Arizona

Even though we're working adults, we decided to go on spring break to Arizona this year.  Karla's parents just purchased a park model in a retirement court in Apache Junction (near Phoenix), so we had to check it out.  And, while we're there, catch some spring training games.

I flew in on Wednesday night to spend some quality time with my parents.  On Thursday, we went to Tortilla Flats during the day and then to Organ Pizza Stop for dinner.  Growing up, I would visit my paternal grandparents in Arizona and loved to go to Organ Pizza, so it's a family tradition.  The pizza is okay, but the entertainment is great!!

On Friday, Mom and I went to water aerobics, then met up with Dad for two games of shuffleboard.  The first gentleman I played took it easy on me and let me win.  The second gentleman, after I told him it was okay for me to lose, destroyed me.  :)  Then we were off to the first of three baseball games during the weekend.  We met up with Ken and Nancy (Matt's parents), who had been hiking in the Grand Canyon and came down to the Phoenix area to join in on the fun.  The game was at Brewers stadium, but it's the Cubs that came away with the win!  Dinner was at Mom and Dad's and included a lot of NCAA basketball tournament watching.  Matt's flight came in late Friday night (11:30pm).

Saturday morning was a quick breakfast and then all 6 (both sets of parents, Matt and me) went to the Mesa Market.  It's a huge flea market where I bought some Cubs earrings, Matt bought some fudge, and we both took advantage of all of the free samples.  Then it was off to our 2nd Cubs game (at Hohokam against the Angels).  Unfortunately, it was a split squad for the Angels, so we didn't get to see their big name players, but we got to see the Cubs first team win over the Angels second team!  After the game, we met up with Matt's cousin Adam at a bar in Scottsdale.  He had been there all day, so we're not sure if he remembers seeing us, but we have photographic evidence if he ever doubts us!  After a drink at the bar, we headed back to Mom and Dad's for some grilled steak and more basketball.

On Sunday, we went to church where 70% of the congregation is senior citizen age.  Ken thought Matt and I should have gone up for the children's sermon.  :)  After church we head out to Surprise, AZ for our third and final baseball game - Rangers vs. Reds.  We were joined by my parents' friends Steve, Sharon, and Lyla.  We all did a little tailgating before the game and then saw a Rangers win.  We're 3-0 for spring training games - hopefully that carries into the regular season!  After the game, we all stopped for a Blizzard at DQ and then Matt and I were dropped off at the airport.

After days of 80 degrees and sun, it was hard to come back to Denver where it was 20 degrees and had 8 inches of snow on the ground!!  Maybe next year I'll spend a month down with my parents...  :)

5th Anniversary Weekend

Our original plans for our anniversary weekend were to go to our volleyball happy hour on Friday, ski Saturday morning and then head to Glenwood Springs for a night in the mountains.  However, a winter storm warning had us cancelling those plans.  We love our little car, but it's not made for driving in a winter storm in the mountains.  Matt's parents were in Angel Fire, NM for the weekend so they decided to make the 5-hour drive up to Denver on Friday.  They have a big Tahoe and we figured if any car could make it skiing on Saturday, it was theirs!

Friday night happy hour was a blast.  Good food, good drink, and great friends.  Can't wait for volleyball season to start back up!

Ken, Matt, and Karla got up at 5:30am on Saturday to start the drive to Keystone.  It wasn't snowing in Denver yet, but we hit snow in the foothills.  Traffic wasn't horrible (everyone was scared off by the storm warnings), but the roads were snowpacked.  There were a few moments when we weren't sure if going skiing was a good idea, but ended up making it to Keystone in 2 hours!

The skiing was great - no lines at the lifts, great powders, and Ken got in his Colorado ski trip for the year!!  The trip back to Denver wasn't bad - the worst roads were the last 10 miles, but the Tahoe managed them without a problem.

We went for dinner Saturday night at Osteria Marco on Larimer and then back home for some hotly contested games of Carbles.  (It's not a true weekend with the Gross's unless we play Carbles with Karla and Matt swearing at each other...we're not too competitive at all!)

Sunday is a chill day - which is perfectly fine with us.  Great thing to do on our anniversary!!

February

Since we were pretty busy in Feb, we forgot to update this.  Here's a recap of a fun month.

After getting back from Africa, the month went by in a blur.  We were able to get a lot of skiing in, mostly at Keystone.  We found it's a little closer and not as crowded as Breckenridge.  Matt and Ryan got a good powder day in on President's Day, and even took a snowcat to the back bowls and got to get some great skiing in there. 

The next weekend our friends from Chicago, Gil and Leigh Anne, came to town.  They had a day on their own while we worked, and got to get to some breweries and take in the sights.  About an hour after landing Gil was ready to move here.  We all went skiing at Keystone on Saturday and had a blast.  Leigh Anne had only skied before but did well.  Big shout out to Karla for helping her.  

We also went down to Texas for a quick weekend because the Casselmanns, friends from Cologne, Germany, were in town.  Their son Christian was a foreign exchange student with the Gross family when Matt was a senior in high school.  It was great to see them! No German trip to Texas would be complete without buying cowboy boots and a cowboy hat...Germans.  The same weekend our nephew Caleb turned two, so it was fun to celebrate with the family.

The next weekend we had another 'we love Colorado' moment.  We went skiing on Saturday and hiking on Sunday.  Awesome.  There was a little snow on the trail, but it was fine and made for a good workout.