January

The month of January seemed to fly by.  After recovering from Christmas we were off to Colorado to visit Liz and Dave and their kids.  We really wanted to get some snowboarding in this winter and thought, “what greater place to snowboard than Colorado?”  So off we went to Colorado.  It was quite an adventure trying to get out of town.  Of all places, the Phoenix valley was getting hit pretty hard with rain and super fast winds.  Because of the wind, every flight out of Phoenix was cancelled the night we were supposed to fly out.  BUMMER!!

After calling Southwest, the only flight available was the next day, leaving at ~9pm.  We were super bummed and even toyed with the idea of driving instead.  Dan and I went home and chilled while torrential rains were coming down outside.  Around midnight we decided to check all the flights for the next day and there happened to be two openings on the first flight of the day leaving at 7 in the morning.  We quickly called Southwest and told them that we would gladly take the last two seats on the plane. 

We soon realized that it was after midnight and we didn’t have a ride the airport in 4 hours.  We quickly got some rest and then drove ourselves to the airport.  Just before take off, we called mom and begged her to pick up our car from short-term parking. 

Well we finally made it to Colorado, what’s next you ask?  More fun. . .  We had told Liz that we weren’t coming in until late that evening so she had to work.  So we rented a car (that’s a completely different fiasco for another time) and drove straight to the ski lift.

We then spent the afternoon at Loveland Ski Resort snowboarding in the wonderful snow with the sun shining above us.

The rest of the trip wasn’t quite as crazy but we really had a great time hanging out with Liz, Dave, Andrea, Sophie, and Nadia.  We got to practice our snowboarding skills, do a little ice skating, take a hike at Roxborough State Park, and give my little brother a break from the crazy Air Force Academy.

Here we are ice skating outside on a real lake.  Pretty cool, huh?

I’ve never ice skated on a real, frozen lake before.  You see in Phoenix we only have indoor ice rinks.  It was really fun.  However it was a little windy, and I’m a wimp from Arizona so I thought it was pretty cold.  The kids out on the ice didn’t seem to agree with me.  There were some crazy kids out there in short sleeved shirts and others in skirts with tights!!  Crazy!!

Here are three pictures from our short hike at Roxborough:

Funny story is that Seth only had his “blues” for clothes so he had to borrow a pair of Dave’s sweat pants.  The only problem is Dave is a little shorter than Seth. . . . Oh well, good thing he wasn’t pickin’ up girls on the trail!!

Sophie was fun to hike with, she sure has a lot of energy!

I think Seth really enjoyed spending the day with the family.  He enjoyed the company, the civilian clothes, and the freedom!

When we took Seth back to the Academy, we stopped and showed the Ohsieks around the campus.  We stopped at the top of the hill where you get a pretty good view of the campus.  Only problem is it was FREEZING up there (if you can’t tell from our faces!) and the wind didn’t help either.

Overall we had a really great time!!  Can’t wait until we get to go back.