YURT? yes please

WOW! People, yurts are just the best. Can I admit that?

We spent a Sun, Mon, Tues at the yurt and a good time was had by all. We stayed at the "Clark Peak Yurt"" which sleeps 9. It also has an outhouse; so pleasant in the middle of the night in 5degree weather. I really kid because just having the experience of using an outhouse in the cold is pretty cool. Talk about appreciative. It's amazing that people used to always use an outhouse. So happy we live in this day and age.

So we got arrived to the parking lot admist 18inches of fresh powder the night before. Our friend, Dave, had his snowmobiles which made the 2.8 mile hike a breeze. It did get stuck a few times and that was trouble but it was still fun to ride them. Snowmobiles were only allowed to mile 2 so we hiked in the rest of the way with all of our gear.

We spent our free time hanging out in the yurt, eating and playing games. We went hiking the day two, looking for some good snowboarding. I didn't even bring my board on this hike because the powder was too deep for a beginner. At least for me. It was still so fun to get out and snowshoe around. The entire area was gorgeous. The guys found some good tree areas to board. The big, open bowls are too dangerous after that much fresh snow. Avalanches had been a frequent occurrence up near cameron pass and no one was going to chance it.

Many, many pictures are below of our adventures. I wanted to put them in order but blogger makes it soo difficult. If you read the captions, they will make sense!

What I basically want to say is if you've ever thought about taking a cool trip but never did, you really should. It was awesome. Here is the link to our yurt. They have a whole system all over Colorado, winter or summer!

http://www.neversummernordic.com/ClarkPeak.htm

Snowshoeing on day 2

The guys getting back from their adventures boarding. 

Kev practicing his beacon skills. Yes, the snow was that deep. 

The first night we were there, we witnessed the alpine glow. 

Inside of the yurt. cooking area to the left. Stove to the right. bunks and beds behind. 

At the door, facing inward. 

The outhouse... so stinky. 

This is the hike in portion. I was so excited to get there! 

If you've never seen a split board, there is it... opposite sides facing of course. 

good morning day three

cool. ice

day three morning. we're leaving! Our only shot together. 

skinning/snowshoeing trail.

Kev walking in on Day one.

YAY! the snowmobiles work. 

unloading.

Kev getting snow to melt for water. 

SNOW MELT. fresh delicious water from untouched snow. An entire pot filled with snow gives us  1/20th of water..

Alpine glow. 

Can you see the glow.

mapping out the terrain... and making sure to avoid avalanche areas. 

I loved all the snow on top.

Pula is my husband and he is cool. 

Regrets

regrets... such a daunting word. I found this article to be interesting since I currently work with this population. I can't even count how many deaths I have encountered this year. Too many to tally. I have talked to a majority of those people going to their forever place and they have excellent advice.

I ask them things like the secret to a happy life, a happy marriage, living long and the list goes on. I love to hear their responses. I already know what most of them will say. "I lived a simple life, loved only one man or one woman. I stayed active and didn't live on much." It's wonderful to hear them speak. It's the perk to working with old people.

http://www.alternet.org/5-top-regrets-people-have-end-their-lives

Here is the article. It talks about people on their death bed and what they regretted in life, if anything. Hopefully you don't find something that you hold to be true on this list but if you do, don't worry.
I believe it is NEVER too late to change anything, to be anything, to do anything. Good luck and may all of our regrets be few.

Preview for next time... ohh the pillow top

Makeshift farmers

If you follow me on instagram, you're already aware of our "farm" sitting experience. It was awesome! Jean, who I work with and also how we got Neela, was going out of town with family for ten days and needed a farm sitter. How could I say no to that? I couldn't. 

They have a small farm with a lot of land and cats and dogs. No livestock or horses which is a good think because I couldn't handle that too. It was hard enough going out in the cold to make sure the dogs and cats had food and water! 

The best thing was that our dogs got a small taste of farm dog life and we did too. It was fun. They have the sweetest dogs. What did we life about farm life? The sunsets. The quietness. The land to play on. All the dogs and cats. It was fun to have a pretty kitchen to work in too. 

They recently got 30-some baby chicks so hopefully we get another chance to house sit and we can really find out if we like the farm life! 

Jean takes good care of her home and farm so it was such a pleasure. And all the dogs had a blast (they have 2 dogs too, both are blood bro/sis or Neela).

Enjoy the farm/farmhouse pics. Short story. Their house was actually an old barn converted. Pretty cool. 

NYE 2012 or 2013? It happened in 2012...

We spent NYE in Breckenridge. Turner, one of Kevin's roommates in college was staying in Breckenridge over the holidays on vacation and we got an invite to join. How could we say no to visiting with Turner. It was so fun. We spent the beginning of our night at THE BROWN. It's a historical bar/game house? in Breckenridge that is supposedly haunted! While we were there, we ran into a dear friend who lives out on the east coast! Small world. We watched the ball from Turners rental house and stayed up into the wee hours of the new day.

We had planned to climb Quandary (a 14er near Breck) on 1/1/13 but on NYE, Callahan starting limping and I didn't want to chance him getting injured more or us carrying him down the mountain. Instead we had doughnuts for breakfast and burgers for lunch and went to the Breck Dog Park TWICE! Did I mention how nostalgic the town of Breckenridge is? I'm talking about the houses people. So many victorian style homes in all different colors. Makes walking the dogs a lot more fun when you can gawk at the houses!

NYE was such a long time ago but I had to document it. So much more from 2013 to come.

Haven't seen Kaily since 2007

kinda cute 

funnest game ever!

So these next dog pictures might be overkill but if you look closely, Neela has a huge amount of Callahans hair in her mouth. When she plays with him, she is always nipping him and grabbing his fur. It's pretty funny. 

Inspiration

Strong from ARC'TERYX on Vimeo.