Category: Adventures in the snow

Make snow lemonade?

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Lur the great snow shark….

On Sunday, I had a very fun adventure planned. Cobalt and I were going to spend the morning and early afternoon in Denver with our friends and then watch the Oscars in the evening at our house with anyone who wanted to come over. Then it snowed 5 inches before we even got up on Sunday morning… The roads were a mess and it was still snowing pretty hard so nope on the Denver plan. That left me feeling pretty conflicted because I really wanted to go see my friends in Denver but it never snows 5 inches here in Boulder so I also really wanted to go play outside in the snow. Since I didn’t want to drive up to Denver in crazy snow, the only option was to play! So play I did.

I was in luck because my friend L was planning on cross country skiing with her dog along some of the running trails here in Boulder and it turned out she wanted company! I was dressed in all my snow gear and hauling my cross country skis out of our “Harry Potter closet” (it’s under the stairs if you didn’t guess) within ten minutes. L showed up and we frolicked around in the snowy wilderness for the next hour and a half. It was lovely. We had wonderful conversations, skied happily through the snow, and hung out with her adorable black lab. Meanwhile it was still snowing….

Later in the day (now we’re up to 8.5 inches of snow), my friend A came over for the Oscar party but she showed up an hour early so we could play in the snow in Cobalt’s and my backyard. We sat down in the snow like children and proceded to build an enormous snow shark spanning our entire backyard pretty much (it’s not that big… we live in an apartment complex…). His name is Lur and you can see him up there at the top before he got his magnificent pinecone eyes… Here are some pictures of me and A with Lur!


The adventures continued yesterday because Gustav wanted to meet Lur. Here are some pictures of that encounter…

I love that Lur totally dwarfs Gustav…

I think they liked each other because of this Instagram pic…

A and I then escaped lab early yesterday because hey… we rarely get this much snow at once and then on top of that, it rarely stays around more than a few hours (the weather here is weird… 70 degrees one day, snowing the next, 50 degrees after that, you know…). A has a new snowboard and she wanted to play around with it on the hills we have here before actually taking it to a ski resort. So we bundled back up and took my cross country skis and her snowboard up to the hills right by our houses. It turned out to be a fantastic day for playing around in the snow – the sun was very bright and warm and there was sooooo much snow to play with. Some pictures of those adventures…

There’s so much snow you can barely see her snowboard!
Don’t judge my lack of coat/hat in this picture. I had just skied a bunch of laps and I was totally overheating… I was cold after A took this picture though and retreated back to the warmth of my coat…

Whew! I am tired now from all this crazy snow playing. It’s supposed to snow again today too! Too bad I actually have work to do though… ;)

Anyway, I’m sad that I didn’t get to see my friends in Denver yesterday but so happy to have gotten to play in the snow instead. I guess the moral of this story is: when life gives you snow lemons, make snow lemonade!

What’s the weather like where you are? Is it spring yet? Do you get a lot of snow or no snow? What are your thoughts on snow? I hate driving in it but I love playing in it/watching it from the warmth of inside…

To tame the perilous trail!

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We left the shark backpack at our lunch spot and went to go explore a little. It looks like he’s feeling a little left out…

This past weekend, Cobalt and I went on a hike with Cobalt’s friend A, who just moved to Boulder! It turned out to be much more perilous than we had intended as most of the trail is in the shade and, while most of our snow in Boulder has melted, apparently this shaded trail snow has yet to get the message. It was a nice weekend and there were a lot of people out on the trail, packing down the snow and making it a very slippery hike, even in hiking boots. I was very envious of everyone who had crampons strapped to their hiking boots. Cobalt, A, and I got within a quarter mile of our destination and were so tired from sliding up the mountain that we decided to stop for lunch. It was a fairly secluded spot and gave me a great view for some photography!

After lunch, we slid back down the mountain (A actually slipped and rode part of the way on his butt – this is after making fun of me for slowly making my way down in front of him…. ahaha).

Now it’s your turn. Tell me about a scary hike you went on and why it was scary. Or tell me about your favorite hiking story or your favorite trail to hike in Colorado. The title of this post comes from a song we played in band in high school called “To Tame the Perilous Skies” by David Holsinger… I thought it was appropriate.

One more thing. Today is my friend HtomSirveaux’s birthday! Yay! Happy birthday friend! I hope you have a great day!

The IceMan14 Cometh…

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Yesterday, the day that Cobalt and I already had to get up at 4:30 am to catch a plane to leave for the holidays, was the day when Colorado finally decided to give us some snow. Needless to say getting to the airport on time and then actually leaving the airport was a bit of an adventure. First of all, we had to walk to the bus stop with all our luggage in the snow. Then we had to ride the crazy crowded bus on the crazy slippery roads to the airport. Once there, the jetway to get to our plane was not heated so we had to bundle back up to get on the plane. We boarded the plane on time but then we had to wait for people from connecting flights to land and get on our plane. Then we had to wait for their luggage to get on the plane… I watched it all happen sleepily from my window seat at the front of the plane while Cobalt grumpily tried to sleep. By the time we FINALLY had all the passengers and their luggage aboard, we had to take the plane to get deiced. I am from California so plane deicing is not something I see very often. I thought it was crazy to watch and sneakily snapped a few photos of the plane next to us and our plane getting deiced. Craziness. The title comes from the fact that the truck that was involved in the deicing of our side of the plane was IceMan14. I think the truck on the other side was IceMan4…

It’s supposed to snow on the day we head back to Colorado too so you might get to read about more snow/ice traveling adventures sooner than later…

Anyway, Cobalt and I are officially on holiday break for a while so if my posts aren’t regular it’s probably because I am reading/eating/sleeping/doing crafts/spending time with Cobalt and family/etc. I hope you all have wonderful holidays! Stay warm and dry! :)

Snow acceptance

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It’s around this time of year that I learn to just accept the snow and the cold which I guess is good because it doesn’t seem like they’re going away soon. I start to notice my acceptance because now, every time I see an untouched snow drift I just want to play in it (which I won’t unless I am all bundled up in my awesome snow pants, etc but still!) and I wonder why it is still untouched… Am I the only one who has these urges?

What do you do to survive winter (or whatever your least favorite season is)?

Picture: Sometimes I do something really crazy, like go skiing at night!

Snow Day

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Last Friday, we got a snow day! Turns out that between Thursday night and Saturday morning, we got about 23 inches of snow. Craziness… I haven’t seen this much snow since I was a little kid! Anyway, pictures…

To start things off, at the top is a picture of my friend A and me and our respective sharks (Fernando and Gustav) in the snow when it just started on Thursday night.

Fast forward to Friday morning when I decided it would be a fun idea to go cross country skiing through my neighborhood (why not?! There was snow everywhere…). So here are some more fun pictures:

First we have the picture of my faithful skiing shark companions: Shark Banana and Scrarmpl (Cobalt was there too but he was taking the picture… that is what he is not in it).

Then we discovered that Shark Banana has a loop on the end of his banana that was perfect for clipping him to one of my gloves. It was hilarious having Shark Banana on my glove, especially when I fell down (not shown!). I am pretty sure Shark Banana snuck a bite of snow while I was struggling to get up…

There we are trekkin’ through the neighborhood!

Thanks Cobalt for taking these pictures! :)

Who goes there?

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One of my favorite things about the day after it snows is how shiny and pristine the snow looks when the sun finally comes out. This morning, I looked out my bedroom window to look at the prettiness that is our backyard covered in snow and noticed these tracks! Who crept through our backyard last night?! Was it our neighbors’ friendly cat Henry? Or was it some other creature of the night, creeping around in the snow drift? :)

Black and White: Snow Shark

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First snow storm of the season rolled in last night and continues right now! It is always so crazy for me to see the trees all bent over due to all the weight of the snow! Actually, the first snow is kind of a conflicting experience for me. On the one hand, I am mesmerized by the beauty of white flakes everywhere. I love to curl up with a book and some hot chocolate and watch the snow swirling around outside. On the other hand, SNOW IS COLD. AND WET. And makes the buses run late. So as soon as I have to go outside in it to get to work, my love for it quickly dwindles… Sad…
Anyway, this is my shark Scrarmpl enjoying the first snow…