A Date in Steamboat

Leaving the kids in the hotel room (Steamboat Hotel) to watch The Golden Globe Awards and enjoy a feast of Taco Bell, Audra and I went out. After a little web search, we decided on The Cantina for Fajitas.

After a great meal, we visited the famous western store in Steamboat, F.M. Light. We enjoyed trying on hats and laughing endlessly.

It was snowing and the evening was a lot of fun.

MLK Weekend at Steamboat

The three day weekend, MLK, was outstanding. For a couple of months, we had been planning the trip to Steamboat Springs, our first to the northern Colorado Ski Resort. Both Cassi and Tyler were able to get time off work and the five of use spent two nights and three days in the Cowboy Ski Resort.


Rabbit Ears Pass on the way up.

The Steamboat Hotel was a nice little dive. Clean, new rooms and comfortable beds, with a breakfast each morning. It was outstanding that the ski bus picked us up right at our hotel, allow us to leave the car at the hotel and not bother with hauling all the gear.

Riding the bus up to the Base.

Down low in elevation, the conditions were awesome and the sights were beautiful.

Up high, above 9k feet, it got very foggy and the visual conditions created some exciting skiing moments.

At the end of the second day, we found the 'hospitality wagon'. This is where we waited on the bus to pick us up... and we enjoyed some hot, complimentary Hot Chocolate!!

Monday morning... we awoke to 37 degrees and rain. We decided to 'bag' the third day of skiing and head home.


The conditions driving home were challenging at times. The big adventure was created when I decided to drive home through Winter Park. Unfortunately, when we arrived in WP, the digital display informed us..... Berthoud Pass was closed. That caused us to backtrack, 50 miles to Kremmling and head south, to Breck and over Hoosier Pass. The conditions were really bad but the Touareg plowed through everything like a sled dog.

This Saab SUV was 'ditched'. This was one of 7 that we encountered.

Katie's Sweet 16

Hoooray!!! Katie is 16 years old.

The traditional, morning pancake with a candle.

Katie decided to forgo a party on the date of her birthday, Thursday, waiting for Cassi to come down and help her celebrate on Friday. We feasted on Shrimp and Steak.

Smoked Sausage.....Figuring it out....

I was properly raised, fully understanding the value of "Fried Back Strap". But I grew up in a family where we took the prime cuts from our deer and then passed the rest of the animal on it our "illegal Mexican workers". I wasn't taught how to fully utilize, all the animal..... until.... I met this German gal from the Texas Hill Country. I was introduced to the German way of doing things.... ahhhh, smoked deer sausage.

Upon coming into the possession of a bunch of deer meat, I decided to do two things. First, I hauled a deer into a Brownwood, TX Wild Game Processor to make some Deer Sausage....and second, I brought home some deer meat to grind up with pork to make pan sausage. I haven't finished the pan sausage yet, but we have the links from the Brownwood Wild Game Processor.

So far the best way to prepare the sausage is to....smoke it. I put it on the Smoker that the Mathis' gave us for a Christmas present....and let it smoke for about 18 hours...under the influence of Mesquite chips.

It turns out pretty awesome!!!!

Ski Day with the Millers

Finally...finally....the stars aligned and the Miller's and the Lane's were able to connect on snow, above 9k feet elevation. YES!!!!...we met at the base of Copper Mountain for a great day of skiing.

Tyler and Page (TD's girlfriend), joined us...but they stayed on the mountain together, teaching Page 'the ropes' on a snowboard.

It was a wonderful day. Audra and I, further realized the power and value of phenomenal friends that we can enjoy. We are very thankful that the Miller's are 'local' to us and we can enjoy each others company.

New Year's Eve and January 1st

New Year's Eve and the first day in January were a bit different, but they were good in their own way. Cassi stayed up in Boulder and Bryce departed for Texas. At home, it was the four of us..... but even Tyler headed out with his girlfriend's folks to enjoy a Denver Nuggets game. For the Prime Rib dinner (smoked on my new smoker), Katie, Audra and I feasted!

Audra is making chocolate pies... clad in her Tim Tebow Jersey.

Bryce, mounting up his deer horns, before departing to Texas for his Spring Semester at TBI.

Audra's new gifts.... a fancy coffee maker and a marble table.... up in our bedroom. Feel really spoiled with coffee in bed.

My father was a phenomenal journal writer. I always esteemed him for it. No less than a dozen times, I have started a journal....getting anywhere from 30 days in, to completing up to 3 months, but I never stayed with it. Audra loves to go back and read my "journal'ing attempts", so to further motivate me, she gave me a very nice journal for Christmas. When I couple that with the Waterford Pen that Mom gave me for my Master's Degree graduation present.... I have the tools and the motivation to stick with it.