Winter 2011-2012

Our winter started out pretty rough with the whole miscarriage thing- but we were able to have fun and do fun things in spite of the hard times. We went to Utah for Christmas though of course we didn't take very many pictures (shocker I know!). We had a fun Christmas with Steve's family. I got to see them for longer than Steve, because the day after Christmas Brent, Sandra, Laura, Jordan and Lucy took off for Atlanta Georgia. We got to see some old friends and got to go out to lunch with Kiersty and Seth and my Aunt and her family. We also got to hang out with Scott and Rachel and Annie a lot. We also got some good snowboarding days in!

 When we got back we spent a few days with Mike and Erin to celebrate Abbie's birthday. We got to go bowling and the Olive Garden for dinner. Abbie even invited me to go with her to get a feather in her hair for her birthday. She chose a snazzy blue and black stripey feather and loved showing it off!

She pretends like she doesn't like Justin Beiber but we know better :)

 

 I got Steve tickets to see the Nuggets vs. the Kings for Christmas. The main reason we went was to see "The Jimmer" play. He played okay- the best part of the game was when he threw a fit! Haha actually there was a sweet "alley-oop" or however you spell that!

 We went on a winter hike in RMNP. It was CRAZY windy! And freezing cold wind at that. We were super bundled up but were happy to get outside for a while. We hiked up to this little lake that was completely frozen over and also serves as a wind tunnel! Brrrr. 

 On a Sunday afternoon walk around Lake McIntosh

There was a huuuuuge snowstorm here in late January. We headed out to go snowboarding that morning- but so did everyone else in the state of Colorado! The resort we had passes to was full by the time we got half way up the canyon, so we went to the nearest sporting goods store, bought inner tube/sled things and headed to Chatuaqua park for a day of sledding. The sledding hill at this park was suicidal- seriously. People in Boulder, CO apparently have never been sledding before!!! People were standing in the middle of hill and in the tracks people were sledding down. The sleds we bought we crazy fast and one time I started out down the hill, got turned around going super fast- next thing I knew I had slammed into a person! This guy had stood right in the middle and didn't move even though I was SCREAMING the whole way down!

Haha! Who knew it's so difficult to fit two inflatable sleds in the back of a WRX?!

Suicidal sledding hill! But look at all of that snow!!!!

 We had a pretty calm Valentines Day- we always stay home and make a special dinner. We decided to make home made Vrenike. They are these little mashed potato ravioli that you eat with sour cream and caramelized onions! We had some difficulties making them but we finally got some done and they were soooo yummy. Someday when we live in Russia, I will eat vrenike and borscht for every meal :)

Expert vrenike maker

 In February we had a visit from Mom and Dad Hale. We went to Parker to spend the weekend with them. Brent, Sandra and I took Noah and Landon to the park. These two kiddos crack me up constantly! They are so much fun and Landon is constantly saying funny things unintentionally which makes them even funnier. Like I said we have loved living close to these guys!

 We headed up to go snowboarding one Saturday, but the wind was CRAZY and you could only see like ten feet in front of you. So we decided not to waste a pass that day and headed to the Frozen Dead Guy days in the local town. It is this festival celebrating a guy who was cryogenically frozen in his son's garage for years without anyone knowing about it... I can't remember the details but the whole thing was super random. We enjoyed the randomness of the whole thing and took a carousal ride on this old restored carousal. It ended up being a fun day!

 This is just a funny picture... Steve and I are really bad at playing on our phones right before we go to bed- I looked over one night and saw this. Steve asleep with his finger poised to play on his phone more once he woke up! hahaha.