Winter in Colorado

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As I write this on January 30th I have to say winters in Colorado are not so bad. Although from what I hear this has not been a typical winter for Colorado. It has been much more tolerable than a Minnesota winter. We started out with November's average temperature being in the 50's and 60's and even some 70's with an average around 50. December was a little cooler than November with the coldest being around Christmas when it got down to 20's and 30's. Of course that's when we flew the kids down for a visit. I was really hoping they could have experienced the warmer Colorado winter. They did get a little on the last day. January started out pretty cold in the 20's and 30's with not much snowfall (except for in the mountains). With the lack of snowfall, the humidity was very low which is what I think accounted for me being sick for several weeks. It started after we had returned from a trip to Minnesota the 2nd week of January. It was mainly a head/sinus cold with congestion. After my nose stopped draining I ended up with a severely chapped area under my nose which moved to my lips. I tried several different chapsticks, ointments, oils and nothing seemed to work it would just chap up again. Finally I had to just leave it alone. Basically let it all scab up. It was a painful process of itching, pain and dryness. It's been now about 3 weeks after I first got sick and things seem to be improving. I still have some congestion in my chest but for the last 4 days I would wake up with a headache. I'd take something and it would usually go away but return again in the morning after waking up. I'm guessing all this sickness is from the dryness in the air. We did buy a full humidifier to get some moisture in the apartment. So besides the severe dryness and lack of humidity in the air in Colorado, the weather hasn't been too unbearable here. Just wish we could get out and explore some more. Since I've been sick and Jeff's been busy with work we haven't done much of anything except go out for dinner and maybe a few drinks.

As I mentioned, the kids came to stay during Christmas. We were able to spend some quality time with them, especially being confined to a 2 BR apartment. We took a drive to Winter Park, Colorado which was about an hour and 15 minute drive. We left around 8:00 in the morning so we could hopefully beat the traffic and crowds. It was a beautiful drive up through the mountains. The trees had a fresh coat of snow on them and looked like something from a Christmas card. The roads were even a little snow covered. Once we made it to Winter Park Resort we threw on our snow pants and boots and headed to the tubing hill. Turns out it wasn't much of a hill. More of a small hill with a curve. Wasn't as exciting for 2 young adults. I thought it was pretty fun but probably not worth the money we spent $26/person per hour. We didn't even last the full hour. So we took the gondola to the Winter Park Resort Village where the shops and ski lifts were. Thought maybe we would ski until we found out a lift ticket cost $120! So we headed over to Fraser, a nearby town, and had lunch at Randi's Grill & Pub which was an Irish pub. Everyone was pretty disappointed with their food...shepard's pie and meatloaf. Nothing like mom's. The kids fell asleep on the way back to the apartment.

On Christmas Eve we made sushi! Erika just loves sushi and we had purchased the ingredients and tools to make it. It turned out ok but just hard to get the roll down. We also played some pool in the game room at the clubhouse. Christmas day Erika and I made Christmas cut out cookies while the guys watched football. That afternoon we took a hike up to South Table Mountain behind our apartment and that evening cooked a nice Christmas meal of cornish game hens, corn casserole and potatoes. We also spent a whole day shopping for clothes for the kids at the mall, driving up to Lookout Mountain and viewing Buffalo Bill's grave and a couple trips to Cold Stone Creamer for ice cream.

Six days of quality time spent with the kids that we probably wouldn't normally spend together when we were all living under the same roof. Funny how that is. We hope to have them out again this summer.

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