Breckenridge with the Camps (Part 1)

Earlier in February we got to spend another week in Breckenridge, this time with the Camp side of the family!  At the most we had 13 people together in two conjoined townhouses and we had a blast spending the week skiing, snowmobiling, eating, drinking, and hot-tubbing.



Here's the whole group at dinner one night:



Our second day there was the Super Bowl... here we are at the beginning, before the mood turned sour:



Here's me, Ashley, Barbara, and Alison getting ready to ski toward the beginning of the trip:



View from the top:



Dave and Josh:



Bob, Dave, Josh, and I:



Getting ready to go down my first black run ever with Leonard there to catch me (and Josh uphill to pick up the pieces if needed):



And I made it down without falling and even did a few more over the next few days of the trip!  I've definitely gotten a lot better at skiing this year.  I'd say previously I enjoyed the green runs most and now I'm at the point where I really like the blues and am comfortable on most of them.  It'll probably still be another year at least before I can go shred the blacks with Josh and not feel totally out of control, but maybe someday I'll get there!

And of course, apres-ski is almost as important as the skiing itself... here's a delicious smoked old fashioned and mint julep:



And we took a 6 year old to a bar.  And they gave her noodles with cheese and butter and she loved it :)

Snowshoeing Fail

Since we enjoyed hiking in the Sandia Mountains during the summer and fall, Josh and I figured we'd give it a try during the winter and go snowshoeing.  We rented some snowshoes from a local store and headed up the road into the east mountains.



Once we got there, we had to get the dogs' paws all waxed up to protect them from freezing and get their jackets on.  Then we had to get our snowshoes strapped on.  Oh, and did I mention it was 8 degrees with 30 mile an hour winds up there?



So once we were all geared up, we finally set off across the beautiful snowy landscape.  Bailey, as usual, had a blast.  Addie was, as  usual, not so sure about the cold.





Ultimately, our trek only lasted about 10 minutes because we could never regain the feeling in our fingers after getting all ready to go!  I think next time we will have to try it when it's not so cold!



Ultimately we decided to make the most of our day and stopped at a sledding area further down the mountain where we were protected from the wind and it was a balmy 14 degrees.

Exploring the Jemez Mountains

There's another mountain range north of Albuquerque called the Jemez so we decided to go up there to explore with some friends.  We found a gorgeous river and half frozen waterfall on the way so we decided to stop and climb around a bit.







It was a long drive, but worth it to play in the snow a while!  Bailey certainly thought so (Addie wasn't so sure and was happy to wear Bailey's jacket on top of her own) :)