COLORADO TRIP

We took the kids to Colorado for a long weekend.  We arrived at the airport and enjoyed some Starbucks treats!

 Nicholas and his banana "bernina" bread

 Madi and her Double Chocolate Chip Frappuccino

 Savannah and her tall hot chocolate with no whip

 There is my hubby with his Coffee of the day.....he doesn't even know I am watching him

 Now he does

 The kids after we made it to breckenridge

 Jeremy parents met us in breckenridge for the weekend....it was really fun!

 At dinner Nicholas and Savannah ordered root beers that looked like "Daddy's beer"  they thought that that was really funny!

 Here is Savannah with hers

 Madison opted for the fancy hot chocolate.....she loves hot chocolate (2nd only to her Starbucks Double Chocolate Chip frappuccino)

 Here we are after dinner outside of the restaurant....it was REALLY cold!

DAY 1

 They wanted to try snowboarding for the first time!  Jeremy grew up skiing and it was important to him for our kids to have the opportunity to try it out.  Our children are big into their "Rip Sticks", which are similar skateboards BUT ONLY HAVE 2 WHEELS!  Madi, Savannah, and Nick somehow ride these tricky things REALLY WELL!  So.....snowboarding was the natural choice when they were asked which winter sport they wanted to try out.

Gearing up for their first snowboarding lesson

 Here are the kids with their snowboard instructor, Nick.  We scheduled 2 days of private lessons for all three of them together so that they could really learn the basics by a professional teacher.  He was a super nice guy

 Off they went for the day!

DAY 2

FONDUE ON KEYSTONE MOUNTAIN

 Saturday night we took a gondula up to the very top of Keystone Mountain (about 20 minutes away from Breckenridge) to visit one of the family's favorite restaurants "Der Fondue Chessel" Jeremy remembers coming to this restaurant many times growing up.

When Jeremy and I were dating, his family invited me to come skiing with them and we went to this restaurant in 1994....17 years ago!!  I still could remember how amazing it was!

 Savannah and Grammy in the chilly gondula riding up the mountain

 Me and Madison snuggling together.  The resort would give you blankets to cover up with on the way to the restaurant (look at the cute hat that Grammy and Oompa surprised me with for my birthday)  Thank you so much!!  I love it!!

 Jeremy, Grammy, and Little Savannah

 We made a stop half way up the mountain to see a HUGE snow castle! (this pics is going on the Christmas card next year!!)

 Stopped for a photo op

 I have the BEST inlaws.....seriously.....I don't even think that they look at my blog so I am not saying that for affect!  I really do!

 Here is the HUGE life-sized snow castle!  What a dream playground!

 Here are the kids going inside

 There was even a slide inside!

 Another room in the castle had an ice sculpture.  It was truly a magical place, but I will tell you that it was SO COLD up there......only about 12 degrees.  That paired with the lack of oxygen way up 11,000 feet left me thinking that I might die!!

 As the sun went down, the kids couldn't get enough of this awesome snow castle!

 Then we had to take pictures of them pretending to fall off of the mountain.....they got quite a kick out of this

 Savannah "falling" off the mountain

 Madison "falling" off the mountain

We finally make it to the restaurant!

 We finally made it to the top of the mountain and inside of this warm and cozy restaurant
We totally had to defrost!

There was a HUGE fireplace with this old ski lift chair sitting next to it.  We just had to pose for some pictures

Now it is our turn to pose on the lift chair! Look at this really pretty winter headband that I am wearing!!! I got it from Lori for Christmas.  I got to wear it that evening....it is so pretty and hid my hat hair!

 Look at Nick's face.....makes me laugh!

 Here we all are together

 The restaurant is spectacular!  It has all of the Bavarian flags hanging proudly from the beautiful log ceiling

 An enormous roaring fireplace that we got to sit RIGHT next to......We were so cold!

 We ate tons of yummy food

My favorite part was the Swiss cheese fondue

 We listened to the Polka Band

We laughed!

 We shared stories

We danced the "Chicken Dance"

 We watched others dance "The Chicken Dance" as we clapped!

 Then we ate some more

 And some more.....

 And some more......

And Still some more......and then they brought out dessert!!!!

DAY 3

SNOWBOARDING PICS


After a beautiful Sunday morning starting the day with Mass and the sweetest little church, we returned for our second day of snowboarding.  We were able to get some pics of the kids coming down the mountain

 Look at those 3 cool snowboarders!!

 Savannah

 Nicholas

 Nicholas again, showing off how he can cut

 Madison coming down the mountain

There is Savannah again, showing us how she can turn like the professionals

 The kids picked it up so fast.  They were little professionals by the end of the weekend!

 And they looked SO CUTE in their snowboarding gear!

 Their instructor, Nick was so great!! They just loved him!  He really enjoyed them as well.  Here is Nick handing out their report cards.....they were so proud!

 Madi, Savannah, and Nicholas with "Nick" on the last day!  We'll miss you!

LAST EVENING IN BRECKENRIDGE

 On our last day we came back to the condo and rested a bit

 Played games

And as we ate dinner a snowstorm hit Breckenridge!  It just kept snowing!!

And snowing.....it kept on snowing as we slept that night!!

We woke up to a foot of new powder that next morning!  It looked like a wonderland.  Jesus was surly having fun when He created snow!  It just makes the landscape so clean and pure!

 Here are the kids playing "Go Fish" at the airport, waiting for our flight home.  It's always nice to travel but I am always thankful to return home.

What a great weekend!