Colorado - Visiting Belle

UPDATE!  The videos are too big to load on to the blog, but I was able to use dropbox to link to them.  Click on the links to see the videos!

I know I've mentioned before that my friend Belle is a traveling nurse and when I visit her, I get to visit wherever she happens to be, last time it was Boston, and this time it's Colorado.  She took an assignment in Boulder at the end of November, and Josh and I knew we needed to get out there to see her, and take advantage of the awesome ski areas nearby.

Belle picked us up at the airport and immediately asked if we wanted to go dancing.  Sure!  She took us to Toby Keith's I Love this Bar and Grill, where Belle showed us that she's learned some country dancing in her time in CO.

She took me out on the floor and taught me a few moves.  It was a ton of fun!  I'll definitely be up for doing it again if I ever get back into a country bar.

The next stop was her place in Boulder.  It was about 1:30 by the time we got there and Josh and I were exhausted from the flight and couldn't do much more than crash.  It was probably best that we were so tired, because it meant we got to wake up and be surprised by this:

That is the view out of Belle's living room window.  The owner of the property, Kitty, has a beautiful barn and some gorgeous, very friendly horses.  I absolutely loved waking up, getting a cup of coffee and feeding these guys breakfast. Josh took out the camera and gave a great full tour of the property.

Click here to watch the video!

We went out to breakfast in Boulder and made our way slowly to our next stop. Breckenridge.  When I say slowly, I mean it.  The altitude was way harder on Josh and I than I thought possible.  I spent most of our first full day in CO yawning and confused; and Josh spent it nauseous.

Belle has a knack for finding amazing people who turn out to be great friends, wherever she goes.  Colorado is no exception and Kitty generously let us stay at her ski cabin Breckenridge.  When she told us about the place she mentioned that the shower was being remodeled and didn't work.  We were a little concerned there wouldn't be running water, so Belle sent her a text to ask.  Her reply was "Yes".  I wish we'd asked this question in person because I'm sure she would have laughed at us.  I'll show you the full tour later, but this is what we pulled up to:

As soon as we got there all three of us were running around checking it out.  I went up the three flights of stairs and got so light headed that I had to sit down or pass out.  I sat.  We enjoyed the rest of the day and night taking it easy in this gorgeous home.  We had Belle's Thai chicken wraps (NUM!) and watched We're the Millers, which is hilarious and it became our go to movie for quotes the rest of the trip.

On Saturday we got up and were at Breckenridge, ready to ski by 9:30.  That's not first chair material but it's not too shabby either.  BUT THEN.  It took us over an hour to find a parking spot.  From there it took another 45 minutes of waiting for the shuttle, and waiting in the ticket line to get to the chairlift.  I'll confess that I was a pretty grumpy individual by this point.  How on earth does a Mountain as famous and huge as Breckenridge have such poor crowd control?  I don't care if it is MLK weekend, a resort this size should anticipate and cope with crowds. *deep breath*  I got over it as soon as we hit the snow.

Breckenridge is HUGE!  With all the folks in the parking lot I expected long lift lines, instead, I was super impressed at how easy it was to get away from the crowd.  Josh and I were still suffering from a bit of altitude weakness, which made us a little sluggish, but we got in a full day of skiing.   Check it out, here is the our view from way above the tree line at 12,300 feet off of peak 6.

Here is Belle taking a quick picture break. She bought her first pair of skis from our friends Markus and Joanna, and she loved them!  It is so good to get Belle into the sport that Josh and I love.  Thanks to M & J for the hookup - as I told M, More Skiers = More Better.

Getting back down the mountain was just as difficult as getting up it, so we stopped on the patio and had a beer to celebrate a great day.  We still hadn't gotten over the altitude (and honestly, we never fully did), so the one beer was plenty to make us giggly and a little silly for the 45+ minute trip back to the car.

We spent our Saturday night watching Silver Linings Playbook, and were joined by Belle's friend Addie.  Our plan was to order a pizza and have it delivered, but when the guy taking our order snapped at me about how busy he was, I snapped back and we ended up having leftover Thai wraps.  No complaints though, those things are amazing.  Staying in also meant that we got to enjoy the cabin a little more, here is Josh with the full tour:

Click here for the tour!

On Sunday we got up extra early, made the hour long trip to Vail and were on the slopes by 9:30.  The weather was amazing, we had blue skies and no wind.  As a Seattle-ite, I love it when I need my sunglasses in January.  I thought about posting the 3 other shots where one or both of our eyes are closed but settled on this one - Belle and I closed our eyes and tried to time the pic with Josh so we opened them at the right time, this was our best shot.

If Breckenridge is huge, Vail is hugenormous.  We skied from 9:30 until about 3:00 with a lunch break and we only skied one of Vail's three major areas.  Granted, we found some runs we liked and did them several times, this still makes for a big ski area.

I've always been told that if you can ski at Crystal (my home mountain), you can ski anywhere.  As a beginner skier, I've always thought people were being nice and trying to boost my confidence.  While I'm sure they were doing that, they were also right!  Crystal is steep, narrow on a lot of runs and just downright hard.  Breck and Vail were so open!  All of the slopes were pretty much consistently graded, the grooming was impeccable and I didn't ski anything steeper than what I ski at Crystal. At first I was calling it easy, and I still mean that, but I should clarify.  At Crystal I'm so focused on the mental aspect of telling myself that this crazy steep, narrow slope is something I can handle - so I kinda psyche myself out.  At Breck and Vale I didn't have to deal with a run looking hard, I could just focus on skiing, and that made it easier for me.

 

Maybe its what I explained above about the slopes in CO seeming so open and gradual, but one thing we noticed was that there were a lot of people skiing out of control.  Its one thing to ski fast, but its another to ski outside of your abilities so that you are a danger to yourself and other skiers.  While we were on the lift Josh saw one guy doing just that.  Now let me preface this by saying it's never good to see anyone hurt, especially during a sport, and especially if you know its serious.  That said, I got an evil sense of satisfaction when instant karma took this guy down.  As Josh explains it "He was skiing way too fast, got the speed wobbles, then completely lost control and crashed".  He was moving around after the fact so he was ok and he didn't take anyone out with him, but he must have hurt his leg because ski patrol had to evac him.  Interestingly enough, some places at Vale can't be skied out of, you have to ride the chair to get out...even if you're on a backboard.  I'd sign the waiver and figure it out for myself before I'd let ski patrol do this to me:

That night we took over a table the Breckenridge Brewery and Pub, we celebrated the Seahawks NFC Championship and watched the Broncos clinch the AFC win.  I'm a Hawks and a Broncos fan so I am going to have an awesome, if conflicted time of it at the "Big Game" this Sunday.  Carrie, Belle's roommate from Boston, was able to join us and it was great to see another familiar face.  The five of us made it back to Kitty's place and spent the rest of the night playing games, chatting and at one point Belle and I jumped pajama-clad and barefoot in the snow to keep ourselves awake.  We screamed like crazy people, but it worked :)

I miss having Belle closer to me.  I'm not much of a phone person so the physical distance means that there can be long stretches of time where we don't catch up.  When it gets to that point where I just need to have some Belle-time it's good to know that she's only a plane ride away and that the time we've spent apart just means we have more to talk about. Of course, the built in travel and vacation is always a plus - I'm rooting for Alaska next time!

The trip was perfect, we had a phenomenal time.  We skied, visited with friends, made some new ones, and we have no ragrets.  Not even one letter.

NFL Play 60

The NFL has a campaign called "NFL Play 60", the focus is to get kids to be active for 60 minutes a day.  From their website: "Our Mission: To make the next generation of youth the most active and healthy".  They have involved all sorts of big names to enlist kids to get involved in the program, including Michelle Obama and her Let’s Move! campaign, the Cartoon Network, EA Sports (a video game company), and Gatorade, not to mention all sorts of awesome NFL players.

This commercial with Cam Newton makes me laugh every time.

I'm fully on board with this idea.  I think its totally awesome to get kids active, and giving them the opportunity to meet NFL players is a great motivation.

I decided to bring up the campaign here, because I was flipping through my iPad app store and found the NFL Play 60 app.  Its free to download and free to play.  But, its an app!!  Is giving kids an app about being active going to to get them to actually be active?  I don't think so.

I downloaded the app to check it out.  Its a lot like Temple Run, and to their credit, the game does require that you move your device to play.  You are supposed to run in place, tilt the device, jump, and turn quickly around corners.  That said, I played the game for a while from the comfort of my office chair by jiggling my iPad and twisting in my chair.  Here's a shot from my game play, I'm the blond and that's my trainer chasing me.  In real life, getting chased by a man three times my size would most definitely be an excellent motivator.

I understand that today's younger generation is hyper-focused on their phones and computers, and that to reach them a company/campaign/program needs to utilize everything in their power to get in contact with them - so ruling out apps as a communication tool would be counterproductive.  I also see that the NFL tried to get kids active using their phone or tablet, even if their attempt can easily be circumvented.

I wonder if they would have better served the program (and the idea behind it) by creating some sort of kid friendly activity tracking app, with the above game an option in the app.  Letting kids track their activities, and maybe even what they are eating, might be a better way to help them learn about fitness, nutrition, and being active.  I'm not saying I want kids to track their calories or anything crazy, but what if they could see that a little bag of chips takes a lot more exercise time to use up compared to an apple?  Or, what if kids could earn enough coins with this game to buy footballs and other sporting equipment, instead of just an NFL jersey for their game character?

Good work to the NFL for getting kids involved in being active, as I said, I love that idea.  My complaint is this: the best a 35 billion dollar industry can come up with to get kids moving using technology is to give them a game that can be played from a chair.

Our Holiday Season

This year Josh and I hosted our first ever Christmas Eve at our house.  I was a little stressed out with the preparation, I wanted to make sure that everyone was going to be comfortable, well fed, and relaxed.  On Christmas Eve morning I felt good, I knew that I had done everything I could to make sure everyone enjoyed themselves, and honestly, I think it worked!

Check out our table!  Those are Grandma Bearden's rolls on the table (you won't find a better roll anywhere in the world), my clearance napkin find from Pier One, and a few carefully selected wedding pinwheels!

It was so special for me to have my family all in one place and enjoying each other's company.  This picture of both of my Grandmas makes me a very happy lady.

Here is one of Kelsey and I, she was rocking the ugly/cute Christmas sweater.

Josh did an amazing job helping me get everything ready, he helped cook clean, and best of all kept me sane.  I was pretty darn excited that he cut the ham and put it on the platter too, very traditional of us!

My sister is a lost cause when it comes to her collegiate allegiance.  She made sure to put some purple graffiti up on our whiteboard.  I'm not sure how well you can see it, but I did my best to hijack her design with some Cougar Pride.

My perfect Christmas morning starts out with a cup of coffee, a sugar cookie (or three), and the Disney Christmas Parade.  My Christmas morning was perfect!

Every year Josh and I leave out a plate of cookies for Santa.  This year, imagine our surprise when we woke up to find them actually missing!  We have a very strong suspicion that Santa had some help with his cookies from a 100lb furry elf.  Regardless of his behavior while we weren't looking, Leonard got into the spirit of things in the morning and opened a few of his own Christmas presents.

It has become a tradition for Josh and I to take ALL DAY to open our presents from one another.  As per usual, we tend to spoil each other.  We both got new puffy, down ski jackets, and more candy in our stockings than any reasonable person should eat in a year.  My favorite gift from Josh is a tea box.  It has spots for all my different types of teas and a glass lid so I can see them - its kinda silly, but I LOVE IT!  My Aunt Sue and cousin Laura from AZ sent us this backpack with a full picnic set inside.  We are already planning some summer hikes to use it!

We spent the rest of the day relaxing, and then we shared a delicious Christmas dinner.  This year rib eye steaks and crab cakes were on our rhyming menu. It was as decadent and amazing as it sounds.

On the 26th, we packed up the camper and got ready to head up to Crystal for our annual 5 night ski trip.  I'll be honest, the snow was awful.  There was one day where it was so icy that it was physically impossible to stop when you wanted to, and another day with such poor snow coverage that we only took 2 runs.  BUT, we had a great time.  Our friends Markus and Joanna brought their new camper up for a couple nights, and our other friend Doug, brought his camper up for New Year's. We had the absolute best neighbors to share our campfire with.

We had a fantastic Holiday season, and we hope you did too!  Happy 2014!

2014 - WITH

Last year my New Year's Resolution was to go without one thing every single day, the thing varied from month to month.  I had limited success.  I tended to forget or just decide that it was worth paying the dollar fine to the charity fund.  With a little more reflection I think there were two major flaws with my "without" plan.

1. Its inherently negative.  I've been trying very hard to be positive and having to subtract something from my life every day of 2013 was more challenging than I expected.
2. I was stuck on the idea that it would be something different every month.  There were several months where the "without" I chose was arbitrary and not really productive for me.  I should have repeated my "withouts"; I would have gotten more out of it.

So, in 2014 my New Year's Resolution is:  To go with something every day.  I am going to decide what that thing is a little in advance of each month, and I will definitely be repeating the ones that are challenging or particularly helpful.

January will be the month of exercising or stretching.  We have to do one or the other every day.  I think it is very possible and has all sorts of benefits.

Other ideas include:

• Dinner at the table (or a table, it doesn't have to be our home table) every night
• Pay someone a compliment
• Take Leonard for a walk
• Contact (text, email, phone call) someone I don't live with and say hi
• Take my Vitamins

 I am open to other suggestions - any ideas?

The same $1 dollar to charity applies for each day when I fail to do my "with" of the month.  Here we go!

Happy 2014!!

December - Without Popular Radio; and "The Year Without" Recap

December without popular radio went very well.  My theory was that I can look away from a bright ad at the store, but I can't just un-listen to 3 minutes of ads between songs I enjoy.   The biggest negative was that we both got pretty sick of NPR.  I didn't realize they repeated so many stories!  But, the positive was well worth it for me, I avoided all of the obnoxious Holiday commercials and kept up my Christmas Spirit.  Success!


So if it was relatively easy, why are points on the board?  Well, there was one day where Josh and I worked in the garage.  The garage radio is up high and we turn it on by plugging it in (incidentally this is the same boombox I got for my birthday back in 1996).  It's just too hard to reach, so we listened to whatever station was on.  My other tally is from when I was running Christmas errands around town.  It took me several hours and I needed some music to sing along to and keep my energy up.  It worked and as I was doing my errands I was giving money to charity :)

December:
Josh: 1
Kiki: 2

So, this means our final tallys for 2013 are:

Josh: 161
Kristina: 147

Looking at those huge numbers, I'm not impressed...percentages are equally disappointing.  I'll talk about why I think those numbers are so high in a later post, but, lets focus on the positive here.

Look at all that money the Schafers are giving to charity!

We will give out that money throughout the year, and we will keep you posted on how it gets distributed.  If anyone has any great causes in mind, I'd love to hear them.  Right now I know we will be giving money to S.O.D.A., Heifer International, and the Seattle Symphony's Youth Program.

We hope everyone had a fantastic 2013, and here's to an even better 2014!