Snowshoeing in RMNP

Today Karla and I got up and headed out to Rocky Mountain National Park to go snowshoeing.  The weather looked good and the roads were clear all the way.  We found a place in Estes Park that rented shoes for $5, and we decided to get the annual pass to RMNP so we are good to go for a year.  We headed up to Bear lake to hike up to Emerald lake, via Nymph lake and Dream Lake.  we packed in our packs we're taking to Kilimanjaro in 3 weeks(yikes!) to test them out and our new insulated water packs.  In the sun we were really warm.  We made it up to dream lake(the 2nd of 3) with no problem, playing in the snow all the way up.  Once we hit dream lake we got off the main path somehow and ended up going about 30 minutes out of our way up and down some pretty steep sides of a mountain.  Once we found the main path again we were relieved to not have to go back the way we went, but had fun doing it in retrospect.  The weather was fantastic, and as you can see it was very beautiful.  We were able to walk on the ice as the lakes were frozen solid.  about 2 hours up and maybe 50 minutes back made it a very nice day in the mountains.  We came back to the Vikings knocking out the Bears by beating the Packers, so it could have ended a bit better for Matt...looking forward to snowshoeing again!

Day in the Mountains

Saturday was a very long, yet very, very fun day.  Matt had been itching to go skiing so we got up early and, after picking up Naomi, were on the road by 6am to head to Keystone.  Since he was only going to ski for a few hours, Naomi and Karla decided to try snowshoeing instead of skiing.  It was snowing in the mountains so it was slow going on the way out there, but when Matt was one of the first ones on the lifts and got fresh powder on the first run, it was definitely worth it!  After a morning of skiing and snowshoeing, we grabbed a quick lunch and headed back to the city for a quick nap.  Our evening was spent out in Parker at Jamie and Doug's playing with the twins and watching our two favorite Christmas movies - National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and Love Actually.  The snow and movies definitely helped us get more into the Christmas spirit!

Cousin Eddie and lots of twinkle lights

This last weekend we went to an ugly sweater party.  Matt took that to mean 'dress like cousin Eddie from Christmas vacation'.  So we went to a thrift store and purchased all necessary clothes, and Karla got a bad red sweater and decided to put lots of bows on it.  Extra hideous.  After cutting up a turtleneck to look like a Dickie and putting on a sweater about 2 sizes too small, the effect had been reached.  The party was lots of fun, and it started to snow during it, making it feel more like the holiday season. 

As if all that weren't enough to get in the holiday spirit, we decided to go with Ryan and Naomi to the lights at the Denver botanic garden on Sunday night.  It was especially cold, but some hot some hot cocoa and hot cider made it all worthwhile.  We drove around after looking at Christmas lights, capping off a fun weekend.

Weekend in Chicago

Our friends Jason and Kristen got married in Chicago this past weekend, so we were able to make our third trip back in 8 months!  Since I can work from anywhere, I was able to head out Wednesday night to spend some time with Kristin and see some friends.  On Thursday night, Kristin, JP, Menko, Jeanne, and I went to Bottles and Bottega by Kristin's place to paint "Starry Night" by Van Gogh.  Of course, we picked the hardest picture, but we still had a blast!

Friday was a sister night of ordering in pizza, watching a really bad movie, and picking up Matt late at night.  Saturday morning I went to book club with Kristin while Matt walked around Michigan Avenue and had lunch at his favorite spot (XOCO).  Then it was wedding time!

While we were in Vegas with our soccer friends, we had a great idea of the guys wearing bow ties to the wedding.  It became a recurring theme for the night.  If a guy was asked a question, the response, no matter what, was "Bow tie!"  The wedding was beautiful and the reception was in a gorgeous ballroom at the InterContinental Hotel on Michigan Ave.  Our group had a blast!

Sunday morning we swung by Kristin's to crash her Bear's tailgate party and ate some of the delicious tater tot breakfast casserole.  We had a lot of fun Saturday night, so we didn't partake in the bloody marys.  :)