We spent our weekend in Steamboat for the last weekend of skiing.  The last day to ski Steamboat was today.  There are some areas here in Colorado that will be open longer, thanks to a lot of late season snow, but for us ski season has come to a close.  Bryan will have knee surgery on Thursday.  He chose to have it in between ski season and mountain bike season.  One must have their priorities.

Miss C had one last ski lesson for the season.  She has progressed so much this year.  Next year she'll be saying to me "Come on Mom, keep up."  She was skiing easy blue runs with us on Saturday.  Makes this mama very proud.  Watch for her in the Olympics.

Saturday after skiing there was a free concert at the base of the mountain.  Ozomatli played and we danced our tired legs for over an hour.  There was good food, abundant drink and great friends.  A new tradition has been born to celebrate the end of winter.

How was your weekend?

Saturday was BUSY!  First up.  The St. Patricks Day parade at Union Station.  We took light rail down to the station and watched the parade from across the street.  We thought it was only going to be a couple of hours and then we could get along with our day.  Nope.  The parade was 4 hours.  The first half of the parade took over 2 hours.  We left a quarter of the way through the second half of the parade.

Next on the agenda...a food swap.  I met with my foodie friends and exchange homemade goodness.  I took eggs and in return I got a steak & Guinness pie, granola, vegetarian green chili (that burned my mouth it was so spicy- Bryan will love it), apple crisp and some lovely spelt sourdough!

After the food swap I raced home to change clothes and pick up the fam so we could  go to Miss C's school fundraiser.  This is an annual fundraiser we do for scholarships and school supplies.  It was mass chaos with kids running around getting their faces painted and pictures taken!  There was also a balloon guy making what looked a gazillion balloon swords for the boys.   The food was delicious and I might have gone back for a second BBQ brisket sammie if I hadn't wanted to save room for dessert.

And then we lost an hour and I was tired yesterday.  After I got home from work I couldn't sleep and then overslept this morning.

Happy Monday my friends.

My weekend did not start out well.  It totally finished on a high note!  I got sick on Thursday afternoon while sitting in my hotel room in Minneapolis.  Sneezing, runny nose and by the time I got home on Friday afternoon I was achy, feverish and chilled.  Luckily that was short lived and I ended up with just a head cold.  Other than the fact my nose is raw from blowing it on the crappy airplane tissues, I am actually feeling much better.

The high note of the weekend?  THE BRONCOS ARE SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS!

We watched the game with - I can't even begin to describe the relationship so we'll just say- family.  It gets wild.  Crazy.  Passionate.  There is pacing, yelling, profanity, high fiving, hugging and all around excitement.  There was not, however, much crafting.  It was a great game!

Have a great week my friends.

Last Thursday the mama's (The Dragon's) and I left for New York and the 2015 New York Sheep and Wool Festival! Hello to the insanity!  (I didn't even take a picture of the craziness, but I heard there were 40,000 people there on Saturday).

On Friday two of the mama's took a design class and the other mama and I went sightseeing.  We drove down and toured the grounds of both Eleanor Roosevelt's Val-Kill estate and FDR's childhood home.  Then we took a tour of the Vanderbilt Mansion.  The grounds of all three were gorgeous, the leaves just coming into color (not quite peak, but stunning) and all were very impressive.

The Vanderbilt Mansion was one of the smallest and "cheapest" of all of the mansions built by a Vanderbilt.  It had 14 bathrooms!  When Frederick Vanderbilt died in 1938 he left this estate to his wife's niece.  But she didn't want it and tried to sell it first at a price of $350,000.  But due to the times, no one bought it.  She reduced the price to $250,000 (which in those times was A LOT of money, but I can't help think that since my house is over that in todays money I would have bought it in a heart beat).  And still no one bought it.

FDR suggested she donate the house and it's contents to the National Park Service and it opened to the public in 1940.

 Saturday was the day!  First day of the festival.  We got there about 10:30 and it was Cuh-razy! We got spilt up pretty much right away.  My plan was to walk around, do a little reconnaissance and then decide what to purchase.  It was a tad overwhelming.  It was hard to get into booths and feel the yarn.  But I did manage to walk through three buildings and mark my booklet to know which places I wanted to return to later.

I got to meet up with Donna.  I love this whole blog thing.  I consider everyone a friend from the blogosphere and it is so exciting to actually meet in person.  I spent the afternoon with Donna and her friend walking around the rest of the booths.  It was a chilly day and I kind of wished I had finished my Sylvi sweater, but I was rocking the Hitofude.

Donna & me.

 Donna made mention that Sunday is a much calmer day.  She was spot on.  It was easy to walk around and I was able to go back and make my purchases.  I was torn about what to buy though for the sweater I decided to make.  So many choices!  Ultimately I decided to only buy yarn for my sweater.  I was going to purchase yarn to make Miss C a sweater as well, but in the end I couldn't bring myself to spent upwards of $60-80 on yarn to make a sweater for a 4 year old.

The Dragons with Miss Babs.

I didn't venture too far into the Miss Bab's booth (either day) as it was pure insanity.  My friends waited in line for over 45 minutes on Saturday to make their purchases.  I was able to feel it and it was very nice.  I'll do my ordering on line!  Miss Babs was kind enough to take a photo with us on Sunday.

Stay tuned for a yarn photo.  I'm still downloading everything and unpacking.

The hand off from 1st to 2nd rider

Bryan coming in for the finish

after the race

after the race

This was one one of those weird weekends for us in that we actually had a regular weekend.  Meaning a weekend that everyone and their brother has.  Our weekends are usually Friday and Saturday and we both work on Sunday.

We went to Steamboat Springs on Thursday night to stay with some really good friends.  On Saturday Bryan and his good friend Chris were in the Honey Stinger 50 mile mountain bike race.  They did it as a duo... each rode 25 miles up and down the mountain.  (a little kuh-razy if you ask me).  Bryan rode the second half of the race and it got hot fairly early on which made the ride difficult.

On Friday we hiked for a little bit.  We played in the river and the hot springs run off.  There was also a free concert at the base of the Steamboat Springs ski area.  We ate dinner with great friends.  We had breakfast with the same good friends.

As much as I love to visit and travel, I love to come home to my own nest the very best!

The meadow behind the hut

catching bugs

catching bugs with her good friend

to roast marshmallows of course

The water was freezing!

Moose!

On Friday we hiked (Bryan biked) in to a hut where we camped for the weekend.  There is a hut system all over Colorado.  This one, however, is privately owned.  The hike in was about 2.5 miles.  I've not been to any others huts (we had planned a hut trip as a group, but two of us had newborns so we cancelled it) so I don't have anything to compare it to.  While the hut was rudimentary at best, it had running water!  Not many of them do.  And it had solar panels so we had electricity.  The wood stove in the basement provided enough heat that we were hot!  Which was good because it was in the 40's in the mornings.

The kiddos ran and ran and ran.  They climbed rocks and hikes and waded in the (freezing) creek.  Needless to say they were exhausted!  They roasted hot dogs on sticks and we all roasted marshmallows and made s'mores.  This mama also got in some good knitting time while sitting outside soaking up the wonderful weather.

Cell service was definitely spotty, but texts were able to get through in an emergency- luckily we didn't have any of those.  It was nice to unplug for the weekend.

I spent most of the weekend under the weather.  I flew on Thursday and thought my head was going to explode so laid low with my knitting, blanket, remote and kitties!  I rested on Friday and Sunday.  On Saturday we had a busy day and it wore me out!  First thing we cleaned Corrine's school- it is a cooperative school and all parents are required to be on a committee, we are on the cleaning committee.  Then we went to a St. Patricks Day festival for a couple of hours and then we drove the complete opposite side of Denver from where we live.  

My husband loves me so very much.  He bought me my own travel size bottle of St. Brendan's Irish Cream.  We made hot cocoa in my little thermos and then added some Irish Cream after tubing.  Oh.  My.  Tubing.  We went to the Fraser Tubing Hill in Fraser (Winter Park) on Friday.  What fun that was.  I hadn't been tubing since I was in high school.  We had the most wonderful hill by our house growing up.  But the Fraser Tubing Hill had a little tow lift to pull us up the hill!  No hiking up the hill carrying our tubes!  We played for an hour and it was a blast!

Our "weekend" was spent in Anaheim, California at Disneyland!   C's birthday was last Tuesday and my birthday was Friday.  So we spent Thursday hanging with princesses!  We had breakfast with Ariel, with Rapunzel, Belle, Tiana and Cinderella dropping by!

C wore her Snow White dress from Halloween.  While we were walking down Main Street in Disneyland she happened on Snow White.  She walked hand in hand with C for a few minutes and then graciously posed with C for pictures.  (I know it is part of their job to pose for pictures, but I think she was going on break).

Snow White and Snow White

Anna and Elsa with a mini Snow White

Mama in her Queen crown!

 We wore her out!  We spent the whole day at Disneyland and California Adventure without stopping for a nap.  Bryan and I were able to split up for some single rider adult rides.  There is really nothing like spending a day with princesses and random people telling you "Happy Birthday" all day!  (C got "Happy Birthday Princess!").

Worn Out

I don't normally share our weekends.  Mostly because our weekends are spent at work.  This weekend was full on busy pack full of goodness.

Friday was the first ski lesson of the new ski year.
 Not a whole lot of snow up top.  The lodge we are sitting in is at 11,000 feet and the peak is 12,000.  You can still see a lot of rocks and small trees.  Come on snow!

Saturday was spent running errands and Mama got an afternoon alone!  First as a family we went to purchase a limited edition charity CD that we get every year.  With the exception of last year- because it was -10 outside- this was the first year we didn't get up super early and wait in line with all the other crazy people to purchase our CD as soon as it went on sale.  We drove to the store, walked in, bought our CD's and walked out!  CRAZY!

Then Mama spent an afternoon with my Plexus peeps at an opportunity meeting.  The speaker at our meeting is one of 40 Diamond Ambassadors (the highest level of ambassador) and she was inspiring. Plus we heard testimonials from others who have been using the products.  Nothing short of amazing!
From the  Plexus meeting I went to a food swap and hung out with my foodie friends.  I made four mini apple pies and took some jarred hot pepper relish.  I came home with some apple strudel bread, some oatmeal cardamom bread, cupcakes, peach sirracha jam, and some gumbo!

Sunday was C's social day.  She was invited to two birthday parties.  The first was for a one year old and the second was for a classmate.  She was so excited for cake and then didn't eat either piece.  I've had a glimpse of how it will be going forward...mama's chauffeur service!

Have a great week my friends.

 My sweet baby girl made her hand bouquet in school last week.  It almost made me cry.

My mothers day weekend was spent camping in Cortez, Colorado (in the four corners area).  Bryan was in a 12 hour mountain bike relay race (I know, crazy!).  I have no pictures from camping or bike racing.  What I have is pictures of our drive home...
 We left Durango heading north and this is what we ran into.  We turned around because the snow plows hadn't been out yet and there was six inches of wet heavy snow and it was pretty slick.  We then went east out of Durango and had a pretty dry drive until we were about 2 1/2 hours from home.