*~*~'...Rocky Mountain High, Colorado...'~*~*

Ah, yes, we were listening to John Denver as we cruised along the beautiful snow covered peaks.

We're back from Breckenridge and it was quite a trip! Some goods and bads, but it was fun overall.

A quick summary:
-skiing was awesome!
-ryan was on oxygen for a day
-traveling w/a baby is more work

Friday morning Ryan, his cousins Rob and Andy Hunter, my dad, Ellison, Lindsay, and Malachi started out on I-70 for a long day's journey. My mom, Hank, and I flew to Denver that afternoon and my aunt Connie that lives there picked us up. We joined up with the others for the 2 hour drive to Breckenridge. Hank did great on both plane rides though he was a normal squirmy 8 month old.

Saturday morning everyone hit the slopes, even my dad. My mom babysat Hank all day (thank you!!!). Ryan, Rob, and Andy were the more experienced ones, Ellie, Lindsay, and I were all about the same level, my dad was just trying to make it down the mountain alive, and Malachi joined the hip snowboarders. I must admit, I did great! I loved it and did way better than I thought I would. A couple years ago at Snowcreek (Weston, MO) I had some really bad wipe-outs, but I didn't fall once in Colorado (except when I humilated myself while getting off the lift once). The weather was great while we were there - sunny and fairly warm. I can't believe how much snow they have though! That would get old quick, but great for skiing of course!
Unfortunately I only got to do a couple of runs with Ryan 'til he decided to call it quits for the day. As they drove closer to Denver an old cold seemed to be acting up. He was really feeling crappy on Saturday and felt too sick to ski anymore.
We were all so tired and sore Sat. night but the Edmonds' clan still headed out to a brewery for a couple beers. We looked like we had been slapped around! ...actually a lot of the locals did too. So many of them look really weathered, probably from the harsh sun.

Sunday morning Ryan went to the medical clinic and came back on oxygen! When he got there his blood pressure was high and he had a fever. 20 minutes on oxygen and his fever dissappeared and his BP dropped. He had altitude sickness! The Dr. told him if he hung out for 24 hours on the oxygen he'd be good to go and back on the slopes on Monday. He was pretty sick though and laid around all Sunday. The other guys hit the slopes again and the rest of us did some shopping. Breckenridge has a lot of cute little shops all down one street. Our condo was nice and you could walk to the slopes and stores from it (but bundle up!). Sunday evening I got to experience the medical clinic with Hank though. He had a fever and sounded just a touch croupy so we decided to take him just in case. They did decide it was a light case of the croup though now I think it's just a cold (and I have it too!). He was feeling a lot better after some medicine. ***But*** Hank slept AWEFUL!!!!! the entire 5 days. I can't even capitalize that enough. Besides being in a new place and being sick he also cut a new tooth. The nights were miserable for me, I was so sleep deprived. Ryan was worthless and sick and Hank does better w/his mama anyway. I couldn't let him cry it out either because everyone else in the condo was trying to sleep. Also, he wasn't on 'mountain time' so he'd wake up at 5 or 6 am and I'd just have to hang out in our room because my siblings were sleeping in the living room. Anyway, I survived somehow.

So onto Monday... My aunt and uncle have a cabin in Ledville (45 min. from Breck.) and we took a scenic drive to visit them for a couple hours (my parents, Ellie, and Hank). I had never been there before - it's a cozy little cabin. They do a lot of trout fishing in the summers. We had lunch at a local cafe in town (I love eating at places like that). Later we did a little more shopping, went out to eat with everyone, and got in some cards. Ryan did get to ski all day Monday and felt a lot better.

Hopefully I can post some pictures soon, it was so pretty out there! My camera is with the rest of my luggage still w/my parents (I just took the bare min. on the plane).