wow, the year is flying by! i love it. i just spent a week in leadville again, snowboarding for 3 days and relaxing on the others. it was lovely to be there, to admire the snow covered mountains and all that muted with winter beauty. and so great to catch up with old and new friends. stayed with dawn, she's like family. and her kitties too. it was delicious to just relax and do nothing and pet cats, hers and the neighbors' too. jaycie and jason had a baby girl, sloan, 9 weeks ago, and it was so sweet to see them and hold her. they're just exhausted and kept making me laugh (nervously ha ha) with comments like 'you'll get yours one day, megan!'
it was great.
also got to see maura and parkes and eat @ tennessee pass restaurant....and haz and kim, dawn and i met them at this place that pretty much sucks for mexican food, but the sopapilla are to die for. powdered sugar=yum! maura was hard to read, as she was mostly intoxicated, haha, but she gave me a big hug and was happy, so that was awesome. parkes is thinking she'll move to hawaii in the next year or so. i'm so stoked for her. she mentioned it before, last year when i lived there, and we had some good talks about it. of course, i think it's a fabulous idea....insofar as what she'll do there, i didn't ask and it didn't come up. in my opinion, that part doesn't much matter. this girl has been working her tail off for some time and deserves the chance to regroup/re-evaluate where she is headed. she indicated to me last time we spoke, that she was considering leaving teaching....of course, i'm all for that as well....
another day, dawn and i drove out to salida to do a little shopping....thrift store, technical clothing store, and hit up some hot springs....THAT was especially enjoyable....the skies were blue, and the breeze was chilly, but that hot hot water was the perfect antidote....there's a small place just above buena vista, about 40 miles south of leadville, called 'cottonwood springs' that has 3 pools, and is only $10 mon-thursday...we passed this on the way to the continental divide, at the top of independence pass 2 summers ago, so i've been wanting to go....who doesn't love a good natural spring even if it has been commercialized?
so yeah...it was a seriously hedonistic vacation. :) the last day, i left early so that i could go through the denver temple....that was wonderful and i left feeling inside as President Hinckley promised "a little bit better." hooray for the restored gospel found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!
