Men and their mountains

Well, we finally did it. We took the trip that Matt dreams about all year from his office chair: skiing. Personally, I've only done it once, so I'm at the try-to-get-down-the-mountain-without-dying stage. Matt, on the other hand, is at the swish-swish-down-looking-very-cool stage. I could take-or-leave the whole thing, but Matt loves it sooooo much, so we went. For 3 big days. The first night, my aunt and uncle in Evergreen, CO, were kind enough to put us up at their house. 

When we woke up Sunday morning, we saw these elk outside their window! (These are elk, aren't they? We don't get a lot of large game animals in the city). We loved it though. I took a dozen pictures of them, (none of which showed their heads) and drank coffee while chatting with my Aunt Marty. Matt and I laughed at the difference between the views out of our windows and the view out theirs. Sigh...

This is them. Don't they look all healthy and mountain-y? Marty is my dad's youngest sister.

So, we finally got ourselves to Breckenridge on Sunday morning (not early enough for Matt's taste) and got ourselves these sweet skis. I had almost forgotten how awkward and huge the ski boots are. Don't I look so awkward in this picture? Like, I don't know how to hold the skis up or something (which I don't...Matt carried them to the lift for me).

He's so happy right now! The ski lift is another scarey experience for me. How do people not fall out of these things to their death? I did ok on the 6-person chair lift for the first day, but on the second day, I let the chair hit me in a weird way and I fell underneat the lift! Matt thought it was going to take my head off, so he grabbed me by the back collar of my jacket. Somehow, the ski-lift guy missed this whole experience, so Matt dragged me a good 15 feet before the guy finally turned off the lift! No problem....I bounced back from that...no problem.

Here's our hotel: the Great Divide Lodge. Not exactly super fancy....but not too shabby....

...especially considering I was sick the whole time. This is our bedside table. It looks the same way it did on our honeymoon complete with all my cough medicines. I seriously had the flu the first 2 days we were there, but I was NOT going to ruin this ski vacation for Matt, so I sucked it up. Well, I kinda sucked it up. I moaned a little...and took a ton of medication.

Here's Matt on top of the mountain. Okay, he's only about 1/100th of the way up, but he's at the top of the lift that I always rode up to the little baby green runs I hung out on. I only made him hang with me a little and then I released him to the big double black scary things he hung out on. I did do a blue run...once.

But, then, by the third day, the weather turned really bitter cold and windy and I coudln't take it anymore. So, I begged the ski guys to return my skis (which they did....could it have been the tears?) and then I sold my lift ticket in the ski line, (for what we paid! I was so proud of myself) and then I grabbed the keys and took off for the day. Downtown Breckenridge isn't a bad place to hang out if you are avoiding skiing! Trust me...I know.

Here's Matt when I picked him up to head to the airport.

See how cold his face is? Brrrr...so glad I was at Starbucks for that morning!

This was actually my favorite part of the trip. Each morning we headed to Daylight Donuts for breakfast. We used to have a Daylight Donuts where I grew up and I loved it!

Matt always ordered something like this.

And I always ordered this: coffee and a maple-glazed donut. Okay, I usually ordered two. This is after I ate the first one. Hey! I was carb-loading for my big sporty day okay??

Yum. Donuts. Do we have to leave and go skiing? Next time, when I pick the vacation we're going to just go to the donut shop only!

My sentiments exactly.

Here's Matt, looking longingly out the window at his precious mountains. Say goodbye honey! Back to the city....poor guy.