We're Done Skiing For The Year (I Think)

OK, this time I think we're done skiing for the year (unless we get another fresh dumping of powder:).  Ater all, it is Memorial Day weekend and we should be outside enjoying the nice warm spring days, right?  On the long holiday weekend, we went skiing on Saturday morning at A-Basin, then went for a 25 mile road bike trip to Dillon, Frisco, over Swan Mtn Pass, and back to Keystone in the afternoon......  It was an awesome day to ski and do a road bike trip! 

We closed out our final day of skiing for the year by doing the East Wall at A-Basin, something we'd been wanting to try all year long.

The snow was kind of like heavy mashed potatoes, but was fun nonetheless!

Dianna enjoying the warm spring skiing 

East Wall on the right side of the bowl.

No crowds, either

All done skiing at A-Basin, then back to Keystone to check out the tubing hill.  The folks there are thinking that they will be tubing through the month of July on this run that is 60-70 feet deep top to bottom!!!

On to our bike trip around Lake Dillon.  The view of Buffalo Mountain capped with snow was spectacular.  

The next morning, we decided to ride up to Montezuma from Keystone, only about 15 miles round trip, but starting at 9500' and going up to 10,500' was a bit different than riding back in Arvada.  The trip up was about 1-1/2 hours while the ride down was only about 10 minutes!

The view from Keystone 

1/2 way to Montezuma, still lots of snow along the side of the road.

We made it to Montezuma!!!!!

Lake Dilllon

 On Sunday, we decided to take the scenic trip home over Guanella Pass which had just opened up for the season.  Plenty of handicapped parking at the summit..... 

The snow was still pretty deep on the sides of the highway.

Mt. Bierstadt (Elevation 14,065') - the next fourteener that we hope to tackle sometime this summer, looking at it from the top of Guanella Pass.

Springtime in Colorado

Ah, yes we love Springtime in Colorado!  On May 21st, we went skiing at A-Basin and enjoyed yet another phenominal day with 12-18" of fresh powder then returned to Arvada that night so we could do some biking with our new road bikes the following day!  That makes 66 days (so far, and still counting) of skiing this season, and we still plan on skiing into mid-June:)  We would have gone biking at Keystone too, but haven't found a ski rack for the mountain bikes yet.  Meanwhile, Bradley and his family were enjoying water skiing at Lake McConaughy with Jolene's family.....

Here's Diana enjoying some of the tree runs.....

One couldn't tell by looking at a calendar that Memorial Day weekend is next week!

Over a foot of powder in Montezuma Bowl at A-Basin!

More trees (we spent almost the whole day doing the tree runs just because the snow was so spectacular)!

The following day, we drove our bikes to Confluence Park (Downtown Denver) then headed south along the South Platte River Trail, enjoying the scenery along the way.  We saw almost every kind of human powered transportation along the way, including LOTS of other bikers, scooters, skateboarders, roller bladers, and a guy on a unicycle!

Along past Mile High Stadium where U2 had just played the night before....

I counted 4 or 5 golf courses along the trail.

A strategically placed coffee and snack shop at Hudson Gardens that has the best chocolate mocha shakes in the world (or it seemed like it since we had already gone 15 miles at that point).

A really cool miniature train was running behind the coffee shop, too bad the grandkids couldn't have been there!

And our final destination - Chatfield State Park!  Now we just had to turn around and ride the 20 miles back to our car:)

Dianna on her new road bike

More Birthday Partys and Mother's Day

Meanwhile, back in Arvada where it really is springtime and flowers are blooming, we celebrated Sophie and Bella's 3rd Birthday with a big party at Sara & James's house.  Bradley, Jolene, Joseph, and Andrew came over along with lots of the twins' friends for cake and ice cream. 



The next day was Mother's Day, so we celebrated it with Bradley and his family by going over to the park behind our old house and had a picnic after playing on swings, slides, and riding bikes and scooters.

Bradley with Andrew on the swing. 

Bradley and Joseph doing some climbing 

 

Arapahoe Basin in May

With Keystone, Vail, and Beaver Creek now closed for the season, we're done skiing, right?  Not as long as Arapahoe Basin (about 5 miles up the road from Keystone) is still open!!!  Rumor has it that the record snowfall this season will push A-Basin's closing date to within a week of July 4th!

Early May full moon rising over Loveland Pass, just north of A-Basin

Bradley and Joseph starting off on another fresh powder day.

Bradley and Joseph up on top of the West Wall (One of my favorite shots of the year)

You can't tell by the calendar that this the first of May!

One of the most fun things at A-Basin in the springtime is 'The Beach' at the base of the main runs.  You can literally back your car in, set up BBQ's, tents, RV's, campers, picnic tables, volleyball nets, etc.... and party all day long while enjoying the spring skiing.  This guy next to us was practicing his golfing swings while using the bunny hill as a driving range with tennis balls......

We picnic'd on 'The Beach' while BBQ'ing brats and hot dogs with Bradley, Jolene, Joseph, Andrew, and ??? on May Day.  Not the picture perfect day for having a BBQ, but we all had fun!



All Good Things Must Come to an End -- Keystone & Vail Closing Weekends....

So sad to see winter coming to an end, but that means warmer days are ahead and we can get the hiking shoes, mountain and road bikes, and Jeep ready for more mountain fun this summer!  But first, there's closing weekends at Keystone (April 10th) and Vail (April 24th) to celebrate an end to one of the best seasons on record for snowfall totals.  Keystone ended up with one of their top 5 seasons ever while Vail had a record season with over 500" of snow.  We were both able to beat Kent's season goal of reaching 1,500,000 vertical feet of skiing this season -- Woo Hoo!!!  Kent ended up with 1,765,000' while Dianna had 1,515,000' (Whew!).  In addition, Kent was able to maintain the #8 position on Keystone's season leaderboard while Dianna held the #12 spot, so we are pretty proud of ourselves. 

Dianna celebrates on closing weekend at Vail -- Woo Hoo!!!

Keystone held their First Annual Slush Cup on closing weekend - where skiers and boarders go down the hill and attempt to jump over and skim across the top of a VERY COLD pond without sinking before crossing the finish line.

What a riot to watch, as contestants were getting style points for their crashes as well.  Needless to say, most of them didn't make it across the pond but everyone had fun.  The costumes were almost as fun to see as the crashes!  Here's a shark that never made it very far across the pond....

Butte fans rejoice - Evel Knievel was even there!

Chicken Man followed by a string of rubber ducklings never made it across the pond either....

With Keystone officially closed for the season, we moved on to Vail for the final two weekends there.  Hey Dianna, I need to use the restroom.  Oh, nevermind it's buried under 8' of snow.

No kidding, this was Two Elk Lodge atop Vail Mountain on closing weekend -- nobody was there!  During peak season, you literally had to fight to find a spot to have lunch or an afternoon snack break.

Some of the themes for the different lifts are pretty cool at Vail.  This one is an old barn  that you enter to get off the chair lift.

Time for closing weekend at Vail - they had their pond all set up for their Slush Cup too.

A foot of fresh powder on closing day makes for some awesome conditions in a season we'll never forget:)

Bye Bye Vail, Beaver Creek, and Keystone until next winter:(

BUT WAIT, THERE'S STILL ARAPAHOE BASIN THAT IS SHOOTING FOR A JULY 4TH CLOSING DATE!!!!!!

Joseph's Big Birthday/Easter

It's a party -- and the Arvada Fire Department was invited to join in the fun!  What a surprise for Joseph's 5th Birthday Party when the doorbell rang and it was the Arvada Fire Department with one of their pumper trucks!  No, it wasn't because of the threat of too many candles leftover from Papa's birthday cake, but Joseph's Uncle Dale arranged to have them show up and let all of the kids at the party tour the pumper truck.  What fun for everyone!

They even broke out the hose and let all of the kids squirt water down the block - free car washes for all of the parents too!  Here's Joseph manning the hose.

Sophie and Bella admiring the big fire truck.

Then came Easter Sunday with sunrise mass at Spirit of Christ followed by a fabulous brunch at Bradley & Jolene's house with a big Easter egg hunt!  We are so fortunate to have our children and grandchildren live so close to us so we can enjoy all the fun in their lives too!