Annual Breckenridge Ski Trip!

Last Saturday I flew out of New Orleans direct to Denver to start this year's Colorado ski trip. Jay, Trisha, and Erin were with me on the flight, while Kenny, Jeff, Ryan, and Chris made the long 20-hour drive to the mountains. I have done that drive 3 times and decided that I did not want to do it again this year. In hindsight that was a great decision....it was so much nicer getting home at 6pm instead of 3am!

Erin, Jay, and Trisha before leaving NOLA

Erin, me, and Trisha after landing in CO

After a small delay at the rental car place and about an hour and a half long drive, the four flyers finally arrived in Frisco, where we met up with the drivers at the grocery. We got our breakfast and snack items and then headed to the nearby liquor store to stock up on beer and wine for the trip. Afterwards we went to the condo to drop our stuff off before heading back out to get our skis from Main Street Sports. Then it was back to our temporary Breck home to drink some beers and relax before our first day of skiing!

The amazing sunset over the mountain on our first night...we'll be hitting those runs tomorrow!

Getting our skis from MSS in downtown Breck

Back at the condo

Ken is ready to ski!!!

As always, our trip was a great one. Everyone had a such a fun time, and I think we convinced even more people that skiing is awesome. Jay and Trisha were two of the skiing virgins, and they both did really well. And Kenny couldn't stop smiling when he was on his skis....he missed out on the skiing part of last year's trip since he had a broken ankle, so he was even more excited to get out there this year.

Group pic in front of the condo

Another group shot

Yet another group pic, this time out at the Breckenridge Brewery

Me, somewhere along the Upper Laymen run

Can you tell Ken is so very excited?

We stayed in the exact same place as we did last year, and, not surprisingly, everyone's favorite part of the condo was the private hot tub on the second floor balcony. That warm water helped so much in loosening our sore muscles after a long day out on the slopes, and it was great to be able to relax in the hot tub while also watching skiers come down the run right behind our place. And it actually snowed most of the time we were in there, which made the experience even cooler!

Four O'Clock Run, how we got back to our condo and the hot tub every afternoon!

Just the 7 of us! Good thing Ken took the picture....I'm not sure he would have fit!

After tearing ourselves away from the hot tub, our nights were filled with more great local beers, homemade dinners of chili, gumbo, and soup, and of course games. We played Phase 10 once and Apples to Apples three times. I think Ryan might have liked A2A better than snowboarding! He won two out of the three games and loved every minute of it.

Ryan trying to figure out if he can "phase" yet

Ken's never very far away from his laptop

An intense game of A2A

This trip always goes by way too fast, and this year was no exception. I think we all wanted to stay longer even though our legs were completely worn out from three days of skiing. It's just so beautiful up there! So, when is the next trip? Not soon enough!

That's Kenny, flying down the mountain on the Sawmill run!

My brother, only a second-time skier, conquered a blue-black run. Way to go, Jeff!

Kenny and I, on our very last run of the trip