Wednesday, January 19, 2022

Breckenridge, CO - Day 2 - Skiing!

We were up early this morning with our grandson Eli (whose Central time 6:00 a.m. wake-up time is now 5:00 a.m. Mountain time). So it was easy to be ready to ski when the chair lifts opened at 8:30. The fresh powder is beautiful on the mountains of Breckenridge Ski Resort this morning, as pictured from our second ski lift ride of the day.

Mark is taking pictures on the chair lift. He did pretty well doing a tight selfie of the two of us. Check out the beard he started last week to keep his face warmer while we are in the mountains.

But when he tried to take random backwards shots of our kids in the chairs behind us, he wasn't quite as successful. That's a perfectly-focused icy bar on our chair lift that completely hides the passengers of the chair behind us.

We got a better picture of them sitting right beside us on the next chair lift that was big enough to hold six people.

The other set of grandparents are baby-sitting the youngest generation today, so we are skiing with the middle generation of our group. These six people range in age from 29-32. If you do the math, that means they are half the age of the oldest generation--us.

But that doesn't mean that we won't try to keep up with them on the slopes!

Our youngest daughter-in-law has snowboarded for years. But this year she decided to try skiing. She did great!

We have seen our other daughter-in-law ski the black diamond slopes. But after major knee surgery after a skiing accident a few years ago, she is content to hang out on the blue slopes with us.

After taking several ski runs together, we got this picture of the six adult members of our family together at the top of the mountain. Then we started splitting up into different groups.

The more experienced skiers headed to the highest chair lift all the way to Peak 6. At 12,302 feet in elevation, we were well above tree line on this slope.

It was fun skiing above the trees. But it was also cold and windy this high, so once was enough to ski down from Peak 6.

The middle generation stopped for a leisurely lunch on their second day of skiing.

But Mark and Denisa are only skiing one day this year, so we intend to go strong all day. After eating the snack lunch we had packed, we were back on the slopes by ourselves. 

We're finding that Breckenridge Ski Resort is a huge area covering several mountains. Our goal is to ski at least one run on Peak 6, Peak 7, Peak 8, and Peak 9. We were blessed with absolutely beautiful weather for our one day of skiing! The skies were blue and the winds were light. It is a wonderful day to be on the mountain!

We love the mountain-top views from the hikes we take in the summer, and it almost feels like cheating to get these views via the ski lifts here in Breckenridge. It feels like we are wandering God's wonders today!

After lunch, the girls headed back to the house to help with baby-sitting. They were enjoying the nice weather outside as well.

They used all the snow that had piled up on one of our balconies to build a snow family. Rumor has it that they had to replace several carrot noses because a 3-year-old kept eating them!

After lunch, our sons met us for more family skiing. When they were growing up, we did so many things together. Now it is a rare treat for just the four of us to be together. 

Bound to get our money's worth out of those expensive lift tickets and ski rentals, we kept skiing even when our sons decided to call it a day. Members of the oldest generation are the only ones still left on the slopes! We rode the maze of chair lifts all over those mountains today. We'll give Breckenridge a big thumbs-up for big chair lifts that can carry 6-8 people. That keeps the lift lines from getting so long. We also love that almost all of them have leg rests to support the weight of your skis while riding the lifts. That's important when you are trying to conquer as many runs as possible in one day. We were in the shadow of the mountain because the sun was getting low in the sky when we were riding up our last ski lift. We started early and we're ending late. We are definitely getting our money's worth today! 

Our house rental is called a ski-in-ski-out, but that is a rather generous description. This morning we had to walk about a quarter-mile in our ski boots, then put on our skis and skied down-hill another quarter-mile, then walked another quarter-mile to the BreckConnect gondola in downtown Breckenridge. Then it's another walk to our first real ski lift once we got up on the mountain. This evening was an easier commute back to the house, but we were so tired that the flat section close to home was really tough! We are going to be sore tomorrow! Mark and the boys returned our ski rental equipment, and it was so nice to have dinner ready and cooked by Blake and Claire! We love vacationing with this group!

Day 2 in Breckenridge is a wrap! We were blessed with a great day of good fellowship and skiing God's wonders!

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