Our last week

Our last week in Boulder has been about getting a bit of down time before we head home and also doing some sight seeing around Boulder and Denver. We have managed to fit in

* shopping (perhaps on a couple of occassions)

* Georgie had a sleepover with Maddie Katers

* watching the gridiron

* indoor sky diving

* a visit to Estes Park and the Stanley Hotel (where the Shining was filmed)

* dinner with the Cutlers

* dinner with the Katers and Cutlers at Chucky Cheeses

* a visit to the Celestial Seasonings factory

We are all ready to come home and look forward to catching up with everyone soon.

There are many very special people that have helped to make this trip so fantastic and we would like to thanks them all - Kathryn & Corben in LA; Holly, Flynn, Annette, Lynda, John and Skyler in Las Vegas; the Moore and Hingeley families in San Diego; the Cutlers & Katers families in Boulder and Scott and Kerstin who came in from Pennsylvania to spend time with us in Colorado. A really big thank you and we hope that we see you down under some day soon.

Friday - Day 42

Today we packed up at Silverthorne in the morning (after a quick go of the snow shoes) and headed off for some sight seeing on the way back to Boulder. We drove over the Dillon Dam wall (which only re-opened today) and then headed to the gorgeous town of Idaho Springs, where we had lunch and a look around in the shops. After that we went to Buffalo Bill's grave and looked around for the Buffalo heard  (without any luck). We dropped of our gear at Boulder and then headed straight back out for a night at the ice hockey with the Kater's family. It snowed really heavily on the way in so the traffic was very slow causing us to miss the start of the game. We were up in the nose bleeds but all really enjoyed the spectacle even though we had no idea of what was happening. We came to a car completely covered in snow and the drive home was also pretty slow.

Overnight: Marian's Boulder 

Thursday - Day 41

It was back to Breckenridge today. The snow conditions were great, but we hit some more really cold weather, with a top temperature of -15c and frostbite warnings. Georgie and I only lasted a couple of hours, Ali stayed inside all day, but Shane wasn't going to be beaten by cold weather. He was a trooper and stayed out until the end of the day.

Overnight: Cutler's Condo Silverthorne

Wednesday - Day 40

It was a day off for the kids and I today while Shane headed up to Arapahoe Basin for a few hours. He only lasted until early afternoon as this was the coldest day that we had hit so far. The temp's were around -20 celcius (and probably even colder with the wind chill factor). The kids and I did some shopping (finished off the outlet mall - it amazes me that in this cold weather that they have outdoor malls). In the afternoon Shane and Georgie went for a swim, while Ali & I continued shopping. We had dinner at a Japanese / Thai restaurant.

Overnight: Cutler's Condo Silverthorne

Tuesday - Day 39

Today we decided to venture a bit further and head to Vail for the day (about 30 min drive from Silverthorne). Vail is a huge mountain with nearly 200 runs - and we were never going to get to much of it in one day, but thought that we would give it a good try. We were expecting bad conditions to roll in during the day but luckily the blue skies stayed all day.  Eventhough this is a really popular resort and there were far more people than the other mountains, it was probably not our favourite resort (we all loved Breckenridge the best so far).

Overnight: Cutler's Condo Silverthorne

Monday - Day 38

It was an early start from Boulder today as we headed to Breckenridge for our day's skiing. Ali called Breckenridge 'skiing heaven'. We had beautiful blue ski all day and no wind with fresh snow. After skiing we headed down the main street of Breckenridge for a look around. This is the most gorgeous place to visit with all the street lights and Christmas decorations still up. After that, we collapsed and had dinner at the condo.

Overnight: Cutler's Condo Silverthorne

Sunday - Day 37

Today was a quiet day hanging out around Marian's house. Shane went for a swim at the local rec centre and then in the afternoon, the girls and I went shopping at the local 29th Street Mall. We spent most of our time at Borders. We have been so busy that it was nice to just sit back and relax. We then met up with the Kater's family who are now living in Boulder, for some Margarita's and a Mexican meal. It was fantastic to catch up for some Aussie sense of humour.

Overnight: Marian's Boulder

Saturday - Day 36

I am the early riser in the family hence that is when I get the time to update the blog, so I spent some time this morning doing updates and loading photos. After a lazy morning we headed in to Denver to meet Scott & Kerstin at the Denver Stock Show for the 2pm Rodeo. We were treated to all types of rodeo events in a really large stadium (Denver Coloseum) which was pretty close to full. We spent most of the afternoon at the Stock show and then headed to Denver for dinner at Ted's which is famous for their buffalo meals. We had a great dinner with Scott & Kerstin and then headed to Kerstin's parent's for sweets. They live in downtown Denver with a fantastic view across the city.

Overnight: Marian's Boulder

Friday - Day 35

Ali wasn't feeling well this morning, so she stayed at the condo for the day while Shane, Georgie and I met up with Scott & Kerstin at Keystone. The conditions were predicted to be pretty brutal today so we were pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as bad as expected. It snowed heavily all day but the wind wasn't too bad until late in the afternoon. We spent the day skiing in fresh powder, while Shane and Georgie grew very fond of runs through the trees. This place had unbelievable snow with 26" falling in the last 7 days. The temperatures are cold here and the forecast wind chill factor for today was -10 farenheight which equates to -20 celcius. We have purchased hand warmers, toe warmers and face masks which all help to reduce the effect of the cold temperatures. Scott and Kerstin headed off at about 3.30pm to go back to her parents in Denver while Shane, Georige and I stayed on for a couple more runs. The conditions had got a lot worse and it seemed to take forever to get to the bottom. Georgie got to do her run under lights so she was happy. We went back to the condo (only 5 - 10 min away) and picked up Ali, then headed back to Boulder. The roads were covered in snow and the traffic was going fairly slowly as the conditions were really bad. This time we went through the tunnel which cuts off a lot of time. Watching the semi trailors travel these roads is really amazing and you see plenty of cars that have spun off the road into the snow. We had dinner at Old Chicago just before we arrived back at Boulder.

Overnight: Marion's Boulder

Thursday - Day 34

In the morning we headed up to Arapahoe Basin (which is about a 20 min drive from Silverthorne) to meet up with Scott & Kerstin. It was fantastic to see them again (and it was hard to believe that it was only 12 months since they were in Melbourne). We spent the day skiing and exploring. Ali and I stayed together (mostly on the green runs - which were more like Australian blue runs) and Shane & Georgie spent the day with Scott and Kerstin exploring more of the blue runs. Georgie really enjoyed racing Kerstin and even though she was beaten by a wooshka (in Georgie's description), she was determined to beat her at the rematch tomorrow. The snow was coming down fairly heavily in the afternoon and Ali wasn't feeling so well, so she stayed inside and I went out with the others where they would take me on some runs that would push my normal comfort zone. This is the first time that we have ever noticed the traditional shape of the snow flakes - they were each like a work of art and so light and fluffy. After we were all completely exhausted we headed for dinner at an Italian Restaurant in Silverthorne.

Overnight: Cutler's Condo Silverthorne

Wednesday - Day 33

The kids (and I) were pretty tired today, so we decided to have a day off. Shane was not keen to miss an opportunity to hit the slopes so I dropped him up to Arapahoe in the morning and he spent the day exploring on his own. It was snowing fairly heavily and I hadn't spent much time driving, so I was super nervous driving back to Silverthorne in Marion's car (which is a stick shift). The kids and I had a quiet morning and then headed out to the outlet mall, which was located in Silverthorne. There were about 50 outlets at the outdoor mall and we had a great time visiting most of them. The snow was coming down fairly heavily in the afternoon, when Shane rang to say that he was back in Silverthorne. We picked him up from the bus stop and headed back to the condo for dinner. I think it took hime a while to thaw out, but he had a great day at Arapahoe. Scott and Kerstin came in from New Jersey late at night so we didn't get to see them that night but made plans to catch up in the morning at Arapahoe.

Overnight: Cutler's Condo Silverthorne

Tuesday - Day 32

Our season pass for Arapahoe Basin includes 5 bonus days that can be used at Keystone, Breckenridge, Vail or Beaver Creek, so it was a toss up this morning as to where we would head. We had heard that Keystone had night skiing so decided that a later start and later finish would be better so that is where we headed there for the day. Unfortunately the night skiing was only from Wednesday to Sunday but as it was I don't think that we could have kept going anyway. The snow was fantastic with temperatures of -10 celcius and the runs were really long. One of our favourite runs was 3.5 miles long. After we finished we all collapsed back at the condo.

Overnight: Cutler's Condo Silverthorne