Denver Museum of Nature & Science

These two photos do a great job of capturing the curiosity, playfulness and boundless energy the boys have at almost all hours of the day.  We spent the afternoon at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science with Beth, Mike and Mihky and the boys thoroughly enjoyed it.  Ben gravitated towards the exhibits with technology and hands on learning, where Josh loved watched and listening to the video story exhibits.  I liked the opportunity to see the scientists working on cleaning the dinosaurs bones through the window and Dan liked practicing docking the space shuttle.    

Crested Butte and Colorado College

 

A few photos from around downtown Crested Butte, many thanks to Ruth and Skip for the fabulous visit, such fun to hang out.  After we left CB this morning we drove down to Colorado Springs for a visit with Matt and Simon (Erica, we missed you!).  We had a wander around the Colorado College campus.  When we arrived Ben said, "This looks like the place where you guys went to college," to which Dan and I chuckled and replied, "It is the place we went to school."  

Al Johnson Uphill/Downhill Telemark Race

The 40th annual Al Johnson Uphill/Downhill Ski race at Crested Butte.  We didn't consider it a race (b/c the fastest time for a guy was under 14 minutes and we took a leisurely 1 1/2 hours), but got into the spirit of the costumes and the fun.  Dan came up with the brillant idea of making lego people.  So we had 5 different heads and bodies, and 2 bonus little people costumes (they didn't compete, just acted in the important role of support crew).  He created the heads out of cardboard concrete form tubes and insullation foam and the bodies out of cardboard and then painted them.  The only downside to our amazing costumes, they were a bit difficult to ski in.  The limited visibility and restricted movement made skiing the double black diamond run down the North Face even more challenging!  We also had the scare of riding up the Silver Queen high speed quad before the race and not all fitting on the chair properly and not being able to bring the bar down b/c of the size of Dan's costume, so Dan and I held onto Josh (who was sliding off the chair w/ his costume on) and held our breath for the duration of the chairlift.  But, thankfully all was fine, we all managed to ski in our costumes and we even won one of the many prizes for best costume.  Ben and Josh both want to ski the race next year, guess we'll have to find tele gear small enough for them?   

The boys at the finish line, you can see the Last Steep in the background.

Snowy Crested Butte Skiing

Mother Nature arrived with a snow storm, so we spent the day enjoy the fresh Colorado snow.  Wes joined us for a family fun day of skiing, we started off with a run down the Headwall, scaring Josh to a point that he decided he didn't want to ski that run again.  Ben had fun playing with the new Go Pro, I've got a lot more to sort through, but below is a bit of a teaser.  Today wasn't really the best day to take photos due to the weather (and obviously I didn't take the one above), so my photo-a-day challenge for today are one of Josh stuck in a tree above a traverse on Banana (a seriously long and steep double black) and the photo below is both boys at the top of the North Face.  Tomorrow will be a photo happy day with the fun of the Al Johnson race.

Crested Butte

Today's photos... skiing at Crested Butte, Colorado.  The boys are obsessed with very difficult terrain and Crested Butte has a lot of it.  So they spent the morning asking when we were going off the North Face and when we finally took them up the T-bar (for their first time), they both did amazing.  We skied the North Face, Phoenix Bowl, The Last Steep, Spellbound Bowl and more.  Who knows what sort of mischief they'll get into tomorrow?    

Catching up on photos

Time to catch up with some photos...  Tuesday was one of those days where I started the day running and literally never stopped.  Somewhere in my infinite wisdom, I decided to go to the Hawaiian music concert down the street (b/c the band was at the motel and they were super friendly?), so the only photos I actually took on Tuesday was from the concert.  You can see the rest of the photos here.

Wednesday was another one of those days, let's pack it all in (gym, work, last minute packing and then get in the car and drive almost 9 hours).  These photos are from somewhere in Nevada.  We took Highway 50, which is so gorgeous, love the desolate feel.

So, that brings us to Thursday, day #20 in the photo-a-day challenge.  I love this one below of Dan making himself a cup of coffee on the tailgate in the parking lot.  Yes, we're that family that makes sandwiches for dinner on the road and makes our own coffee.

And this is the view from Ruth & Skip's back deck, I love Crested Butte.  Below are the boys studying away on the Extreme Terrain maps, we're in for trouble.

St. Patrick's Day photos and more..

 

So let's talk about this photo-a-day project.... we all know I take lots of photos, between my Outside Inn persona (who's rather silly with her photo taking mission), my crafty hat and the occasional documentarian of all things family, there's never a shortage of photos... and then I add my instagram agenda to the mix and you wonder when I stop taking photos.  So to catch up with the photo-a-day challenge I've got a picture of my dinner, fabulous french toast with my bread share and some blueberries.  And then I've got some photos of the boys playing in the backyard, thanks Uncle Bob for the new hats. 

And since I never posted yesterday's photo, here's one of my greeting card, love this sentiment.