The Ahlberg family headed to Colorado for the Spring Break week. We left bright and early on Sunday, March 11 and headed back home (bright and early) on Sunday, March 18. We stayed in
Silverthorne for four nights and then headed into Denver and stayed there for three nights.
Bailey had finals at SCC that week so she flew out on Thursday and joined us. Which means she missed one of the best parts of the trip: skiing! Jace had been to
Ski Cooper a couple times and said it was a great place for first-time skiers and families. It was definitely much more affordable than some of the big-name ski resorts and small enough that we felt comfortable if the kids wanted to ski on their own.
All three boys had never skied before so they took ski lessons the first day. Trent in Panda Patrol; Cody and Drew in lessons for skiing (Cody) and snowboarding (Drew). It gave Jace and me a chance to ski together for the first time for a few hours before the boys joined us.
I'll be honest...the first day was a bit rough for the boys. We had planned on skiing for three days and after the first day and the trials and tribulations (and a few tears) we thought maybe a third day of skiing would be out of the picture. We showed up on the second day, strapped on the skis and board, and--thankfully--everything they had learned in ski school came back to them! It was a great day. There were still some struggles but, overall, everyone had a great time. I think the average rating for the day was a 9.5. Which secured the third day of skiing.
The third day was equally as fantastic! Everyone knew the ski runs and we were able to ski together. That was so incredibly special to Jace and me that all five of us could ski together and have a great time. We only wished Bailey could have been with us.
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| (One of Trent's favorite pictures. He's holding up the mountain.) |
Towards the end of the third day, both Cody and Drew were a bit tired and wanted to go back to the lodge for a bit. We let them go (which, it turned out, they both ended up skiing on their own--maybe they were just tired of US!) and then Jace, Trent and I skied the rest of the afternoon. Trent was amazing! He finally figured out that he couldn't just head straight down the hill. He would follow either Jace or I back and forth across the mountain and then the other would follow behind Trent. It was incredible watching him doing his snow-plow turns and just kicking butt down the blue runs. We had a lot of fun.
On Thursday, we packed up the condo in Silverthorne and headed to Denver to pick up Bails. That night, we hit Dave & Busters for some dinner and game playing. Friday, we headed a bit north of Denver to the shopping mall in Flat Irons...or was it Irons Flat. Whichever. Everyone shopped together for a few hours and then the boys went to a movie. Bailey and I got serious about shopping for another two hours and then we met up for pedicures. Great time!
Friday night, Jace and I went on our "adult date" to a
murder mystery dinner theater. It was within walking distance to where we stayed and was a lot of fun.
Saturday, St. Patty's Day, the boys dropped Bailey and I off on
Pearl Street--similar to the Haymarket area with cute boutique stores and restaurants--while they headed out to another entertainment center to do miniature golf, go-kart racing, etc. We met up afterwards and went bowling. After that, we all went to an
improv theater to watch live entertainment. That, too, was a blast!
Sunday--packed everything up and headed home! Sunburns, wind burns, extra people, extra bags and extra purchases and all. A fantastic week!
And now onto more pictures!
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| Trent in Panda Patrol. He's the fourth kid back. |
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| Karis & Cody at the top. |
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| Trent & Karis at the bottom. |
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| Bro love...Trent snuggling up to his big brother. A bit tired after a day of skiing! |
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| On top of the mountain! |
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| Go-kartin'! |
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| All the kids playing "Fruit Ninja." Fast, flyin' hands! |
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| Bailey and Dad challenging each other at Dave & Buster's. Very intense! |
And if you're still hanging in there for this epic blog post, videos.
This is Cody skiing on Day 1. It's kind of a long video, though less than a minute, but you get to see both Jace and Cody skiing.
Drew snowboarding--slow and steady. He's the one in red. After watching him and several other people learning, I don't know how they do it. It's looks REALLY hard!
And this is Trent skiing on Day 3. We had the system figured out by then. I have another video of him whizzing straight down the mountain, but it's just a blur and you can't really tell it's him. :)
These were all the highlights from the trip and in between all of these moments, there were so many others memories created that we'll keep for a lifetime!
