Last week we spent a wonderful week remembering how to ski again - it was over a year since our last attempt. We went to Snowmass in Colorado and spent the week with our good friends, Sheri and Bruno - who patiently put up with our somewhat slow descents and the need to take more breaks than when we were younger. The weather cooperated by being sunny and warm (30's to 40's) for most of the week and meaning that I didn't have to deal with frozen fingers and toes for once. Unfortunately, with temperatures that warm the snow conditions weren't always ideal - tended to be a bit slushy at the bottom of the mountain in the late afternoon. But we did have 5 inches of snow one night to enjoy plowing through fresh snow the next day and managed to be the first folks to mess up the snow on a few runs.
When we weren't on the slopes we enjoyed basking our sore muscles in the hot tub, particularly after the first day when my quad's were screaming to not have to do that again. Otherwise, we prepared some wonderful dinners - well Sheri and Bruno prepared a lot of them, but we tried to help. We also got in a couple of game nights with rousing games of Wits and Wagers and dominos. Yep we are an exciting crowd. Also did our bit to encourage the local economy with shopping trips to Snowmass Mall and Aspen. Since my first visit to Aspen was somewhere in the early 70's it is amazing how much downtown Aspen has changed - and not in a good way in my opinion. Gone are all the fun little restaurants and local shops to be replaced by high end merchants, art galleries, and the like. But I suppose that is what progress and change sometimes looks like. Either way, we found a few bargains to bring home and got to see how the upper crust lives - but no celebrity sightings unless you count us.
Getting in and out of Aspen airport did prove a bit exciting. Our trip in went smoothly without any problems, but Sheri and Bruno circled the airport a while waiting for the winds to cooperate and then found out a piece of their luggage (of course, containing one pair of their ski boots) was left in Dallas due to weight restrictions. The way home was a very different story - as in utter chaos. Even though the weather seemed perfect - blue skies with just a few clouds - airline after airline was removing people from their planes due to weather. Apparently there was a storm front moving in causing wind issues. We were all fortunate to get on our planes, but not until after major delays and some nervous times wondering if we would make it home anytime in the next 2-4 days (they asked for 28 volunteers from our plane, it only held about 60-70).
The return trip aside, we had a great time catching up with our CT friends, who we continue to hope will decide WI is really the place to be long term (Sheri/Bruno, if you are reading this - that is a hint, and yes hope springs eternal), and most importantly we all came back with all of out knees, legs, and joints intact. Who knows, maybe Park City, Squaw Valley, or Whistler is up for next year.
We had a great weekend just hanging around catching up on a few things around the house. We did spend a lot of the time watching the NCAA's which since we don't have one of our Alma Mater teams in this year are much more relaxing. We also enjoyed a dinner with our neighbors at a local Italian restaurant. A large part of Sunday was spent on a long walk in semi-nice weather (e.g., it wasn't snowing, the sun was out and the temperatures got into the high 30's which feels like and counts for spring to us Wisconsinites). Along the way we stopped into several open houses which for some strange reason we both love to do - must be that strong desire to snoop through other people's houses and then figure out how we would remodel the place.
In light of a slow weekend, photo wise, I've included some current renovations photos. The entire place has now been dry walled and the entire second floor has a first coat of paint. We met with the tile installer yesterday and that work will start late next week. It is starting to look like a house again since we now have walls everywhere. We can't wait for the kitchen to be installed. We love our new wide open foyer/kitchen/dining room space. 
