For our annual Christmas ski vacation, we decided to head back to Steamboat Springs, CO. We woke up on Wednesday with a freshly minted 17 year old. We loaded everything up, dropped Moose and Lulu off at the Ponce’s for a week of fun with Hazel, and headed down to Charlotte for our flight out to Denver. We arrived in Denver (with our bags) and caught the shuttle to pick up our rental car. The agent told us to take our pick, so we rolled off the lot in a brand new Jeep Wagoneer (it had 12 miles on it!). From there, we drove to Storm Meadows I, where we would spend the week.
Our first day of skiing was nice. We knocked the rust off and enjoyed cruising down the slopes and being outside. Friday looked to be another great day. We crushed it in the morning, then split up for a while. We reunited after lunch and were ready to ski together some more. On the way down the High Noon trail, Kristie and the kids decided to take the heavily moguled One O’clock trail while Jay decided to take it easy and cruise on down with the intention of rendezvousing at the Rendezvous Lodge. Kristie and the kids never made it, but Jay saw them and skied down to where they were. Kristie had a look of anguish on her face. Apparently, she had fallen and twisted her ankle. Now it is well documented that Colorado brings out the badass in Kristie. This time, injured, she skied down Daybreak (blue) to the Elkhead Lift, then down Tower (blue) to catch the gondola to the base. Jay picked her up in the Wagoneer and it was off to the Urgent Care for an x-ray, which revealed a break. Kristie was released with a boot and crutches (crutches in Colorado come equipped with flip down spikes allowing them to go off-road – pretty cool). Jay didn’t dare get a picture of Kristie hobbling out of the urgent care.
Even though Kristie was on the shelf, she encouraged the others to go crush it. As we were getting ready to go out, Ansel noticed that it was snowing. Very little snow was forecasted for the week, but once it started, it didn’t stop…for three days! Over two feet of fresh snow accumulated while we were there. Ansel, Parker, and Jay enjoyed the fresh powder. Ansel was kind enough to ski with Jay and take care of him while Parker went off to do his own thing (he spent a lot of time over at the Morningside Lift, but it was too cold over there for Jay and Ansel).
Since Kristie couldn’t get around easily, we got pizza from Mambos. Christmas Eve, we ventured out to The Periodic Table. They have an ever-changing thematic menu. This winter, it was Asian. We really enjoyed the fried chicken. We also had nice meals at Fiesta Jalisco and Table 79.
Kristie was bummed that her skiing got cut short, but she enjoyed reading and relaxing and getting updates from the kids.
We hated to leave, but in the 27th, we fueled up at Colorado Bagels and headed back to Denver for our flight back. Now we just have to get Kristie rehabbed so that she can get out before the snow melts.
