess and Karl

It was so cute in the village of Beaver Creek. They had an ice skating rink right in town, outdoor fire pits and they serve warm fresh baked chocolate chip cookies by the ski lifts every afternoon.

Day 3, we headed to Golden to tour the Coors Brewery. It felt like tailgating b/c we were drinking samples first thing in the morning. We had a lot of fun here.

Jeremy, sampling the fresh cold brew.

There's a bar at the end of the tour where each person can sample three different beers.
My favorite pick - Blue Moon

Next stop: Boulder. My cousin Bonnie, on my mom's side of the family, lives there. She met us for lunch in town. I haven't seen her since our grandmother's funeral about a year and a half ago. It was so nice to visit her in Colorado!!! We met at a really great little restaurant attached to an old hotel. Here we are in the hotel after lunch. Bonnie works as an art director for a business magazine. I loved catching up with her and wish we could see the Hofto's out west more often!!

Then, we took a hike near the flatirons. Thanks for showing us around Bonnie!

We stayed in downtown Denver Friday and Saturday night. They were having Restaurant weekend and Dave got us into a fantastic restaurant called Vesta Dipping Grill. We highly recommend it if you're ever there. The price was right...52.80 (mile high city) for two gourmet and delicious meals. Karl picked a great wine too!
And last but not least, on the way back to the hotel, we took the rickshaw bike taxi. We loved it! Here's our driver. He gave us a little tour around the area and was just a really cool guy full of fun facts.

I wanted to get a picture of the giant bear so he drove us by.

Thanks Dave for all the work you did in arranging this trip for us. We had a fantastic time, a trip to remember!!! If the doctor career doesn't work out, you should open up an online travel agency! :-)