Keystone, Colorado day 1

So it looks like we are a go . . . since we had confirmed seats today I was able to sleep last night.  I am still tired but optimistic that we will arrive in Denver today!  Colin said, "well if we take off we have to land somewhere even if it is the bottom of a lake; you know gravity."  Well that is not so uplifting.  It was an early wake up but a short drive to the airport.  We went through the same process as yesterday, but today we I was more relaxed!  The good news is we moved from row 39 to row 5!

We arrived at our gate to hear the announcement we were boarding . . . you could feel the excitement in the air!  Since so many flights were cancelled yesterday and so many people were stuck American Airlines added this flight . . . so everyone on this flight had been stuck or diverted here overnight.  At this point we just wanted a seat on the plane no matter what row, but first class is pretty sweet!

Colin was so excited about the lay flat seats . . .

. . . too bad it was a less than 2 hour flight!  We took off on time and landed on time too.  However, getting to the terminal and our gate was a different story.  There were super long lines of planes as far as you could see waiting to take off.  We arrived at our gate but could not get off because there was a snow drift in the jet bridge; seriously I can not make this stuff up.  The agent was working so fast with her broom to get it cleared, and we finally got off.  Of course claiming our lone bag took forever too . . . I think it took us just as long to get from Dallas to Denver as it did to get from the runway to the passenger pick up line!  BUT our friends arrived and we were on our way to Keystone to the condo.  The roads were still a mess so it was slow going but safety first.  Today was our buffer day to adjust to the altitude and sort of hang out so we didn't miss much just some down time.  As we got outside of Denver the roads cleared and were perfectly fine!  We arrived at the condo and began to unpack.  We are staying at The Springs in River Run Village.  The location is amazing and looking forward to exploring more the next couple of days.  By this point we were all so hungry so made the short walk to Pizza On The Run for a slice . . . it was yummy!  Our first real stop was to check in for ski school and get the kids fitted for boots and skis . . .

If you know these kids, can you believe how big they are?  I am just amazed at when I think about how much they have grown!  We dropped the kids back at the condo and headed out to make a grocery store run . . . so much easier to do without three kids in tow.  Now for the fun to begin . . . we headed to the top of the mountain for some tubing . . .

It sure is easy to get from the bottom back to the top with the covered magic carpet!  Colin said it was exhausting . . . oh this kid . . . probably because he ran non stop and the altitude is a difficult adjustment to make too.  You have one hour to ride as many times as possible and they limit the number of people each hour so that is good.  We never had to wait that long and I think in the hour I went down 6 times . . . the kids went down much more.  It was a lot of fun and would gladly do it again.  We took the gondola back down to the condo . . . which is just a stones throw from the condo.  Really the location of The Springs is unbeatable and the price wasn't bad either!  The kids went swimming . . . yes swimming . . . how can you not go for a swim in this heated pool and hot tub?

I stayed back to prepare the dinner sides while my friend grilled the steaks by the pool.  We all had a great fun day . . . we will have stories to tell for years to come about the blizzard of 2016 that almost ruined our trip.  Seeing the kids together again made all the stress worth it . . . funny how when you finally arrive you sort of forget the headache it caused to get there.  I was in bed by 9:00pm!  Tomorrow the real fun begins . . . unfortunately I am already feeling a bit sick from the altitude . . . I think I need some coca tea.