The Froehle's: Steamboat 2013

Last Wednesday (2/13/13) we started our day off really early and dropped the kids off at daycare bright and early! "School" opens at 6:30 and I think we walked in at 6:32. We had to be back home to catch a cab at 7am to bring us to the airport for our trip to Steamboat Springs, CO!

The kids were excited to get to daycare, as they each got to play in different rooms than they're used to (Thank goodness for the small things in life)! I felt bad dropping them off so early, but they were excited to be there and they knew Nana and Papa would be picking them up, so they were fine!

Luke and I got home, loaded up a cab and picked up our friends, Nina and Jesse on our way to the airport.

We arrived in Denver at 10:30am, picked up our rental car and started driving towards Steamboat. I wasn't feeling 100% and thought I was coming down with strep throat--thankfully I had an antibiotic with, so I started taking that on Wednesday.

Jesse's uncle and aunt let us stay in their condo, right on the mountain! It was pretty neat, as it was ski in and ski out--had a hottub and was in a perfect location!

Wednesday night we picked up groceries and grabbed dinner at an authentic Mexican Restaurant, it was delicious! Nina's friend lives in Steamboat, so we stopped by to meet her and her husband and adorable daughter. It was a fun night!

Thursday morning we woke up to fresh powder and we were ready to hit the slopes! I wasn't feeling 100% yet, but I felt better than yesterday and I wasn't going to miss the opportunity to ski, so we all headed out to catch the Gondola up the Mountain. The fresh powder made things a little difficult for me, for the first day.....but I soon caught the hang of it and by the end of the day was feeling more comfortable on my skis. Due to the snow and fog, it was pretty bad visibility. On the chairlifts up the mountain we could barely see the lift in front of us! Some of the runs were kind of nerve wracking, due to limited visibility!

We had lunch at a place on the top of the Mountain and had Happy Hour and Dinner at our place--pretty romantic Valentine's Dinner of frozen pizza! :) At 7:30pm we had a van pick us up and bring us out to Strawberry HotSprings! After dark "Clothing is optional"! We all wore our swimsuits, but quickly learned it wouldn't have really mattered because there are NO lights on. There were 3 large pools in the hotsprings--one is 106˚, one is 102˚, and one is 70˚. We spent most of our time in the 102˚ pool. It was nice to "soak our bones" (as Jesse would say) and relax....we were all pretty sore from our first day of skiing!

Friday morning brought more fresh powder! The visibility was still not the greatest, but it didn't seem quite as bad as Thursday. The day started off a bit slow--Jesse had a bad blister that needed attention, I ripped a contact and needed to go back up to borrow a contact from Nina, as my glasses were fogging with my goggles....we all seemed to have something going on, but we finally made it out! We had lunch at Slopeside and had another great day of skiing. Luke's cousin, Emily, joined us for a few runs in the afternoon, which was fun. I wasn't nearly as sore as Thursday! We soaked our bones in the hot tub and got ready for the night. That night we met up with Emily and had a drink with her at The T-Bar, where her boyfriend works. We then ventured downtown for dinner and some drinks after dinner. We went to The Ghost Ranch after dinner, which was a lot of fun. There was a man there (Lucky), who is basically a dance teacher. He had Nina and I out on the dance floor and he made us look good! It was SO fun to dance and feel like I knew what I was doing--he was an awesome dancer and it was fun just watch him dance! It got to be a later night than I'm used to that night! Nina and I rode the bus back and the guys came shortly after we did.

Saturday we woke up to blue skis and sun! We had another good day of skiing and Nina's friend (and her friend) joined us for the day. We pushed through until 2 or 3 and had lunch at T-Bar. It was packed. The sun was nice and warm, so we sat outside, which was fun. We hung out, hot tubed and got ready for our last night in Steamboat. We had really hoped to stop in for a drink at the restaurant Emily works at (Cafe Diva), but they were booked, so we grabbed a drink someplace else before our dinner reservations at The Truffled Pig. I had a steak, which was really good. It was nothing TOO exciting, but fun to get out for a relaxing dinner.

Sunday we left around 9am for the drive back to the airport. We probably wouldn't have had to leave that early, but to avoid some ridiculous charges for the rental car, we figured we'd leave in plenty of time, in case we ran into traffic or bad weather.

It was such a fun weekend of skiing, tubbing, story telling and relaxing! I love ski vacations and hopefully someday we'll bring the kids (but from the sounds of other parents there with kids, we might want to wait for that for awhile)! ;)

A HUGE thank you to both my parents and Luke's parents! We wouldn't have been able to enjoy our time away if it weren't for you! Thanks so much for taking care of the kids and for being so flexible with the last minute plan change! You're the best and the kids had a great time with you! THANK YOU!