Steamboat Springs!

I would like to start this post off by first saying how incredibly proud of I am of my wonderful husband for his service to our country.  As of Thursday afternoon, the 16th, Matt is on terminal leave and has been honorably discharged from the Army.  It's something that's been a long time coming and that we've talked about for months and months now.  The entire time that we've been together Matt has been in the Army and we've had our share of ups and downs mostly in part to the Army.  So, here we are roughly three years later and a month shy of a year back from his last deployment, entering into a brand new chapter of our life.  The future really is wide open for us right now and that is both exciting and a bit frightening...luckily we're in this together. :)

So, since this was such a momentous occasion, we went on a mini vacation to Steamboat Springs (aka Ski Town USA) to celebrate!!  Neither of us had been to Steamboat before so we were both excited to check out a new town.  The town actually got its name due to the fact that one of the hot springs makes a chugging sound, much like a steamboat, and trappers and traders actually thought a steamboat was coming down the river.  When they realized that it was merely the hot spring and not a boat, they referred to the town as Steamboat Springs.  Steamboat is a little over four hours northwest of us so we hit the road before the sun came up on Friday in order to get a decent day of skiing in.

We rented a town home for the weekend and spent Friday skiing.  This was only my third time skiing so I'm still a little slow and apprehensive on the slopes but I did start tackling some of the blue runs.  Matt was kind enough to stick with me on the easy runs even though he's a far more advanced skier than I.  Friday night we went out in downtown for dinner and some drinks.

Saturday morning we were up and at em early as we were going dog sledding!  I think it's safe to say this was the part of the trip we were the most excited for.  The company is called Grizzle-T Dog Sledding and they've been in operation since the 90s.  They have about 130 dogs, each with a name and the staff knows all the names, and teach you how to drive the sled before leading you on a 12.5 mile run.  Matt started driving for the first half and then we switched.  We drove through some gorgeous scenery and had an amazing time...boy do those dogs love running and they are SO strong!!  We've already decided we need to go dog sledding again next year. :)

Here are some pictures from the trip, many more are posted on Facebook:

And Winter Has Returned...

Go figure that after I wrote about how unseasonable our weather had been lately, it has been snowing all day today.  Nothing much has accumulated but it sure has been pretty...and cold.  When we were running errands today the car said that it was 16 degrees out!  So, I'm bundled up in sweats and blankets and have been just relaxing on the couch for most of the afternoon.  I figure we deserve an easy day considering all that we've been up to the last two days: tackling the Incline and then a day of skiing.

Since Matt is done actually working and is now finishing up clearing, he really has only been going on Post for a few hours in the morning.  It's been great to have him around for the afternoon so that we can do fun stuff together.  Thursday afternoon we decided to hike the Incline again.  I had only done it once, back in the early fall while it was still warm out.  Matt, on the other hand, has done it numerous times and he makes it look easy, even in the snow!  We decided to take Cooper with us.  I was a bit apprehensive about taking him with us but Matt was confident that he could handle it.  Cooper put us both to shame and did an awesome job going up and then running back down the Barr Trail with us.  We were so proud of him...and I was darn proud of myself!  Matt wants to make the Incline a weekly workout--I'm thinking it will be a bit before I can do it every week, my legs and bum are killing me right now!!

We didn't realize just how cold it was...it wasn't
snowing at our house :)

One step at a time, the only way to do it!

We did it!  And in the snow!

Definitely needed the extra traction
on the shoes.

So, after hitting up the Incline Thursday, we decided to hit up the slopes at Winter Park on Friday.  As if my legs hadn't had enough punishment. :)  Winter Park is where we went skiing together last time so I knew some of the runs already.  It was really nice to be able to ski with Matt since the last time we were there I was with my lesson the whole day.  He was kind enough to stick to the green runs with me in the morning and I even went down a blue run...and didn't fall once the whole day.  It was a gorgeous day, blue skies and sun though the wind was pretty brutal.  All in all, a great day of skiing!

Getting ready to hit the road before
the sun was up!

The Coca-Cola polar bear!

Me in action.

Self portrait on the lift.

Racing down the moutain :)

A little sunburned, a little wind-burned,
but quite happy. 

My legs are currently KILLING me.  Matt says I walk like an old lady with a limp...and sadly, that's a relatively accurate description.  Perhaps we won't go skiing the day after doing the Incline again.  This coming week marks Matt's final four days with the Army!!  As of February 17th, he will officially be on Terminal Leave.  We will be heading up to Steamboat Springs next weekend to celebrate the occasion.  I'll be sure to take lots of great pictures to share with everyone.  Hope everyone has a great week and a fantastic Valentine's Day! :)

Dog Days of Winter

Typically when I think of February I think of cold, snow, and dreariness.  And cold. :) However, this winter has been far from typical.  In fact, the first day of February (which on a tangent, I cannot believe we're in February already, where is time going?!) here was unseasonably warm.  It was warm enough that I went for a trail run outside and actually got hot.  From what I hear, St. Louis has been crazy warm as well.  I was prepared for a winter full of snow when I moved out to Colorado but we really haven't gotten much snow at all, maybe one or two decent snow falls.  So, imagine our excitement when a huge snow storm was predicted for the end of this last week.  Meteorologists were warning of blizzard conditions, roads were shut down, Fort Carson issued a two hour delay which meant Matt had a snow day.  We settled in for the night on Thursday expecting to wake up to a world blanketed in white.  However, we awoke Friday morning to hardly a dusting of snow on the ground.  Talk about a disappointment.  The storm seemed to have gone North and East of us and Denver got pounded by snow as well as the corridor between Denver and the Northern part of the Springs.  We live so close to the mountains here in Old Colorado City that most weather patterns seem to miss us.  Matt's snow day seemed a bit silly when there was absolutely no snow on the ground by 10AM but it was nice to have a long weekend together.

The fact that Matt had Friday off meant that his last day of work was Thursday!!  While his terminal leave doesn't actually start until the 17th, the Army gives Soldiers ten days to clear so he has now started that process.  The next ten days he'll basically just be taking care of the administrative side of exiting the Army: making sure all the paperwork is correct, turning in equipment, that sort of thing.  This means that our house currently looks like the Army exploded in it.  Matt is having to go through ALL of his Army stuff and clean it and make sure he has everything issued to him to turn back in.  There are some things that he gets to keep and wants to save for our children and grandchildren.  It's crazy how much stuff he actually has, though perhaps not too surprising considering he's done two deployments.  So, our house will be a mess for a bit but it's incredibly exciting to enter into this next chapter of life.  Here's a couple pictures of the mess that I will happily put up with:

The guest room...the mess has since expanded
into the laundry room too.

Cooper was trying to help out.

It all has to be cleaned too: not an easy task
considering there's two years of Iraq gross-ness caked on it.

He can be so awkward when you try to take his picture.

Hope that everyone has a great Super Bowl Sunday!!  Matt will be enjoying the game with some Army buddies while I work.  Also, a very Happy Birthday to my awesome Dad...it's your 30th right? ;)