Winter on the front range

We live in a world of weather extremes.  In the summer of 2012 we were evacuated from our house from wildfire.  In April, friends came to visit and it blew cold snow on them. This past June I was unbelievably uncomfortable at the end of my pregnancy when it was 95 degrees.  This fall, many friends were evacuated because of flooding, and many areas and roads are still devastated from it.  We had our first snowfall here this winter on October 4.  But we've had plenty of warm sunny days of 65 degrees since.

On Nov 17, we knew it had snowed in the mountains.  We didn't make it to any opening days at the ski resorts this year and are missing skiing already.  It was warm and sunny down on the front range.  So we packed our stuff and headed to Nederland.

We drove to the trailhead where we thought we would hike or snowshoe.  But we drove into a white out blizzard.  The wind was unbelievable.  We had promised Rachel some sledding and she was determined to make a snowman, but we could hardly open the car door against the wind.  We drove to the high school parking lot and tried to throw a few snowballs, but didn't last long.

It cleared up long enough to take this quick picture of people getting ready to ski into our trail

Rachel can't stand on her own it's so windy

Back in the car after throwing snowballs

Rachel loves making this face at the camera these days

 So we went to the local coffee shop and had hot drinks and warmed up.  Rachel danced to the music and entertained all the customers while Ava nursed.  The sky cleared up and things improved for our drive home, but it was still too windy to play.

white caps on Nederland's resevoir

wind blowing water over the dam

It's been nice, sunny and warm lately.  Ava and Rachel are in care 2 days per week while I slowly start up at work again at my new clinic that I really like.  Ava is taking a bottle fine now.  We're working on weaning her at night but she hasn't even woken up to ask for milk since we got home from California on Friday.  She is nursing every 3.5-4.5 hours during the day and is happy.

Tonight it's supposed to get cold and snow 6" or so.  This weekend I'm supposed to run my half marathon at the high is 17 degrees F.  That's really cold.  I can't say I'm too excited... but wish me luck!!

The mountains might get as much as 30 inches today and tomorrow.  We might just have to figure out how to make a ski day work soon...