Friday, 25th November

I woke up and jumped in the shower. I checked the snow report and read Telluride had an inch of snow overnight, and that it was still snowing. I had a big bowl of the mixed cereals for breakfast that included cheerios, some random one, and some one that looked like cookies (seriously). I added a banana and some strawberries that I didn’t use on the pavlova. I quickly made some wraps with turkey and salad and jumped in the car for the trip up to Telluride.

Hannah wanted to hang out with mum for the day so it was just Lars, Noah, Mica and Sandra. We made it up the mountain and I saw the fresh snow that had been dumped over night. We drove past Ralph Laurens Ranch…. His fence was made from pine trees and this went of for around 5 minutes. The cost of the fence alone would have been significant, let along the huge ranch!

We couldn’t see the mountain tops as it was still snowing. We parked close to the lift and walked up. Lars and Noah picked up their ski pass and we were on the lift by 9.15am which I thought was a great effort.

Skiing the first few runs I was very stiff. The snow was fresh and light and it was the best few runs I had of the day. As I slowly warmed up I went over the jumps and got some air. So too did the others.

It was fun skiing with the family and they were all good skiers and snowboarders. I had taken a page out of bill brooks book and was too direct in my skiing so I had to slow down to accommodate everyone. It was a great rush using the edges to carve and I wasn’t even on carving ski’s. The first set I would hire in Canada would be a set of carving skis.

As lunch approached I had to stop and rearrange my socks. A killer blister was forming on my right shin. I was wearing size 46 and 2/3 so I think a 46 would be a good fit for me. Next time I will wear a little bit more padding on the shins so it doesn’t hurt.

For lunch we ate peanut butter and jellow sandwiches and then hit the slopes again. Sandra caught up with her friends so it was the just 4 boys skiing.

We had some great runs, all of which I captured on my GoPro.

The sun came out and it stopped snowing.

The afternoon turned out to be a beautiful day for skiing and we skied until the last lift at 4pm. There was something magical about being the only ones left on the mountain.

My skiing had improved over the two skis and I was looking forward to showing Dad and brother. I was even skiing backwards for fun.

We stopped off at the telluride coffee shop and all had a nice hot chocolate with cream. It was amazing how much the hot liquid warmed up the inside.

We changed at the car and headed back home. Lars was more confident driving at night than Hannah was so we made good time. Even if there were a few scary corners. The suburban is big car but it was a little frightening!

The skies had cleared up so we could see the mountain tops as we drove back to the house. I was in a truly spectacular place in the world. I couldn’t have been luckier.

We came close to a row of deer that had no fear crossing the road. 5 seconds later and we would have knocked over one or two.

Back at home Carol had cooked dinner. We all sat up around the table and talked over dinner. It was a nice meal of turkey enchiladas and a few of the left over sides. We had grandmas apple pie with ice cream. It was very nice. She had used apples from her trees back in Roswell.

After dinner all the boys jumped in the hot tub to release the aches and pains from the day of skiing. I wasn’t as sore as the first day but I did feel my knees. The hot tub was great and it was nice looking up at the stars. There was no moon so it was a clear night and the stars were shining through.

In the mean time Hannah and Sandra dropped back Crocodile Dundee and rented Father of the Bridge. It was a Stangebye favourite and it didn’t disappoint. There were some very funny scenes.

After the movie we all headed off to bed. I read my book for a while before I feel asleep.