Skiing in Colorado

So in the aftermath, I am pleased to say that Colorado has wooed me with it's beauty and splendor. Even the cold wasn't all so bad. I mean...it was really cold, but everything else about it makes you forget about that at times. After the LSM Gathering, we all packed up our bags on New Year's Day and loaded into an over-sized van waiting for us outside the lobby. Everything on this trip was very well planned and executed.

We headed out from the Marriott in Denver to PJ's parent's cabin in Buena Vista...about a three hour drive. It was gorgeous. I sat in between Brian and Tyler in the first row of seats. Then it was Julie, Audrey and Cameron, and finally Phil, Erik, and Amber. Will got the navigator upgrade to the front seat. When we got in, we brought in our stuff to Bonny's cabin, and then walked back to PJ's parent's cabin for some delicious home cooked dinner. Full, we went back to our cabin to pick our sleeping spaces, unpack, and hang out. And boy did we hang out. Julie and I had agreed to room together, and she had chosen the room downstairs so I started to unpack. Turns out that Phil had taken the other room downstairs and Erik and Tyler would be in the living room right outside our doors. So the party was downstairs that evening. We took pictures, did human pyramids, and watched the boys try to show off their strengths. I was kind of annoyed at that...the fact that all the girls were all set on watching the boys while they did their own thing and bonded. I didn't feel like I got to know any of the girls any better. And if I wasn't there, surely nobody noticed or felt my absence.

It was an awkward trip in that sense. And I was different because having Erik around distracts me...makes me mellow. I keep thinking that I'm good, but this just shows me I need to move on more. Nobody else can make my heart feel that heavy. I long for someone else to divert my heart to. I think I'm ready for that now.

Don't get me wrong though, it was still a great trip. And for the most part, having my good friends around me, especially Ebrah makes me so happy I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. So despite everyone going to bed, the boys could still be heard having fart wars somewhere in the darkness. We woke up early the next day to ski Cooper, about 45 minutes away. It was bright and sunny and the snow was perfect. We practiced the bunny slopes to warm up an then hit the lifts. I decided to try goofy foot today. I felt very comfortable heel side, but could not for the life of me turn toe side to the mountain. So I would speed down the mountain one way, then leaf across a little bit before speeding down again. I saw some awesome wipe outs, including Erik doing a complete backwards somersault. Tyler had pretty much gotten down the heel-toe thing by the end of the day. We went home exhausted. Lasagna was awaiting us that evening. After some hanging out, cooking apple crisp, and doing massage trains for everything, Ebrah, Ty and I worked on our devotion for the next evening. We wanted it to be good, and we based it off of the song by Garth Brooks called "Standing Outside the Fire." This song had actually come to us on the radio while hanging out on the 20th floor of the hotel on New Year's Eve...or well...I guess Day.

The next day was sledding...probably the most dangerous day of our week lol. PJ took us to this awesome hill and we brought an inter tube and plastic butt shovels made for sledding. The first run was disastrous as Erik and Phil hit some holes that sent them flying into the ice and left Phil with a gnarly scraped ice burn on his face. So of course, they proceeded to go again. We all did. :) Next was a trip directly to the hot springs. It felt so good to be practically naked, contently warm, and surrounded by snow and mountains. We went home, took our showers, had pizza for dinner, and executed our devotional for the night. What a great day. Then it was back to our cabin for nert wars. Amber and I lost miserably lol.

Waking up early once again, Thursday we got to see snowfall as we headed over to Monarch. Ebrah and I hit the slopes right off the bat since we brought our own boards. We went up the Garfield lift, took the slopes down Sleepy Hollow to Tenderfoot, and ran into another ski lift. I was riding regular foot that day so I had some adjusting and getting used to to do on the way down. He motioned to it and I just nodded and followed. It wasn't until we were on our way up when I asked where we were going and he gave a shrug. Oh. My. Goodness. This lift would take us all the way up to the top of the mountain. I wasn't ready for that yet! So up Panorama we went. It was practically a blizzard up there. Clear skies...you could see all of ten feet in front of you before whiteout. We went along the ridge Sky Walker (which was horrible because it was flat and hilly in a lot of places...horrible for snowboards). We finally made it to KC Cutoff and headed down back to Sleepy Hollow and hit up Glade all the way down. After that, I must say my boarding got much better despite my burning legs. We found Will and went up Pioneer and down more slopes. We also went up the Breeze Way lift and down Little Mo. Some other paths we hit up were Roundabout (I don't recommend this), Romp, Drifter, Lower Tango, Great Divide, Ticaboo, Snowburn, Doc's Run, and Geno's Meadow. Perhaps some more that I do not recall. This trip was sure cooooold though. Wet snow was falling from the sky all day and the winds were strong. They almost closed the lifts. But yea I'd say one of my favorite runs was the Great Divide and Ticaboo.