Have you guys noticed how vacations and little trips disrupt normal day-to day activities? It’s like we go away for a few days and when we come back, our “used to be clean’ house is a mess of suitcases, dirty laundry mixed with clean stuff, our phone is ringing off the hook, no work is done, blog is abandoned. And you spend a week or two just catching up. In those moments you wonder why on earth you ever leave the house. But then you settle back in, clean the house, give some loving to the cats (kids), catch up on work, edit all the photos from the trip and sit down to write about it. And that’s when you sigh and think “Aaaaaaahhh!!! The trip was really nice!”
Do you have that? Do you?
So I am finally back in the groove ( ignoring all the work, I might say). I have been working hard on a blog post I am very excited about where I talk about MEAT and being vegan and vegetarian and healthy and all that good stuff. I am virtually done with it, just need to proofread it and add pictures. So in the meantime I am happy to share some photos from our Colorado trip.
Just a little background on it: I have this weird luck with meeting people on the Internet. My husband and I fell in love over the web, I met some of my best and most cherished friends on the Internet, so needless to say, I spend hours online ( the first 8 hours of the day working, the rest “playing”). What does it have to do with my Colorado trip? Here’s what: we went there to visit one of my Internet girlfriends…for the first time! Yay! those are always fun! Never awkward- always super duper exciting. She’d just gotten married and moved to Denver to her hubby and we were trying to plan how to meet before i get knocked up and can’t travel and such. We happened to have free airline tickets, they happened to have a house in Vail available to them for a week. I say SCORE!
So we planned it out and with my “complaining scared of snow and cold and skiing” husband took off to Colorado. Now, we have lived in Florida for 6 years now and the prospect of going ANYWHERE where the word snow exists in local vocabulary has been out of question until 2 years ago when I spent a week in the French Alps skiing for the first time in my life. Hubby wasn’t present since this was a modelling job i was hired for, that took 1 day to shoot and 5 days to have fun: 3 or 4 out of which I spent skiing my butt off. I fell in love with skiing. It was so much fun! I had this cute pink ski outfit they bought all of the girls and i was NOT afraid to use it again. So for the past 2 years I have been nagging my hubby to go skiing. I wanted to share the awesomeness of going 30 miles an hour downhill and actually being in control. Such a rush! He kept making excuses, such as we don’t have money, it’d be an expensive trip, we can’t leave work, why can’t we just go on a cruise instead? I realized later he just really really really hates cold that much! And so do I! But skiing makes it up for me. I know, strange for a boy from Cleveland, Ohio and a girl from Russia.
So we put on a brave face and took our flight up to Denver with a connection in Minnesota. I was actually really excited to see my friend and her new hubby. In Minnesota, we were honestly shocked- ALL THAT SNOW! It looked MISERABLE! When we landed in Denver, it was a completely different scenery: blue skies, blinding sun and relatively warm. Not too bad.
We found each other at the airport and like always, it was completely normal and comfortable, like we’ve known each other forever. The second we opened our mouths, we started laughing and joking and just had an amazing time hanging out and cracking each other up the first day.
The city of Denver really reminded me of Cleveland: lots of concrete and bricks and bare trees. To those who say they’d miss seasons in Florida, I say “I’d miss not having seasons!“. Of course, as soon as I could get my hand on that awesome sticky snow, my hubby got a snowball in his chest!
Later that day, Chris and Anastasia took us to Boulder for dinner. I have to say, Boulder is freaking beautiful! I’d totally live there…or go to school there when I was younger. What an awesome place for young single people!
 It was starting to get really cold as the evening approached, so while we were walking back to the car, I spotted a SKATING RINK! Ohhhh, I had to try skating! It was so cool and romantic looking.
Anastasia was apprehensive at first, citing not wanting to break a leg before she actually goes skiing for the first time, and it took 3 of us to convince her to try it out. We rented skates and went to town.
You should have seen this little girl. The one, who didn’t think she could skate, was doing pirouettes in the first 10 minutes of skating. She kept trying to skate backwards, in circles, with one leg up, as if normal skating wasn’t enough. We had a blast!
The next few days we spent up in Vail. A few other couples friends of Chris and Anastasia made their way to the cabin, and were all a great company. Of course everyone gave us crap about being vegetarian haha! But we’re used to it, honestly, and don’t really care 🙂 I did sneak in a salami piece under pressure, which i feel really bad about, especially while writing the post about meat. But otherwise, we cooked healthy and ate healthy.
A special word about the cabin: it was absolutely the best cabin i could imagine staying in. I mean I had stayed in a big chalet in the French Alps, but it has been more like a rented hotel with a chef and maids. Here it felt like home, a very comfortable cosy home with many bedrooms, and walls thin enough to hear other couple having morning sex…(twice :), a hottub and a beautiful dining room table… oh and don’t forget the mandatory dead animals on the walls that kept freaking me out, especially a skunk on our bed. I have nothing against hunting, but anything dead creeps me out and makes me sad.
Now, the skiing turned out to be a bit more… hhmmm… unexpected. I pictured taking about an hour to teach Andrew how to ski and then skiing with him down the green slopes. In reality it was more like this: him getting pissed at me cuz he wasn’t getting it and wasn’t able to do it. Once he’d “get it”, and we’d start moving down the slopes, he’d “forget” the technique again and I’d get  more bitching and complaining about how this is no fun and it’s hard and why did i even drag him onto the mountain. By the end of the first run, he seemed to have gotten a hang of going down steeper hills, so I suggested we do another run. He agreed, though i will never know whether that was to not look like a wuss or because he truly felt more comfortable skiing. The second run down was no better. In the end, I spent the whole day going down the mountain at half speed to make sure i don’t lose him, which KILLED my knees. I got an earful of complaints and swearing, lots of pouting and resolving to never ever ski again. He HATED it! I was honestly shocked. I thought he’d pick it up faster and enjoy it just like I did the first time.
At the end of the trip, his hatred towards the mountain faded and he seemed to consider going again when we have kids and just spending the whole day at the kiddie slope to really “get a hang of  it”. I wonder if it’s like pregnancy amnesia. It took just a day for him to forget how miserable he was and consider doing it again. But honestly, I have NEVER seen my husband so defeated, frustrated and bitter. Good to finally know that side of him. Or more like “NOW I KNOOOOW and can hold it against you!!!” Just kidding of course!
We finished up the trip with an awesome group-cooked dinner and a super heavy but tasty breakfast.
I have to say it was a lot of fun and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I do want to have a ski re-do, because I didn’t really get to enjoy myself while skiing. But I guess, what won’t we do for our loved ones, right, girls?
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Ahh we did take similar trips! That cabin looks so awesome. Sorry your hubs hated skiing! That’s tough. Great pics, you look amazing.
What fun meeting a new friend! Your photos are stunning!
What a gorgeous vacation! WoW! Those photos are beautiful
Those are really great photos! It looks like you all had a lot of fun! 🙂
These photos are all so beautiful! What a gorgeous town, especially at night with all of the lights! Happy Friday! xx
Such great pictures!
I think Colorado’s tourism office should contact you. Your post made me kind of pine to visit–something I can safely say I’ve never done. Fantastic pictures!!
Hahaha! I will keep that in mind when Colorado tourism office calls me! 🙂
I LOVE how you animated your pictures! SOO much fun!
Awesome blog! I can’t wait to read more.
I just found your blog through one of the Friday blog hops. Have a great weekend!!
Amanda @ http://www.nutritionistreviews.com
Looks like a fantastic trip! Great photos, I really like that first one.
Great animations – I just saw a post on Shutter Sisters about how to animate and I might have to give it a try! Thanks for linking up to A View from Here, though I think you forgot to add the link to your post?? Lots of great and goofy smiles in your shots!
Yeah you’re right! i did forget the banner! Fixed!
What a great story and it was told so well in pictures.
Fabulous trip…and great reflections entry!
I love these! Your photos really make me want to go there. Your cabin looks gorgeous. Thanks for linking up.
I didn’t know you can hear anyone or anything from your room! THat’s too funny…
Every time I go there we stay in a master bedroom and it’s kind of isolated from all the sounds… so it never occurred to me that other bedrooms don’t have these thick walls… =))
And whom did you hear guys? Around you there was no bedroom..oops…was it the bedroom DOWNSTAIRS, that you could hear!?!?!?
It’s really not the walls being too thin ( i just said that for effect), it was probably more about this one couple being pretty loud while doing it. It’s funny though 🙂 probably the highlight of our morning! Hahahahaha