Skiing on New Year's Weekend

On the weekend of New Year's we went to Breckenridge

for what can only be described as a bitterly cold ski day!
Dave & I skied on Peak 7 with Inger, Hannah & Ingrid
and we were able to snap some pix in the warming hut.

Warming hut? Yep, that's all the support system available on Peak 7.
We were there because of the previous run, Ingrid's turtle slipped down
and we saw that she had white frostbite spots on her nose & cheeks.

It's too bad that Trey & Sean weren't on this Peak with us for these pix,
but that's a hard part about skiing ~ there's so much mountain to be on,
and when it's so cold it's almost impossible to keep your gloves off to be a camera master.
Oh well! At least we did get some great memories captured on film :)

We are so thankful that the Lord has provided our family
with such wonderful adventures with friends in His creation and
great protection to us on the bad roads and slippery slopes.

Inger, Dave, Sherrie & Hannah & Ingrid ...Inger (Hannah & Ingrid's momma) ...Hannah ...Ingrid ...Dave ...Sherrie ...Dave & Sherrie ...Swoosh!

Beaver Creek

The weekend before Christmas, we went skiing at Beaver Creek
which is the "little sister" mountain to Vail.
It was amazingly uncrowded, the runs were delightful,
and our neighborhood crew had a great time!

The gorgeous views from the mountain ...The crew at lunch ...
Brian, Ingrid, Trey, Hanna, Henry, Sean, Lars, Dave, Sherrie, Will, BILy, and Jake
(missing is Jules the camerawoman!)Dave ...Henry ...Brian or Jake and Sean & Trey...Playing Mount Everest as we waited for everyone at the end of the day
Sean, Jake, Trey & Brian ...

Swoosh!

In the cold of winter ...

In the cold of winter, I really miss Lake Powell!

I have a "gadget" on my "google desktop" that scrolls through pix from my hard drive.
Just now, this picture from 2001 came across.

This picture is of Trey & Sean and Brian & Jake
on the top of a rock formation overlooking our camp at
Farley's Canyon on the north side of the lake...And in this pic, the rock formation is behind the boys...
What adorable kids!

I have such fond memories of when the boys were this little,
Farley Canyon when the water was this high,
the great fun we had on this trip,
and warm weather, sunshine, and beautiful Lake Powell.

Ahhhhh .....

God Lives Under the Bed

GOD LIVES UNDER THE BED ~ A touching e.mail story sent by Jenn ...

I envy Kevin. My brother Kevin thinks God lives under his bed. At least that's what I heard him say one night. He was praying out loud in his dark bedroom, and I stopped to listen, "Are you there, God?" he said. "Where are you? Oh, I see. Under the bed..." I giggled softly and tiptoed off to my own room. Kevin's unique perspectives are often a source of amusement. But that night something else lingered long after the humor. I realized for the first time the very different world Kevin lives in.

He was born 30 years ago, mentally disabled as a result of difficulties during labor. Apart from his size (he's 6-foot-2), there are few ways in which he is an adult. He reasons and communicates with the capabilities of a 7-y ear-old, and he always will. He will probably always believe that God lives under his bed, that Santa Claus is the one who fills the space under our tree every Christmas and that airplanes stay up in the sky because angels carry them.

the rest of the story is in the comment ...

Metro Spring Semester Starts Today ...

Metro spring semester starts today and Drew is in his new place downtown.

The Auraria Campus built student housing three years ago for CU Denver & Metro State.
Drew's apartment is 3 big rooms ~ the center room is a kitchen and living room,
And on either side is a bedroom & bathroom for two students.
Matt and Drew are in the room on the left and they've not yet met their 2 other roommates.
They still haven't met their couch either, but hopefully that will be provided soon!
Here are some pix of our visit last week ...

Drew's pretty pumped about the new place and the life of a campus student.
He's continuing his job as a technology specialist down here by our house,
as well as taking financial training with the services arm of CitiGroup down here,
so we'll see him frequently which will be fun :) Exciting times!

A picture from Drew's room at home right after Christmas ...

Plastic ...

http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Sea-Plastic-LN-PG5oct05.htm

http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Plasticizers/Out-Of-Diet-PG5nov03.htm

YUCK!

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=84947

We had a great time at Keystone ...

These pix are from our December adventure to Keystone,
A great, great mountain ~ on a cold, cold day!

Dave drove the boarding kids ~ Trey & Sean, Brian & Jake, and Christian
Jules drove the skiing kids ~ Henry, Will & Sherrie

This first pic is as we were almost to Keystone, yes the temp gauge says MINUS 14!!
You can see Dave's truck in the rearview mirror as well :)
The awesome boarders & skiiers ...
(I was there too -- but as the cameraman for these shots ;)
Dave, Christian, Sean, Brian, Jake & TreyJules, Will, Henry & DaveDave, Will, Jules & Henry

Jules' classic lunch pix ... it's a bummer she's missing cameraman!
(as were the kids during this lunch at Bite Me Pizza)
Will & HenryDave & Sherrie

And the drive home after a great freezing fun awesome day!Swoosh!

We've been skiing a lot this season ...

We've been joining our neighbors for a lot of skiing this season and we are having a ball!
These pictures are from our latest adventure at Vail last weekend.
Dave drove us up in the Excursion,
along with Jule & her boys Brian & Jake and our neighbor Henry.

It's hard to get pictures of the kids since they don't ski (or should I say board?)
with us anymore as they are lovin' terrain parks and black runs ...
We captured them at lunch
and I was with Trey for awhile after he took a big header after a jump ...

There had been lots & lots of snow recently and it was beautiful ~ wow!!
These pics are from one of the back bowls ...
I left my poles at the bottom of the mountain after our first run and skied the day without them.
There are times that it's hard (on the flat areas at the top and bottom around the lifts,
as well as when I lose my balance putting on my skis, taking them off,
or just plain tripping over them) but I love the freedom for my hands.
I think I'm probably going to give the poles up for good.

This mountain is steeper than the others we usually ski,
and with all the powder it took more work to keep our skis together -
As a result our legs were exhausted by the end of the day.

Vail - it gave us a great work out and we enjoyed the beauty of the outdoors
and the special love of family and friends.

Swoosh!