A Snowboarding Weekend With Friends

I'm experiencing an unusual surge of energy today so I figured I'd blog about something that I should have blogged about a month ago! Over Valentines weekend, we had several friends from Oklahoma come up to Colorado to go snowboarding with us! Well, by "us" I mean everyone but me. You won't find me on the slopes, pregnant or not! Anyway, after they arrived at our house around 1 in the morning they all blew up their air mattresses and camped out in our basement den. Then the following morning (Thursday) we all piled into our vehicles and made the almost four hour drive to Salida. Surprisingly this was my first time to Salida this winter. I can't even tell you how many times I was there last year! We made a pit stop in Pueblo for lunch and for me to run into Hobby Lobby real quick to buy hostess presents for the gals that were throwing my baby shower for me. By the time we got to Salida it was late afternoon and Greg and I were dying to go out and eat. Unfortunately, all of our friends were understandably tired so they chose to order pizza's and chill in their hotel rooms.

The next day everyone except Shannon, Braxton (her one year old son) and I went to Monarch to have some fun on the slopes! At the last minute, Shannon and I decided to drive up to the lodge ourselves so she could see what the ski resort looked like. We were able to gather everyone up and take a few group photos! Now, I mentioned way back when that the women in Salida are very "natural". So, I opted to do the same and I didn't wear any make-up! Obviously I'm not what I would consider a "natural beauty" by any means, but this tired girl was sure glad to have an excuse to not go through a rigorous beauty routine!




After we left, Shannon and I went out to eat at my favorite cafe called (appropriately) The Salida Cafe. From there we went back to the hotel and just relaxed for a couple hours. Once Braxton took a short nap we ventured over to the Salida Hot Springs. Normally I would always go to the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs, which is so beautiful! Here's a pic I took of it last year:



It's located outside and you can actually sit in the river where the hot water flows naturally. But, since I'm pregnant and am not supposed to get in water that is too hot we went here instead. It's an indoor pool that is supposed to be filled with the natural hot spring water as well, but if you ask me, it smelled like chlorine. Oh well. I wasn't really a fan of the water being around my belly, so most of the time I just sat on the edge of the pool with my feet in the water. Braxton had a blast, though! Speaking of those "au natural" women of Salida, there was one lady who was playing with her son near us, and I couldn't tear my eyes away from the bush that was growing underneath her arms. I tried not to stare. I'm not sure how good I did...Eventually we went back to the hotel so we could change and go out to eat with everyone else.

The next day was Saturday and I spent the day with Shannon's sister, Shyla, who volunteered to baby sit Braxton so Shannon could try her hand at snowboarding. We drove up to the lodge again to eat lunch with everyone but it was so crowed that our lunch plans weren't as organized as we thought they may have been. Let's just say we didn't stay too long after I ate a quick hamburger. On the way back into town I pointed out to Shyla the pet cemetery that is located on the side of the highway. At least, I always assumed it was a pet cemetery. I never actually pulled over to investigate until this day, and I'd say by the names on the crosses that I was right! Cute and kind of creepy at the same time. (You may have to click on the picture to get a better image.)



We relaxed for most of the afternoon and then took about an hour out to go downtown and do some window shopping. Afterwards we went back to the hotel to wait for the rest of the gang to come back from the slopes.

Greg happens to work with some guys who live in Salida. They wanted to meet us for dinner at a pizzeria that we had never been too. Our Oklahoma friends weren't ready to eat by the time we were (Greg and I don't mess around when it comes to eating!) so we let them do their own plans for dinner and we joined the guys Greg knew, as well as some of our friends who also went to the mountain from Lamar, at the pizza place. To say that they had some unusual ingredients for their pizza is putting it mildly. Let's just say that cream cheese balls on pizza is pretty darn good! While we were eating Greg learned that one of the Salida guys owns a DeLorean. Apparently this was a big deal, so after we ate we went over to their house just so Greg could see it for himself. Now, just in case some of you who are reading this are as clueless as I was, the DeLorean was the "Back to the Future" car that was used in the movie. I still wasn't that impressed but as you can see from Greg's face he was giddy to have a chance to sit in it!



On Sunday Greg and I woke up early so we could meet "The Crane Guys" as I call them (the guys that Greg works with) at a restaurant for breakfast. From there we went back to the hotel and everyone except Shannon, Shyla, Braxton and I went off to the mountain. We, on the other hand, wanted to do some shopping in Pueblo, before heading back to Lamar. I was so thankful the girls were willing to take me to both Ross and Target before we came home. I was able to find a basket for Parker's "toy box" for $10 at Ross along with some new throw pillows for the love seat my sister gave us. Then, I had about $100 worth of Target returns from my Oklahoma baby shower that I exchanged for the high chair I really wanted. I was a happy girl by the time we got back on the road.

When we got back to my house I cooked up a huge pot of soup for everyone to eat for dinner. We had spent so much time shopping that the rest of the group got home shortly after we did. By that point everyone was pretty wiped out and all of us girls were pretty upset that our men didn't surprise us with Valentine's roses (OK, I'm exaggerating, I never expect roses from Greg. LOL!) that it was clearly bedtime! The next morning the group loaded up in their cars and headed back to the Sooner State. I had a great time with them and hope that this is something that we do annually!