Not long after we got word that we were indeed moving to Saudi Arabia, I decided that we needed to go skiing before we left. We skied on our honeymoon in Gatlinburg, TN and loved it, but I wanted to experience a "real" ski resort. After lots of research we decided that Steamboat was the best place to go with a three year old. Neither of us are big fans of anything Mardi Gras so I scheduled our trip for that week (February 8 - 12, 2013). Harry and Connor picked me up from work and we headed to the airport. Connor, as usual, was thrilled to fly...me, not so much! I hate, hate, hate to fly. I have no idea how I'm going to make it to Saudi without having a breakdown. He is not phased at all. In fact, when we landed back in New Orleans on our flight home he asked if we were in the air yet!
We had planned to drive from Denver to Steamboat when we landed, but since it would be a 3-4 hour drive in the dark and we didn't know what the road conditions would be like we decided to spend the night in Denver. After a little trouble with the car rental we were on our way! The copilot didn't last long after we got in the car!
After a good night's sleep, we got up and started making our way to Steamboat. The scenery on our way was breathtaking! The longer we drove, the more beautiful it got. Pictures do not do it justice! We also became very thankful that we decided to stay the night in Denver as we drove. The weather and road conditions became pretty scary the closer we got to Steamboat. I kept telling Harry that I felt like we shouldn't be where we were and wondered if we were even on the right road. Being from south Louisiana, we had never seen anything like it, much less drive in it. We drove at least half the way without seeing a gas station and only a ranch or house every so often. You definitely couldn't see the lines on the road. It was snowing pretty hard and the wind was blowing and I felt like I was in a blizzard. I know we weren't, but that's what it felt like to us Cajuns!
Connor was absolutely thrilled when he saw snow for the first time. He had been asking to see snow since Christmas. It's all he talked about once we started seeing it on our way in! When we got to our condo he couldn't wait to play in it. Harry and I were getting our bags out of the car and when we turned around we found him having a blast in a snow bank!
After getting settled into the condo it was time to start our adventure. We had a short walk to the transit station where a bus was picking us up to go snow tubing at Saddleback Ranch. Of course, we had to stop and play in the snow on our way!
We had a great time snow tubing. Connor was too little to ride on a tube alone so we took turns going down the hill with him in our tube. The scenery was beautiful! There was a pretty large group there with us and we all got together to make a big tube down the hill before we had to leave. We held onto each other's tube straps and the workers helped us get started down the hill with a little push. We tried twice, but the group ended up breaking apart before we got very far. It was fun though! We tubed for about an hour and a half and the bus brought us back to the transit station right down the street from our condo. It was the perfect activity to do that afternoon!
We got up early on our second day to eat a good breakfast since we were spending the day on the slopes. After breakfast we dropped Connor off at "snow school" for the day while we skied. We decided to do a full day of lessons because it had been five years since we last skied and even then it wasn't anything compared to Steamboat. We were split up into different groups based on our ability level, but that was okay because I ended up with only two other ladies in my group. Even though we didn't see each other all day we had a great time! We were prepared enough to tackle the slopes on our own by the end of our lesson, but it was time to go pick Connor up and I was exhausted. Skiing is a serious workout!
After skiing we went back to the room to relax and play in the snow before dinner. Our condo was on the ground floor and it had a little patio so it was perfect for playing outside and having a snowball fight. Harry and Connor even managed to build somewhat of a snowman! They had the best time!
Our third and final day was just as fun as the first two. We went dog sledding through the Rockies! It was awesome! The man that owns the place actually participated in the Iditarod in 2011 so it was really neat to hear his stories and have him train us on how to drive the sled. Those dogs are real athletes. We all got to ride on the same sled which was really fun. Harry drove first and Connor and I rode inside of it then we switched and I got to drive about half way through. There was only one other couple on the tour with us so we were basically out there alone with two guides on snowmobiles. The guides stayed pretty far away so that we could get the full experience.
After dog sledding we decided to pack up and head back to Denver. We were flying out the next day and had planned on just driving into Denver the next morning, but based on our experience with our trip into Steamboat we thought it best to head out in the daylight rather than risk it in the early morning hours. Our Steamboat trip definitely ranks up there with Disney World on my list of favorite vacations. It was an absolute blast! Our little family had a great time!
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