Mommy and Daddy take a trip to Denver

Mommy surprised Daddy with a trip for the two of them to go out West to Denver to visit Uncle Rex, mommy's cousins and snow skiing! I will let mommy tell you about their trip. :)

Neither Nick or I had ever been skiing and Nick wouldn't give me any ideas for his birthday. I thought we should try to get away to spend some time together so I decided a trip to Denver would be just the ticket. Nick didn't know where we were going until we got to our gate at the airport. All he knew before the airport was that we wer going somewhere, he needed to ask off work a couple of days and that is it! I even packed his bags so he wouldn't suspect anything. He thought we were either going on a cruise, going to Mexico or to Daytona for the NASCAR Bud Shootout. None of his guesses were correct which was super exciting for me!!

We flew into Denver really early on Friday morning and Rex picked us up. We hung out around Denver on Friday....breakfast at Mona's (a neighborhood diner), shopping at Cherry Creek, seeing some of the city and relaxing at Rex's. That evening, we met up with my second cousins Laurie Ann, her husband Tommy and their son, Connor. We met just down the street from Rex's at a local place called Angelo's who has good Paisano Pies (Calzones) and pizza. It was a great visit as neither of us had met Tommy or Connor before. Their daughter Avery couldn't make it because she had a birthday party that night. We also didn't get to see Laurie's sister Judy and husband Hiram or their mom Kathleen. It was short notice though, and we were super happy just to see Laurie and her family.

It was actually me who gave the bunny ears!! Shame, shame! Before we went out for pizza, we went to the sports store to rent our ski's and equipment for snow skiing on Saturday. We woke up early Saturday morning to hit the road as it was a gorgeous day for skiing. Traffic was really busy because the conditions on the mountain were perfect for the sport. There had been a lot of snow earlier in the week and it was going to be in the 50's and sunny all day.

The mountain was amazing and it was surreal to be at the top....absolutely beautiful and kind of scary to look down. We didn't have any lessons prior to getting to the top, other than Rex giving us some pointers via word of mouth on the ride up. So, we were a little nervous as we were not about ready to go down a "bunny hill"! The slope started with shorter runs before leveling out between them. However, these are the Rocky Mountains after all!!!

Nick managed to take out a kid who was probably about 12 or 13 years old before even getting to the first slope. Rex and I were laughing so hard....well, I think I was laughing the hardest. Poor Nick! He just put his ski's on and we were walking toward the first slope when he just couldn't stop himself and got all tangled up with this kid. They got untangled once but then Nick ran right back into him and they both fell. LOL! The best part was that Nick said the kid kept apologizing to him!!!

After Nick managed to separate himself from other skiers, he couldn't quite figure out how to "dig" his ski's into the snow to stop. So, immediately he went flying down the first slope toward the right side of the mountain before slamming into the ground. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I knew he was ok and kept giggling to myself. Granted, I hadn't even really stepped onto the slope yet either. Rex, rushed off to help Nick get up and give him some more "pointers" on stopping.

I did pretty good at first. I was totally getting the snowplow move to stop myself and slow down. I was able to steer myself in Nick's direction each time he wiped out so that I could learn more from Rex too. Soon enough, I had my first tumble as well and understood why Nick was getting so worn out. Getting up is SOOOO much work! Some nice snowboarder asked me if I needed help and he gave me a hand getting up. That was really nice! I think he felt sorry for me!!

As we kept moving (Nick falling mostly) down the first part of the mountain, he got very frustrated and decided he was done about 1/3 of the way down. He was even starting to get the hang of it but I think his body had been beaten up bad enough. So, he started walking and a girl who worked at the resort carried his ski's for him and led him back to the gondola's and lifts to ride back down. We told him we would meet up with him at the bar at the bottom.

Feeling very confident in my own abilities, I even told Rex that I might want to go down the mountain again before we left. Ha!!! I was way ahead of myself as we were only 1/3 of the way down remember. As we moved further and further down, the runs became longer and steeper before they leveled out. So, although I had the snowplow down it didn't work very well when you are doing it constantly and your legs turn into jello. I snowplowed until my legs wouldn't let me and then I would head straight down the slope and pick up so much speed that it totally freaked me out. Each time, I threw my body backwards or just down to stop myself. I looked like a flailing bird I'm sure! Rex was so helpful and probably wondered how the heck he got stuck teaching me how to ski, but he was a super good sport. As he was coaching me down, he kept telling me that Audrey was passing me when little kids a little older than she were zooming past me like it was nothing! I continued this "flailing" pattern until we made it about halfway down and I had my worst fall. My legs were spread too far apart, my knees twisted and I landed on my back. I could not move and it REALLY hurt. Rex moved as quickly as he could to get back up the slope to me to help me up. I was paralyzed in pain and begging him to help. Wow! I cannot believe neither Nick or I broke any bones or hurt ourselves permanently. (BTW - at the airport there was a girl in line in front of us at security who had two broken arms from snowboarding. We also saw a girl with a broken leg. Wow, we feel lucky!)

After that, I too gave up and walked to the nearest lift. This was not a short "walk" and Rex decided to ski down the rest of the mountain with my ski's so that I did not have to carry them. I was stopped by resort workers a few times as I was sliding down runs on my butt who asked me where the heck my ski's were. I told them my brother-in-law took them for me and they thought that was nuts. Oh well! I FINALLY made it to the lift which I had to ride back up the mountain on. When I got to the top I hopped on one of the enclosed gondolas to go back down. Probably an hour after Rex left me, I made it to the bar to meet he and Nick. I was so pooped and glad to see them.

We had a bite to eat and then decided our adventure was over. The whole way back to Denver we cracked up laughing at all of the falls and craziness that went along with our first time skiing!! I can't wait until next time!

All ready to go!
At the top, right before Nick plows the kid over! ha!
This was the top! Beautiful! You can't see Nick and Rex off to our left, but Rex was helping Nick up from one of his falls! I thought I would be nice at the time and not take a picture....oh how I wish I did now!!

We are back in the car ready to drive back to Denver. SOOOO TIRED!

I think Rex could've gone down a few more times!

It is hard to see but this was on our way to Boulder on Sunday. This was Nick's actual birthday. The scenery was once again gorgeous! Something you don't see every day in the midwest!

We ate at a brewery for lunch and sat out side. It was 62 and sunny!

A little windy at times but BEAUTIFUL!

Before heading to the airport on Monday morning I knew I still needed a picture of the brothers together! Thanks for showing us such a great time Rex!!