Avon, Colorado - Day 4

It snowed!!!  We got about 3-4 inches overnight.  What a beautiful sight to wake up to!  We enjoyed a cozy, slow morning and then set out to explore the neighborhood.

4 beautiful inches!!!

Angie and I walked the beginning of a trail head for a bit just see what was around the corner.  The rest of the crew thought it would be great to scare us on our way back up.

Back at the house, we had to get in a game of BANG!  Tripp won as sheriff with Taryn and SE as his deputies!

In the afternoon, we drove to Beaver Creek to get set up with our ski gear.  This experience was a wee bit different than our Wolf Laurel experience in North Carolina.  At Wolf Laurel I was given two left boots by the same person that later worked the lunch counter.  At Beaver Creek we were escorted inside and had a trained professional all to ourselves to get us set up with the perfect gear.  

We ate dinner at Southside Benderz and it was delicious!

Avon, Colorado - Day 3

Today was supposed to be a ski day, but with 40 mph winds forecasted, we decided to postpone skiing until Wednesday.  We drove to Copper Mountain to go snow tubing instead.

In our usual assigned seats:  car sickies in the front; back seat drivers in the middle and kiddos in the back.

As I don't love fast and being out of control, I was a little apprehensive about this tubing idea.  I thought it would be fun and didn't want to be left out, so I went for it.  As I got to the top, my apprehension turned into fear.  There were three slides to choose from, and I told them I wanted the slowest.  The kid running my slide knew I was nervous and assured me I would be fine.  He directed me into my tube with little choice.  I was adamant I wanted to go slow with no spinning.  He said okay and assured me again that I would love it.  Ya'll, the dude grabbed the rope on my tube, looked me in the eye and said "sorry" and slung me with all his might down the slide!!  My thought process: "Oh no he didn't!  I hate this!  I'm about to go over the side!  I'm going backwards. I'm going to die.  #%@^@@.  Never again"  That was it for me - one and done.  Not one thing about that was even slightly fun.  Thankfully, everyone else loved it (crazy people), and I happily took on the job of videographer.  

Lily, Angie and Tripp

Lily and Sarah Ellen

Lily, Angie, Lily and Tripp

James and Sarah Ellen

James, Tripp, Lily, Lily and Angie

After tubing we took a shuttle over to the center village of Copper Mountain and found a great pizza place.  We shopped around and then headed back home.  The winds were indeed picking up!  We picked up a "take and bake" meal from Northside Kitchen and settled in for a relaxing evening waiting on the snow to arrive.  

And it did!!!!

Avon, Colorado - Day 2

We started this day with a relaxing morning and a huge breakfast at Northside Kitchen.  

The moon setting over the mountains.

SE checking out the "antique telephone"

We stocked up on groceries, then drove over to Vail to explore before our dinner reservations.  We ate dinner at The Swiss Chalet for the girls' first fondue experience.  The atmosphere was great!  The cheese fondue was fun, but we all agreed the chocolate fondue was the best.

After dinner we walked down to Lionshead Village to go ice skating.  The ice skating rink wasn't ready for skaters so we walked back up to Vail Village to try the rink there.  Lily, Lily, SE and I all skated while Tripp, James and Angie cheered us on.  

I am a much better ice skater than skier (and that is not saying much)!

Always the performer!

Funny story!  The girls have talked so much about finding cute "ski boys" while on this trip.  We have gotten a kick out watching them check out all the boys.  While skating, a group of teenage boys showed up to watch.  Little sister decided these boys needed to meet The Lilli.  She tells the girls to go get their phones so she can ask the boys to take a picture.  As they are grabbing their phones, the boys start to walk away.  No lie, SE skates across the rink yelling, "girls, hurry up.  They're getting away!"  Probably had to be there, but it was hilarious!  Meanwhile, a group of younger boys show up to skate.  A few glances and words were exchanged.  Big sister decided to return the favor.  SE ended up with a boy's number named Alejandro from Colombia, South America.  The best part was watching the dads doing everything they could to hurry the girls out of there!  

Avon, Colorado - Day 1

Colorado, here we come!!!  Along with the rest of the world, we canceled vacations last year, so when we were given the opportunity to visit Avon, Colorado while the girls are on Spring break, we jumped on it!  And we obviously can’t vacation without the Porters, so they joined us.  

First, we have to get there, and that means me getting on an airplane.  No matter how many times I fly, I still hate it.  Thankfully, we had a direct flight and it was as smooth as could be.  We met up with the Porters in Denver, grabbed our rental car (with a few Jedi mind tricks from Angie) and started towards Avon.  The ride was beautiful and we even saw snow falling.    

Once we arrived, we explored our amazing home for the week.  The view is spectacular and looks directly onto the Beaver Creek ski resort.   We drove over to Beaver Creek to explore the area and grab something to eat. Most places were full for a party of seven, so we ended up at Coyote Cafe.  It was not our favorite meal, but we were all just so happy to be together and on vacation! Off to a great start for the week!

She insisted on wearing her flying attire, hence the too-short pants.  

Terrified!!

Stunning views

Snow!!