The Ski Slopes Were Calling Our Names

When I started this blog, my goal was to write twice a week.  I figured this was a reasonable amount without over-doing it.  Well, last week I didn't blog at all because... we were on vacation.  I planned to write at least once while we were there, I even took the computer with me, but cute little boys, good books, and the ski slopes kept calling my name.

It all started with a 7:30 flight out on Wednesday morning... or so we thought.  We realized that snow storm round two would be coming through Oklahoma before we left, so Monday I went online and moved our flight to 7:30 Tuesday evening.  I figured that would still give us plenty of time to pack Monday night then run some last minute errands Tuesday before we left.  Also on Monday, I decided to board the dogs while we were gone because I was afraid that nobody would be able to go to our house and let them in and out with all the snow they predicted, thus I had to take them to get their Bordetella vaccines since we don't normally board them and they weren't up to date (and now I remember why I take them to the vet separately). 

Tuesday I went to work expecting to work all day (who am I kidding, I get off at 2 :).  I checked the weather a couple of times that morning and realized that our 7:30 p.m. flight might be pushing it.  During his lunch break, I talked with Sam and we decided to see about an earlier flight.  I quickly changed our flight to 5:00 (thank you Southwest for having FREE flight changes) and left work like a mad woman to take the dogs to the kennel, pack the truck, and pick Sam up from work.  It's a good thing we changed flights because as we were riding the shuttle to the airport the driver told us that the airlines were closing after 7:30 that night (that's cutting it a little too close for my comfort). 

Once we got to Denver we had to deal with the rental car company and the fact that our rental wasn't supposed to start until the next morning.  When we finally got our vehicle, it was out of windshield washer fluid.  Are you kidding me!  It took us a good 10 minutes (although it felt like and eternity) of driving through Denver with a dirty, slush covered windshield to find a place to clean the windshield, then it took half a bottle of fluid to fill it.

Finally we made it to our final destination which was:

That's right, we went skiing!  Well, I didn't ski the first couple of days.  Instead I spent them with a couple of adorable little boys and their awesome mom. 

This is my buddy Nash (please ignore how tired I look in this picture).  Since his younger brother is also named Sam, I told him to call my husband "Sam Parks" which sounded adorable in his two year old voice.  

How cute is little Sam's smile!

When the boys weren't skiing, they spent some quality time with us either in the cabin or hanging out downtown.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of us sledding or skiing (although I did get a great video:).

Sam didn't know this picture even existed until last night.  Look at his face talking to Nash, this picture just makes me want to have a family with him even more. 

Our whole group the morning we left (Nash was not in a picture mood). 

Brooke rode back to Denver with us and of course the boys had to stop and look at the train in town before we left.  

By this point they were saying a bunch of words that I didn't understand. 

Did I mention that it was cold out there?

The best part about coming home was that we got to see these guys:

Although she enjoyed the kennel, Bella was glad to be home on her big, comfy bed.

And Rufus was happy to have multiple toys again.

On a side note, we found an AWESOME kennel.  It is called B & P Kennel and they actually like dogs (crazy concept, I know)!  The last couple of times we boarded our dogs they did not enjoy it and came home with upset stomachs.  This time they were happy to play there and equally happy to come home.  The guy that runs it, Buddy, is familiar with giant breeds as well as little dogs (when we picked them up he had another Great Dane and a Mastiff there as well as many dogs of various sizes).  And the best part... he only charged us eight dollars per dog per day.  That's less than half the price would have paid anywhere else!  Our dogs will definitely be going back in the future.