Where was I?

I'll tell you where I wasn't: The Ozarks.
Nate and I were skiing with my family last week.
I have been skiing before, most notably in New England, and I am from a beautiful state, but boy oh boy, Colorado is amazing! Or, maybe I should say the Rockies are amazing. We had a great time! Nate did a great job skiing, and the skill came right back to me like everyone said.

It was my first time to Colorado, so I was extra excited about experiencing that for the first time. And I know my family was excited as well. We went with my bro and sister-in-law, their bun in the oven, my parents and my aunt and uncle. My aunt and uncle have been winter vacationing in Steamboat for a long time (they counted up and told me, and I think the number is > 15 years), and they have been trying to include me in this outing for a few years. Our clan officially took over their vacation, and they claim that they were happy about it. All that to say I was so excited to go to this place I had been hearing so much about!

The whole family has been obsessively checking the weather for Steamboat Springs all winter, and the amount of snow they had was outrageous and did not disappoint. It was beautiful all week, and it snowed a lot on our last day of skiing (Thurs.) and the whole 3 hr drive back to the Denver airport (Friday morning), which was a little scary. But everyone made it to and fro, safe, sound and on time (truly amazing, as there were 3 different airlines and flight itineraries for 4 different families).

This is what it looked like west of Denver.

This is what it looked like in Steamboat on the slopes. So beautiful!

This is me skiing, rather, getting ready to.

This is me and Nate on the snowy day.

This is Dad and Brother.


This is me on a break headed down the mountain. It was so, so snowy. It was not cold enough for all that snow to stay frozen when it hit our bodies, so it was hitting us, melting, then freezing again. Needless to say, I was a little deflated here. Getting cold and thinking about the heated tile floors in the condo.

What was that? Did I hear you ask about my head and neck gear? I'm glad you did because crochet has been woefully absent from the blog lately, although it has not been absent from my life.

I made a pointed earflap hat to match the jacket mom and dad got me for skiing. Nate named it "Tree-elf bomber." If I ever open an etsy crochet shop, this will definitely go in it. It truly came from my brain, and I was excited about the spike stitches along the bottom. I also made a cylindrical neck warmer (on the planes on the way to Steamboat). These all fortuitously matched my jacket, even though all the yarn was just from my stash. Cheap and exciting. Here's a close-up of the ensemble.
It was all acrylic yarn (cheap!), but it kept me very warm.

The next two pictures are the hats that I made for Dad and Brother for Christmas. My SIL took this picture of them a couple weeks ago when my parents were visiting them to show me that they used their Christmas presents all the time. (Brother requested the pom-pom.)

This is a shot of the hats in action. There is nothing I don't love about this picture.

I also made this hat for Nate around Christmas time. I guess it was sort of his present. I made it out of Fisherman's wool (he picked out the yarn, and he instantly connected with that), and lined the entire inside with polar-fleece because it was itchy on his head and the double-crochet is pretty open. He has a scarf to match that I finished before we left. I'll see if I can post another/better pic of it. I was pretty proud of the final product.

Upcoming topics:

• gardening (lettuce be excited!)
• crochet (afghans, babies, and mobiles, oh my!)
• sewing (it truly will be a parade of follies, I can't wait to give it a shot. Patterns? We don't need no stinking patterns!)