Sunday, March 27, 2016

Big Snow of 2016

Oh, Kansas...

Our first and only snowfall. On Easter Sunday, March 27.

9:00 a.m.:



Five hours later:



At least our flowering tree made it this year...unlike this year...


Sunday, March 20, 2016

Spring Break 2016

Year seven, and year of "Firsts."


First time we ate at Beau Jo's Pizza, Idaho Springs.
It was the first time we stopped in Idaho Springs to eat at the original Beau Jo's Pizza. The suspicious history of Beau Jo's is quite entertaining. We ordered chips and salsa (because that's what you do at a  pizza joint, and because we were really hungry) and the Motherlode pizza (Beau Jo’s pizza sauce, pepperoni, bacon bits, meatballs, Italian sausage, ham and whole milk mozzarella cheese.) There were no leftovers.


First time the weather was not good all four days.
This year was the most temperamental weather we've had in all of our seven years skiing. Windy, snowy, sleety, rainy, sunny...all within an hour. And just about every day.

Snow swirling in the wind.



Snowy rain.


And lots of powder.


First time Lisa and Jason were skiing in Vail.
Lisa and Jason were skiing this year too. They came with friends and stayed in Vail, but Lisa was able to come over and join us a few days while Jason took ski lessons in Vail.

This was the five minutes it was sunny.






First time someone got sick and needed to go to the doctor. 
Adam ended up with a sinus infection (and then in the next two weeks, all of us go it.) He and I skipped a day to see a doctor and get some medicine. A stop by the pharmacy also meant a stop by Starbucks. Once he had a couple of doses in him, he was good to go the very next day.


First time we wore our ski masks every. single. day.




First time someone had to buy apparel on the mountain.
The first day I grabbed the wrong gloves and had to buy some on the mountain. I bought the cheapest pair...for $120. Scott said "you are not allowed to buy any more gloves the rest of your life."

These are the gloves. The beer was a decent price...$7.50, I think?


First time I took less than 50 photos.
It was so cold this year, that it hurt my hand to be out of my glove for any more than about 3 minutes. This reduced the number of photos I took significantly.

First time we skipped Casa Bonita.
Adam was the first to get sick...then me, on the way home. The weather was not cooperating (typical of this trip) and we couldn't find a hotel room, so we decided to drive the whole way home. The weather and traffic added about three hours to the trip, and my cough, sore throat and congestion did not help the situation. Stopping at Casa Bonita would have added another hour and a half.



Denver.


But it wasn't the first time our friends, Shawna, Marty, Sophie and Jake were awesome hosts...letting us stay at their place and cooking us food. Coco entertained us and their new kitten Hunter was playful and cute.








Sunday, March 13, 2016

Castle Rock, KS

On our way to Colorado for Spring Break, we decided to take a little detour.

Castle Rock is one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas. It's out in the middle of nowhere in Gove County, Kansas. It's 12 miles off of I-70 and dirt road the entire time.

The road is unmarked and my navigation directions said simple things like "turn right" and "stay left" because some of the roads had no names. 

This was the "better" dirt road.


As we were driving, we saw a car stopped on the road. The family waved us down and asked if we knew where Castle Rock was...they were lost. They decided to follow us. Turns out they were headed to Indiana, and their son was a K-Stater. Small world!

Turn here.


Then the road turns into this kind of road. One set of directions we read said "follow the two ruts..."


We decided not to go down this road, because we weren't sure the van would make it out.


That's Zach on top of that rock.


It was completely silent out on the prairie, except for our voices and the wind and birds.

You can hear the birds in this video.



It started raining a bit while we were exploring. The rocks were deposited in the area by an ancient sea, and formed by the wind and weather.



That was interesting...climbing up to that point. Especially with my boots on...and by boots, I do not mean hiking boots.