a break in breck

oh wait… that makes it sound like someone might have broken something in Breckenridge.  Not so.  Simply that we were able to take a break and get away for the weekend in Breck.

Wait… that sounds like we went just the 2 of us.  Not quite.

ok… the weekend before last in honor of my impending 32nd birthday, we were finally able to take Will’s friend up on his offer to have all of us come up to the mountains and visit him while he’s living in his family’s vacation home.  Unfortunately for him but fortunately for us, he’s currently unemployed.

So we headed out on the Friday morning and got up there in 2 hours.  While it was snowing.  Apparently the snow showed up just for us ;-)

We didn’t do much and that was FANTASTIC!

We hung out at the house most of the time.

We went for a walk.

Miss Pea all bundled up in her snow suit in the sled.

Looking back at the house. 



Time to lay down for your nap… 


And… out.

The next day we got geared up and went snowshoeing.

She’s asleep in there and had been for quite awhile.

For the afternoon we headed into Breck itself.

isn’t she the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?!

There was a Mobius Strip as part of the 2012 Budweiser International  Snow Sculpture Championships.
She was asleep again by the time we got to the Breckenridge Brewery.

Mmmm… yummy shoe. 

You want to try it, Daddy?

And then we had to leave :(

So… who are you again?  And what is that on your face?

I guess he’s ok, Mom.


and some extraneous gorgeousness of the mountains before we got stuck in traffic for 4.5 hours to get home.  Note to self: ski/mountain traffic is exactly like East Coast beach traffic except during the wrong season.

Now… all those pictures should make up for all the wordy, boring posts lately. :-D

bierstadt

(This post is a little bit late, as the hike occurred in August.  Better late than never!)

I’ve been looking forward to hiking in Colorado.  So when friends invited me to join them on a hike up Mt. Bierstadt, I jumped at the chance.  Bierstadt is one of Colorado’s many peaks that are 14,000+ feet above sea level.  I’d heard that the 14ers can make for an interesting experience, so I had a feeling I was in for a good time.

We hit the trail early enough to beat most of the rush (crowds tend to flock to 14ers in the summer months).  Even so, there were a lot of people on the trail.  As we took our many breaks on the way up (and a few on the way down), we leapfrogged the same groups of hikers.  Almost felt like you knew who you were hiking with, though most folks weren’t too chatty.  I’m told hikers tend to be friendlier on less well-traveled trails. 

Somewhere around 12,000 ft, the air is thin enough that the body starts reacting in strange ways (at least, this out-of-shape one did).  For me, it meant that I started to experience some balance issues (I didn’t fall over but I sure was wobbly) and I had to stop every few steps to catch my breath.  Makes for an interesting final 2,000 feet.

Not quite at the top…

The rocky top of Bierstadt lies ahead!

The view from the top, looking back along the trail and down to the trailhead.

Pile of hikers on a pile of rocks

with Marc and Trisha


view from the trailhead back to the top

The descent felt completely different – no wobbling and no gasping for breath (well, not quite as much).  Must be a mental thing because the air’s the same as it was on the ascent…  To make a long story short (too late), I felt great at the end of the hike and I’m very much looking forward to tackling more 14ers next year!

the davenport trail – day 7

We started the day with yummy breakfast at The Runcible Spoon with Francis & Adrienne and Jeff & Maggie.  It was great to spend a little more time with everyone before we got back on the road. 

It was still a ways through backcountry Indiana before we hit the interstate again.  I took a nap and woke up to Will pulling into this place for lunch:

Just in case you don’t recognize it, it’s a Sonic.

We didn’t do much exciting this day.  We pretty much just drove, stopped to feed either ourselves and/or the baby, and keep going.

We saw The Gateway Arch from the interstate.





So Missouri has these weird roads that are letters.  There does not even seem to be any rhyme or reason to them.  We even saw one that was “UU.”  Can you imagine how confusing that must be to include in directions?

Person A: Turn Right at Double U.
Person B: So turn at W?
Person A: No, Double U.

Ok, so maybe it’s not that funny but you can see where it might get confusing.

We got to our Hampton Inn in Columbia, MO (not realizing that it’s the home of Mizzu) and decided to let everyone have a stretch break.  Miss P really likes this.

“Mama, lemme see.”

”Dad, she won’t let me see.”

She’s finally starting to react if you blow raspberries on her belly, not that any of the pictures Will took showed that.
With all the homecooked meals we’ve been getting from friends this was actually our first trip to Cracker Barrel (which we affectionately refer to as “Crack House'”) for the whole trip and Baby’s first trip ever.
 
She voiced her approval by sleeping so that we could enjoy our dinner.

We really wanted their dessert special – mixed berry cobbler with Blue Bell Blackberry ice cream – but we were too full.  Since we could walk to the Crack House from the parking lot of the Hampton, Will went back later to get us dessert to go.
Yummy!