Steamboat Springs

When we went snow shoeing, another aussie who stayed at Kim and Vern’s house, Lindsay was talking about going skiing the next weekend at Steamboat Springs.  Phil organised to get on the weekend trip away, and headed off on Friday after work. Lindsay, and his wife Sharon, are a lovely couple from up near Grafton, and this is their second exchange. They did an exchange twenty years ago to Canada, with 3 children similar ages to Luke, Ryan and Quinn now – I think they see a lot of similarities between us, and them, back then!  They are now empty nesters, and enjoying this exchange on their own.  Sharon had some girlfriends come over to visit, and they took off to New York for a week, which is why Lindsay and Phil decided to go skiing for the weekend.  A couple from Colorado also went up with them, and they had a great weekend.  It was beautiful weather, with clear skies all weekend, and apparently the four of them skied black runs all day, and had a great time!  Phil didn’t get any photos of Steamboat, so I have included some here, of the last time all of us went skiing at Lovelands.
 

The boys and I enjoyed having a weekend at home, as we have been pretty busy since we arrived!  We went to Walmart, as they wanted a football and a basketball.  We ended up with those, and a 

soccer ball – but they have all gotten plenty of use! We went up to Bison Park in the afternoon, and had a play up there. There is a great playground, as well as a big astro turfed sports field where the boys can run around and burn off some energy. We went up with Avery, and they had fun playing with the soccer ball – it was quite hot, after a week of snow and really cold conditions. However, although the sports field had been cleared, there was still snow and slush everywhere else, so we all came back with soggy feet! It was a worthwhile afternoon though, as while we were up there, I was talking to another mum whose kids were playing soccer, and found out how to register. It is all online, and while I had found the Colorado Storm website, it wasn’t clear how to sign up. Anyway, lucky I spoke to her as registration was due this weekend, so we managed to get signed up before the cut off date.

We had been to the library, and got some books and movies, and were going to have a pizza and movie night.  We started our pizza, and our neighbours, Luke & Mindy, called to see if we wanted to go for dinner.  We obviously didn’t make dinner, but we met them up afterwards for dessert.  There is a yoghurt bar in Castle Rock, called Smart Cow and it has about 30 different flavours, from Peanut Butter to Watermelon.  It is really yummy – tastes like ice cream, and you serve yourself, then pay by the ounce.  At the end there are a heap of toppings to choose from, like M&Ms, peanuts, candy and fruit.  It is a very popular place, and the boys ran into friends from school.  We decided we would have to go back and take Phil!

On Sunday, Ryan had a play date at Isaac’s house, a little boy from his class.  Ryan was most impressed, as Isaac had an electric scooter. They spent the afternoon going around the block on their scooters, and playing the Wii.