Falling is not an option

Two weekends ago, we had some wonderful friends come to Denver to visit and ski. John Williams, Loren Sanders, Sarah Adams, and Martha Johnson flew in on Thursday night and we left early Friday morning for the mountains. We spent Friday skiing in Breckenridge.



Take note of me in the green and the person on the ground in front of me...I was scraping about an inch of ice off Sarah's ski boots while she laid in the snow on her back. Bonding moment.

 This was John's first skiing adventure, and that it was. He had a couple of minor set-backs like skiing into the trees and losing a ski while getting on the lift (don't worry, a girl brought it up for him). At one point, after trying to convince him that his ski poles were not to be used as brakes, I took them from him and told him that "falling is not an option". I think that actually really helped. By the end of the day, he had picked it up very nicely and I was glad to say I was his teacher.

The next day we went to Keystone and spent several hours skiing. Our weather couldn't have been better both days. It was sunny and the perfect temperature. 

Love these Fern Birds.

View at Keystone

The Whole Group

At the end of the day on Saturday, we were told they were going to shoot fireworks off at the top of the mountain. Naturally, we were excited and stayed up there until 6:00 to see them. It turned out to be more like a backyard firework show, but hey, how often do you get to watch fireworks on top of a snowy mountain? I was happy with it.

When we got back to our condo, John convinced us that there was a game that we would love. Little did we know, we would be in pain from laughter soon after. This game is called Irish Uno.  It is like regular Uno except there is a new rule each game. For instance, our first game rule was that you could not say any numbers when certain cards were laid or you would have to draw a card.
These ridiculous rules kept building such as, you can only speak in a British accent while the color is blue, you cannot say "I" after a 7 is played until another 7 is played, and you have to stick your tongue out while the color is yellow, etc. The rules went on for several rounds and caused lots of card drawing. I was literally in pain from laughing so hard. It was such a fun night.

Isn't this crazy cute?

On Sunday, we woke up and drove back to Denver and got back in time to eat lunch at Snooze. I've talked about it in a previous blog post, and I still say it is our favorite breakfast spot in Denver. Martha and I split a breakfast burrito and three pancakes of her choice which were sweet potato, Elvis pancake (pb and banana), and a sugar cookie pancake. Needless to say, they were all delicious. 

After lunch and a little resting at the apartment, we went downtown and walked around the flagship REI and the 16th street mall. We ate at Noodles and Co. for dinner (which is rumored to be coming to Nashville soon). Very delicious.

After dinner we got ice cream at Bonnie Brae. Here is Martha with who we can only assume is THE Bonnie Brae.

I will spare Martha the story about a mispronunciation during catch phrase (but if you really want to hear the story let me know, it's classic Martha - love her). 

Thank you for such a fun weekend!

Next up on the visiting list - The Captain and Mother Teresa arriving on Wednesday!