Is It Ever Too Cold To Be Outside?

Hello Friends and I do apologize for my absence for the past 4 days. Posting 5 days a week after just starting blogging at the beginning of February I felt like I had walked off the job…but family vacation time is important in our life and this particular vacation only comes around every 3 years. Once we arrive there are a lot of busy things to do…rent skis, get food and adjust to the altitude as we encourage our newbie skiers that it is going to be alright.

So yes, we are in the mountains – Steamboat Springs, CO to be exact ~ my husband, my eldest whose birthday was yesterday, and his girlfriend, my next in line son and his fiance, and my daughter and her husband…a full house! We are not super experienced skiers. In fact, I decided to join our youth group when my oldest was in it to see what it was about and found it to be something that scared me just a little but was lots of fun. My sons both took to it like fish to water and they were never the type to even enjoy sports in school. They proudly refer to themselves as nerds. Computer programming and designing are their jobs and gaming is their past time. So to watch them ski like nobodies business is kind of amazing. They both show sweet patience with their finance and girlfriend as they attempted to teach them the skill. After one day, my eldest’s girl friend decided to sign up for snowboard school and she said it was worth every penny and is looking forward to today to ski on her own. My other son’s finance got right on with the rest of us yesterday and conquered the top of the mountain.

We had made it to the base at one point and the ladies decided to take a break. So we grabbed a table by the gas fire looking up the slopes and I enjoyed my favorite ski drink…I don’t know if it has a name, I should give it one….Hot Chocolate, Coffee, Coconut Rum and Whipped Cream – YUM! My daughter did the healthy option and just had water and my “almost daughter-in-law” had a margarita. As we sat there at a temp of 30 degrees fahrenheit and were actually getting warm, we commented why don’t we ever do this at home? We wouldn’t even consider sitting out on our decks in 30 degree weather around our fire pits and enjoying drinks and the sunny outdoors. What a shame.

Medically, I have to take Vitamin D from October through March because I have low Vitamin D and people just don’t spend enough time outdoors to naturally get what is needed during the winter months in Missouri.

I mean with base layers and ski or snow pants and your coat or vest, a headband and if needed a neck collar and gloves, you can comfortable spend an entire day on the slopes, so an hour or so outside playing in the snow, going for a walk or just sitting on your deck is a very feasible proposition.

We just saw three Elk making their way up the mountain! Not an animal we ever see in Missouri. Very exciting.

We enjoyed the Hot Springs yesterday. Some ski areas in Colorado also have natural hot springs. Here in Steamboat there are at least two. One of the most popular sites is up a mountain requiring 4wdrive vehicles to get you there. They have massage huts and pools ranging from 101 – 106 degrees Fahranheit. The water naturally comes into the pools at 130 – 150 degrees and they cool it down with regular water so it can be enjoyed by humans.  The other local spot is a fitness center and has only one authentic hot spring while the others are more aptly called hot tub pools.

Everyone came back amazingly relaxed. They loved it.

For my son’s birthday party we we took the Gondola up 2/3 to the top of the mountain to enjoy a night of family entertainment at the Western BBQ. It is an all-you-can-eat buffet, live band with line dancing and games. I found out after I booked it for my son’s birthday that he doesn’t like country music and would not likely line dance. But they said leave it alone, we will get him up there dancing before the evening is over. The goal is to just make some fun family memories.

I think I had more fun that anyone because I love to dance and my husband and I went up to learn the Texas Two Step, did a slow dance, the ladies went up to line dance, my daughter and I did the Hokey Pokey and on and on. Yes, my birthday boy went up for one slow dance with his girl. It was a great evening.

While here, each couple (but really the gals) take a turn making breakfast. We can do the same with dinner but we have eaten out once and are doing it again tonight so we all just kind of chipped in to make dinner and had left the next night.

The place we are staying in is a VRBO Vacation Rental. It is a large 3 story Log Cabine with stone fireplace. It has 4 bedrooms and some of the bedrooms have multiple beds. There are also sofa sleepers in the two living areas. Two kitchens but only one is stocked with dishes and has a full size fridge. The other would be great for some drinks. There is foosball, movies, and games. A shuttle shows up here about every 15 minutes to take us to the slopes or to town. There is a hot tub out in the snow on the deck…it is so relaxing after a day of skiing.

We ate out at the famous 8th Street Steak House where you cook what you buy. At first we were a little hesitant, maybe we wanted to go somewhere else. But when you realize a place like this has survived for decades and comes highly recommended, there must be something to it. So here are a few memories from the evening.

We bring some of our own favorite games because our family loves to play board games and card games and we play till we are too tired to go on.

Today we hit the slopes one last time before heading back to our familiar lives. So this may be my only post until I am back…depends on the timing guys, but we all deserve a vacation and I know you won’t hold it against me.

Parting Pics:

Hopefully this inspired you to maybe layer up and go outside and play even on a cold and snowy day. Falling down, building igloos and snowmen, throwing balls, snowshoeing, getting in a hot tub or simply sitting on a porch or deck with a warm drink are all great ways to enjoy the cold weather…maybe even embrace it!