Grand Lake Colorado

What a great trip. Cherri & Robert Griffin (Janel's in-laws) have a condo in Grand Lake which they graciously let others use. Cherri & Robert went on a Christmas cruise and offered the condo for use the week between Christmas and New Years. Janel, Vicki, and Joe all left San Antonio on 28 Dec for a week of relaxation and fun.

We were all anxious to get there and see it snow and sit by the fire. Nature has a way of taking care of Texans who don't drive well in snow by not providing us with an overabundance of new snow. The pass into Winter Park was quite drivable both going to and leaving from Grand Lake. In fact it only snowed one time (if you call flurries for about 15 minutes snowing) at the condo. We did get a little bit more snow when we went snowmobiling in the upper meadows within the Arapaho National Forest. There was plenty of snow already on the ground and we all made one feeble attempt to sled down a hill in town....we were definitely the 'most mature' sledders on that hill.

Snowmobiling was "a kick in the pants" as put by Janel and we all agreed immediately to come back the next day to do it again (now that we were more comfortable driving them). In fact, Vicki didn't even get stuck within the first five minutes on the second day.....a feat she performed the first day. She headed out into a field off of the groomed trails and promptly buried her snowmobile within minutes of taking off the first day. We did a quick job of "unsticking" her and quickly joined back up with Janel. This was FUN!!! The second day we accidentally ventured off on a smaller trail that was marked but very narrow. I must say that was the best mistake made on the trip....the trail was a one way trail and lined with snow covered fir trees (couple of pictures are in the slide show). This lead to an upper meadow where we actually got snowed on a little. The entire trip was just a great experience of nature's awesome beauty.

New Years Eve we all drug ourselves back into our coats and headed back into town to watch the midnight fireworks display over the lake. Grand Lake did a SUPER job of putting on a first class fireworks show. It lasted about 25 minutes and was spectacular. Well worth staying up and getting wrapped back up for.

We all relaxed, read, ate, shopped, drank, and sat in wonder of the beauty of this part of the country. We found the Grand Lake Brewing Company and fell in love with Wooly Booger Nut Brown Ale. You can buy a 64 oz bottle of their beer to go and bring the bottle back for a refill for about $9 - $12.....we finished off our take out and have left the bottle clean and ready for re-use by the next guests in the condo.

We finished the trip up with a quick casino visit to Black Hawk Colorado where only Janel walked away with more than she came with.

Pictures do not do justice of the raw beauty of this area. The short trip into the Rocky Mountain National Forrest and the snowmobiling in the Arapaho just left you staring off into the distance. .....and the sunrises and sunsets....and then back to Texas on 2 January.

Christmas 2008

Christmas 2008 began a little early when we made a trip to McKinney before Christmas to exchange gifts with Gabe and Chase. We got to eat lunch with Gabe and see Chase perform "Look in the sky - a Star" during his school Christmas pageant. PeaPa got Jack Daniel Coffee from Chase and a screwdriver set from Gabe. MaMah got a really neat hairbrush from Gabe and sleigh pin from Chase which she promptly began to wear.

Our annual journey to San Antonio for Christmas dinner and presents with the Jordan crew followed our McKinney trip. The stockings were hung on the mantle with care, including the two new stockings for Estee and Coppelia. The tradition continued of not winning anything on our scratch offs in our stockings. MaMah Too (Evelyn) made the best of it even though her Christmas friend Dan failed to show for the second year in a row.