First Day of Skiing - Breckenridge

We had a private family lesson booked from our first day of skiing.  It was a beautiful day - sunny and high 30s/40s.  Our instructor was Sylvan Kline and he met us at the lifts near our condo. He was a former strength and conditioning coach for both an NHL team and an MLB team which was cool. He helped Phil and I get used to skiing again and gave us some things to work on once we were comfortable. He had the boys working on skiing backwards and turning on one leg. Once Phil and I were comfortable on the greens, he took the boys off to try some more challenging runs. We met up for lunch at the resort. In the afternoon, we did another run together so he could check on our progress. Then he took the boys off again. They ended up taking the Imperial Express lift which is the highest lift in North America (12,840 feet) and even did some blacks. After our day of skiing, we just picked up some food to eat back at the condo and then played pool and some games before calling it a night.

Heading out!

Frontier 

Top of Imperial Express

Beaver Run Resort - Breckenridge

We were able to check into our condo around 4pm on Sunday. Our room had a view of the Beaver Run lift and was at the base of Peak 9. There were four buildings and they were all connected with sky walks. Each building had their own pools and hot tubs. We liked the indoor/outdoor pool in building 3 and the small outdoor hot tubs. There was an area with a foosball table, pool table, and comfy chairs/couches. The boys played billiards each night and we also played card games there in the evenings. There were several restaurants, a ski shop, and a coffee shop/market. It was great location - we could ski right out to two lifts and were right by some easy runs which was great for the first day.  We walked into downtown Breckenridge the first night and had dinner at Tin Plate Pizza.  It was such a cute town!

First glimpse of Breckenridge

View from our room

Indoor/Outdoor Pool

1 of 10 Small Outdoor Hottubs

Georgetown and Frisco

On Sunday morning, we drove up into the mountains. It was very cool to see the elevation change and we could definitely feel the pressure change in our ears (and an unopened bag of chips popped open!). We had some time before we could pick up our rental skis and check in at the hotel so we stopped in Georgetown (elevation 8,520 feet). We went to the visitor's center and walked into the cute little downtown area to do some shopping. Then we went to the wildlife viewing area and a lake that is home to a huge pond hockey tournament in February. They said they had 24 rinks set up on the lake! As we were leaving Georgetown, we saw some big horn sheep on the side of the road. Our next stop was Frisco (elevation 9,026 feet). We had lunch a great sandwich/breakfast shop and wandered the town for a while. Then we picked up our rentals (Kristen and Phil only) from a shop in town.

Georgetown, CO

Georgetown, CO

Georgetown Lake

By the Georgetown Loop Railroad

Bighorn Sheep

The Rockies as we entered Frisco

Downtown Frisco

Downtown Frisco

Denver

We got into Denver around 3pm on Friday and checked into our hotel. Then we went exploring. We saw the convention center, Ball Arena (where the Avalanche play), Coors Stadium, and Larimer Street Mall. We ended up ordering pizza to have in the hotel lobby while watching basketball. On Saturday, we walked over to the capital and explored the 16th Street Mall. Then we went to the Denver Arsenal Nature Preserve to hike for a while before heading to the Colorado Rapids MLS game (which was next to the nature preserve). We saw deer, lots of birds, and prairie dogs (the highlight) while on our hike. The MLS game was a lot of fun. The Rapids wone 2-0 scoring both of their goals in the last few minutes of the game. Then we went back to the hotel and grabbed a quick dinner so we could pack up before heading to Breckenridge.

Convention Center

Steps of the Capital - One mile above sea level

Stadium 14 - Kauffman

Since we were driving to Colorado for spring break, we decided to make a slight detour and stop in Kansas City for the Royals' opening day. It was a beautiful day - 80 degrees and sunny. We walked around the outside of the stadium and also saw Arrowhead which was right across the parking lot. Alex was very excited to play mini-golf which he learned about reading a Ballpark Mystery book when he was in first grade. He has been talking about it ever since. After the game (Royals lost in extra innings) we drove a few more hours and saw a great thunderstorm roll in while we were driving.

That's Will in the far right corner