Colorado Adventures
You Know You’re From Colorado…
A good friend of mine sent this to me with this intro:
Grant,
What’s up? I thought of our I-70 drive to ski when I saw this. I think I’ve finally forgiven you.
Gene
The Gene in question was a life group member/elder/friend/mentor in all things handy when we lived in Parker. The day he was speaking of I never really blogged about or at least I can’t find it on this blog.
We were coming down the other side of the Tunnel when we hit ice, slid into the shoulder, missed the railing and the road post, came right back up on the road, waved to the people that we spun around, and kept driving to go skiing. No screaming, no stress, just another commute to the mountains.
Here’s what he sent to me:
A winter statistic in Colorado:
98% OF AMERICANS SCREAM BEFORE GOING IN THE DITCH ON A SLIPPERY ROAD. THE
OTHER 2% ARE FROM COLORADO AND THEY SAY, ‘HOLD MY Chai Tea AND WATCH THIS.
(For the record, Gene drinks Chai Tea, I drink Mochas. There’s a difference.)
You’re from Colorado if:
You’ll eat ice cream in the winter. (I do.)
It snows 5 inches and you don’t expect school to be canceled. (Check.)
You’ll wear flip flops every day of the year, regardless of temperature. (A bit extreme…shorts definitely.)
You have no accent at all, but can hear other people’s. And then you make fun of them.
‘Humid’ is over 25%. (Absolutely.)
Your sense of direction is: Toward the mountains and Away from the mountains.
You say ‘the interstate’ and everybody knows which one.
You think that May is a totally normal month for a blizzard.
You buy your flowers to set out on Mother’s day, but try and hold off planting them until just before Father’s day.
You grew up planning your Halloween costumes around your coat.
You know what the Continental Divide is.
You went to Casa-Bonita as a kid, and as an adult.
You’ve gone off-roading in a vehicle that was never intended for such activities.
You always know the elevation of where you are.
You wake up to a beautiful, 80 degree day and you wonder if it’s going to snow tomorrow.
You don’t care that some company renamed it, the Broncos still play at Mile High.
Every movie theater has military and student discounts.
You know what a ‘trust fund hippy’ is, and you know its natural habitat is Boulder .
You know you’re talking to a fellow Coloradoan when they call it Elitches, not Six Flags.
A bear on your front porch doesn’t bother you.
Your two favorite teams are the Broncos and whoever is beating the Raiders.
When people out East tell you they have mountains in their state too, you just laugh.
You go anywhere else on the planet and the air feels ‘sticky’ and you notice the sky is no longer blue.
Broken, But Not Beaten
We skied Keystone today and I have a brand new respect for Amy and ski poles. But I’ll get to that in a minute. Here we are at the top of Keystone – River Run Gondola. There is Breckenridge in the background. Not crowded but very, very warm. And we’d like a few inches of snow…but doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.
Here we are at lunch. Late start, late lunch, everyone is great and happy. No lines, no crowds…
Then it happened. I had just skied off to chase Cayden, saw that Amy, Coop, and Camber were good. We get over the hump and wait for the rest of the crew. And we wait…and wait…and wait. I call. Not good. Cooper got blasted by a snowboarder. I mean…blasted.
Amy saw the guy and starts hollering at him. Threatens to beat him with her poles. Of course, I’m not there, just over the hill. Not knowing what is going him. I’m sure the guy passed me. He’s lucky. Amy decides (wisely, I might add) to stay with Cooper. As God would have it, there were two ski patrol guys on vacation from Philadelphia. They stop and help Coop get sitting up, put some ice on his wrist. They call the Keystone Ski Patrol.
Sol (pronounced Saul) was the ski patrol guy. He was awesome.
In fact, he was so awesome, Amy felt comfortable enough to take pictures. I’m glad she did. Coop got a ride in the yellow sled. It wasn’t as fun as he thought it would be. And the guys FLYYYY down the mountain.
It’s hard to explain to your girls that their brother is okay, he’s not going to die when he’s wrapped up in the yellow sled and their zooming down the mountain. I took the girls, got the car, skis and gear to meet up with Aim at the Medical Center. Cooper got to pick the color of his cast – orange. And within a couple of hours, the adventure was done.
We bagged him up so he could sit in the hot tub. Keepin’ it elevated and the good news? He can hit the slopes on Wednesday. And we will…
Pray that I don’t run into that snowboarder…
Ski Day 2 & 3, Breckenridge
For Thanksgiving this year, we headed up to Breckenridge for a couple of days. The snow has not been good. Only man-made stuff but we’re kinda pressed for time to get in as many days as we can so we can’t really be picky at this point.
I’m glad we went.
The weather was great – hoovered between 37 to 42 both days. Breck only has two peaks open. Peak 8 is the gondola serviced peak and where some intermediate runs are open. Peak 9 is one long green run from mid-mountain to base.
If you’re going up – take the gondola to Peak 8. Ride Lift 7 to the top then ski over to Peak 9. Hardly any crowds, great snow. We skied Peak 8 on Wednesday and it was a complete madhouse. I’m not anti-snowboarders but why is it that they are always the one flying down the mountain running into people when I’m around?
We had a lot of fun. Here are some pics.
Let’s Just Face it…
The Broncos aren’t a good team.
The Broncos missed the playoffs yesterday around the 9 minute mark in the 4th quarter. I called it as we were walking out of the stadium yesterday. To lose at home against the Raiders was inexcusable…unless you’re just not good.
And that’s were I’m heading with my Broncos. We’re a botched call (Chargers), a last second field goal (Saints), and a dropped pass (Atlanta) from being 3-8. Same record as the Raiders.
“But those games count…” Not really. I have a feeling this will be the year the NFL tries to figure out how to keep certain division leaders from going to the playoffs (See AFC West and NFC North). The playoffs aren’t going to happen for the Broncos – at least I thought that until I saw the choke job the Chargers pulled on Sunday night.
What’s worse – to get blown off the field like Denver or continually snatch defeat from the jaws of victory like the Chargers? Too close to call.
Where to start? Defense not showing up in 2nd half? Offense forgetting what a crossing route or screen pass was? Special teams leaving 13 points on the field? What’s with the deep ball every other play? The only place where the Raiders have any talent is in the secondary. Why keep throwing the ball there?
As we were leaving the stadium, the Raider Nation was in full swing. I only had one comment…
“At least we’re not owned by Al Davis.”
The good news? The atmosphere was great until the 4th quarter and I was with my son and two great friends. I love going to the games…I just with the rest of the team would show up.
Raider Hater Week
This week just got better.
I was given tickets to Bronco game this weekend. Coop, Aim, and I are going to the game.
Go Broncs.
Ski Day 1, Arapahoe Basin, Camber
Ski Conditions:
Snow was great. It was warm, 50 degrees and bright. No clouds at all, no wind until about 2 pm. Felt like a great spring day.
What was not great were the lines and the crowds. In the morning it wasn’t bad. After lunch it was terrible. We stopped skiing around 1 because of it. With only one lift and one run open – we expected a little wait. We forgot it was Fall Break for many schools in Colorado.
If A-Basin gets some snow over the next 2 weeks, they’ll be able to open the front side. It’ll be awesome.
It felt weird to pull on the ski pants, slap on the helmet and strap on the long boards after a long break. Then again, the last day I skied was just 6 months ago. The Xterra did much nicer than the Sonata, thanks for asking. It’s a manly car.
Day with Camber – priceless. I love her heart and spirit. We laughed pretty much all day long. Some pics:
Corn Maze
Sunday after the retreat, our Life Group headed up to Wellington, Canada (inside joke) to the Harvest Farm.
Here’s the backstory of the Harvest Farm. It’s part of the Denver Rescue Mission. They have room for 72 men to learn how to farm, take care of animals, finish their high school diploma or work on other job skills while recovering from addiction AND running a working farm.
Part of running that farm is their annual Harvest Festival that includes a Corn Maze and a “No-Fright Night” for kids on Halloween. Here are some pics of past mazes. It’s impressive, huge, and a total blast.
We gave Suzanne an over the top hard time for how far the maze was from Parker (80+ miles) but it was worth it. Just know that the next time you go anywhere with the Davidsons – pack your passport.
I call this one, Camber Pets Breakfast.
This was a huge air compressor canon that shot out pumpkins over 200 yards. Brey and I want to build one for our houses.
Fastbreak 2k8 Redux
It’s over, done, finished…at least the event is. Let’s hope the effect of it keeps working for a lot longer.
Here’s the quick hit of the weekend…
3 Sessions – snapshots of Jesus. His temptation (no shortcuts), his sermon (on the mount – extreme truth), his heart (sinners loved to hang with him – extreme grace).
2 hours on High Ropes course. Saw one kid scared to death of heights get in a harness, climb up, do one element then come down. Awesome job. Saw another kid scared to death of heights do the whole course then jumped off the leap of faith.
4 hours of volleyball, putt-putt, hiking, and tether ball.
4 outstanding meals.
Lots of hot chocolate.
1 night of smores.
1 Connect 4 tournament.
Some pics of the weekend.
Opening Day
Today is the first day of ski season for A-Basin.
There was frost on the ground this morning.
The top of Pikes Peak has snow again.
I have next Friday off.
Can I make 10 days?
Favorite Place with Favorite People
Steve Boehm was in town this week for some sort of engineer conference/training. He’s a smart person.
He stayed an extra day because he wanted to go to the mountains.
Here’s what we did…Estes Park.
Estes Park is our family’s favorite summer and fall destination. YMCA of the Rockies has a ton of memories for us as well as we’ve taken youth groups there for years.
As you pull into Estes Park, there is the city park where all the elk hang out. A lot of elk and you can get REALLY close. This was ‘the bull’ of the group. There were over 25 elk around this one tree and this lone buck was the keeper of the family.
As you enter Estes Park, the first thing you notice is this gorgeous hotel overlooking the city. It’s the Stanley Hotel, home of Stephen King when he was writing “The Shining.” The movie in ’76 with Jack Nicholson made it famous but it wasn’t filmed there. The update in the late ’90′s was filmed there.
Steve thought it would be hilarious to have Cooper stand and repeat “red rum”.
It was Homecoming for Estes Park High School. It was your classic hometown homecoming with the parade right through the middle of town. Got to see my first ever Delorean. They also had an old time fire truck (from Beverly Hills) where you had to have a driver for the rear axle.
Then we headed to YMCA of the Rockies, just outside of Estes Park. It is an awesome place for family vacations or just to hang out. We had our yearly YMCA golf game. This year, I lost by 2 strokes to Steve. That dang House Hole killed me.
This is the chapel on the campus with the background of changing aspens. It a couple of weeks, the mountains will explode with golds and reds.
Brianna, junior in high school, went with us. She’s taking a photography class and Cayden was more than willing to model for her.
A family pic that got goofy in moments.
Steve Boehm playing himself.
The lasting image of Estes…
The Week with Nana and Poppy
Last week I felt like I was running from one even to the other – didn’t even have time to blog like I normally do. I covered some of our activities…here’s the rest of the week…
Gymnastics
Camber loves this and Nana got to go with her and see her strut her stuff.
Opening Up The New Climbing Wall
We have a climbing wall in your student room. Cool, huh? It’s not so cool if you never use it. So we got that running this week. That’s Cooper being my lab rat. The man got to the top.
Flying W Ranch
If you’ve never been to the Flying W Ranch, you ought to go at least once. It’s not cheap but the food is great, it’s all you can eat and the entertainment is incredible. It’s a place you can take all the kids and they’ll have a blast running around the Cowboy town they’ve got set up there.
Plus, the sell $1 ice cream cones. Can’t beat that.
Crazy Fun Week
Monday – Labor Day cook out with our Life Group. We played cornhole, ladder golf, Wii, and saved the universe. Busy day, huh?
The world’s 4th cutest baby ever.
Last night – Rockies game (free tickets – thanks to Ray for driving, Rowland and Randy for the tickets) with Cooper. Rockies won in 12 innings. BUT the coolest thing that happened was this…
Cal Ripken, Jr. was at the game last night. I have no idea why but he was just milling around in the stands behind home plate before the first pitch. Cooper and I get to our seats and Linda and Randy are there! They go to our church and I love talking with them.
Randy pulls out this duffel bag – it’s full of baseball boxes – and tosses me one of the boxes. I open it up and it is a brand new baseball that has just been signed by Cal Ripken, Jr.
I’m impressed. Cal is probably my favorite player of all time. After oohing and ahhing over the ball, I hand it back to Randy and he says..”No, no, no…that one is yours.”
CAN YOU FREAKIN’ BELIEVE THAT??? I now am the owner of a Cal Ripken, Jr. autographed baseball.
We rode down to the game with The Schwartz Boys – Ray, David, and Michael (two of the three sons). the ride down was hilarious. We cut up and laughed all the way down and back.
Tonight – Student Parking and our first meal served.
Thursday night – Amy starts a new Beth Moore study. I think this is an awesome idea. Not so much the Beth Moore study but the idea that it is on Thursday nights. All real men will understand why.
Friday night – Cayden’s birthday night. Thank the Lord Jesus that she wants to go to Red Robin this year instead of Casa Bonita.
Saturday – Coop’s football game, Fantasy draft for my 3rd league. (Don’t go there, please.)
The First Tremor
One of the perks of having a season pass – a subscription to SKI magazine. It’s a beautiful reminder that ski season starts November 8th this year at Breckenridge.
The 3 C’s at REI
Friday was a free day.
Kids were free from school.
I was free from work.
We had free tickets to Elitches…but it poured down rain all day long.
We had free zoo passes…but it poured down rain all day long.
What to do?
We joined REI this year. $20 for a lifetime membership. Get a minimal discount on their high priced gear BUT it’s free rock climbing. One trip rock climbing would have cost us $50 so it’s more than paid for itself. REI in downtown Denver has The Pinnacle – 47 feet of sheer climbing bliss or terror depending on your perspective.
Camber tackled the backside of the rock and made it to the top.
Cooper has tackled the rock climbing thing a couple of times now. The first time he went, we learned that he’s scared of heights. I’ve seen a lot of people just punt the whole thing after that. They tried it, it scared the life out of them, it’s over.
Not Coop. He keeps putting on the harness, getting tied in, and attempting to climb. Today – he had his best climb ever. Here he is just an arm’s length from the top. When I showed him this picture, he said – “Is that really how close I was?” Yep. “I can definitely get it next time.” Gotta love that.
Cayden needs to grow about 3 more inches before they turn her loose on the Pinnacle in downtown. She had a great time playing on the playplace and running up and down the ramps. It’s the little things, right?
Afterwards, we had a kids eat free at Jason’s Deli. We love this place. We first discovered in Little Rock and it was a fam favorite. We’d probably eat there once a week. Of course, we can’t eat out as often now but when we do – we still love Jason’s Deli.
A rainy day salvaged.
20 Year Reunion, Part 2
We finished up the weekend with dinner at the Denver Aquarium and then a picnic today at a park.
I have to be brutally honest here – I actually enjoyed the weekend. No… I loved it. I wasn’t really sure what to expect or even if there would be anyone there to talk to. Instead, it was one great conversation after another.
The committee is actually contemplating doing a 25 year reunion on a cruise. If that happens, I’d have to go. This weekend has been that good of an experience. Amy and I now have some local friends to catch up with over the next few months.
So many names and faces that I reconnected with this weekend. Lots of laughter and memories.
Couple of highlights for me.
Senior Skip Day. Karen Willet actually reminded me of this day. We went downtown, goofed off (Paul and I were masters of this) then I got my Ford Tempo buried in mud in an off limits section of Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center.
Paul and I got out of the mud to push us out and we both sank up to our waists. My girlfriend at the time was NOT a happy camper as we had to call her dad to come pull us out with a 4 wheel drive. Of course, Paul’s dad got in on the act as every time I saw him after this day – he never failed to mention what a dork I was.
They had a slide show last night and about 3/4 way through it, I leaned over to Amy and said “Looks like I escaped.”
I spoke WAY to soon.
One of the last pictures was a close up of me and Margaret Bryan (we were dating) and I had the Richard Marks look going on – long, curly, permed hair in the back. On top of that I had the big, round, ‘lawyer’ glasses going on. The reaction from the class was brutal. And honestly, throwing down that look – I deserved it.
Today at the park, one of my classmates commented that Rangeview had drastically changed once our class left the building. I imagine every class feels that way but he what he went on to say actually made sense.
“We were the first 4 year class at that school, all of us lived in the neighborhood, almost all of our parents were blue-collar, no frills people. Yeah, we had our little groups but for a class our size, almost everybody liked everybody else.”
He’s right. I’m not sure why it all played out that way in high school. But for me to move into Rangeview the close to the middle of my junior year and to have as many friends as I did speaks volume of my classmates. Most of them had grown up with each other, through elementary and middle school. Yet, I never felt like an outsider.
Great weekend. So glad I went.
The 20 Year Reunion, Part 1
I drug Amy to my 20 year high school reunion mixer last night. We met at Jackson’s Bar right across from Coors Field. Tonight we’ll eat dinner at the Aquarium.
Confession 1: I was nervous and a bit anxious about going. In fact, a couple of times I thought about looking at Amy and saying – ‘Hey, let’s go rob a bank instead.”
But we had already paid for the weekend. So we were going.
Confession 2: I graduated with over 550 people in my class. 20 years ago. I hadn’t seen any of them since. Would any of us recognize each other?
Reality 1: There will be people at any reunion that either have super-photographic memories OR they’ve spent the last 3 weeks scouring over the yearbook. I am not one of those people. I had a few people holler my name, hug my neck and I had no idea who they were.
That of course led to the awkward moment of when I had to say – “You know…I gotta tell you, I’m not sure if I know who you are.”
Reality 2: Some of us never grow up – it’s a good thing. Lots of laughs, lots of ‘remember the time’ stories. I think the greatest compliment I got was – “You look exactly the way you did in high school.” The second greatest compliment was upon hearing that I was now a youth pastor. “Oh my gosh!!! That is so YOUUUU.”
Reality 3: Some of us never grow up – it’s a bad thing. There was one guy at the reunion that was really having a good time. Still being barely able to talk coherently after more than a few brews. He’s still funny. He still makes you laugh but in the back of my mind I wonder – is this the highlight for him? There’s got to be more there, right?
Reality 4: You’ll connect with someone at a reunion that you never connected with at high school. And it will be awesome. Met a guy that lives in Parker, loves Jesus now and in high school we might have said two words to each other. It was great. Another gal – actually his sister-in-law – that both of our families hit it off.
Reality 5: There are some friends that you can pick up right where you left off. Mike Greenwood, Paul Velakaneye, and I hung out all time. Mike and Paul roomed together at college while I left the state entirely. (I think Paul never forgave me for that.) Talking with Mike was awesome, still easy-going yet speak what’s on my mind kind of guy.
I’m very glad I went. I’m looking forward to tonight.
Greatest Verbal Exchange of the Evening:
“Grant, didn’t you move into Rangeview in the middle of your junior year?”
“Yeah…but sitting the bench on the basketball team, I actually made a lot of friends.”
“Did you play on the state championship team your senior year?”
“No. I got cut. Then half the team got ineligible. But that time I was doing the ‘thespian’ thing.”
[Long Pause]
“That must have been very rewarding for you.”
I don’t think we stopped laughing for five minutes.
Saturday Hike: Roxborough
Steve “Purk” (of July 4th hike fame) is training for climbing Mt. Bierstadt this August. It’s one of Colorado’s famed “14′ers.” In fact, we are going to try to bag 2 in one day – Bierstadt and Evans. They are two of the more “friendlier” 14′ers plus we’ll have a guy who has done it before with us. Mainly I’m going to hold Steve’s hand as he is afraid of heights and I’m afraid of bears. We make a great team.
Today, he picked me up at 6 AM and we were the first ones in the park. This big boy was waiting on us. You think of deer and images of Bambi race in. A bounding, graceful, gentle deer. I don’t think this one was one of those deers. I kepy thinking – if he turns and decides he’s tired of us, ther, not a lot I could do. He’s less than 13 feet away from me.
My lungs reminded me that I had hiked pretty hard the day before. It took longer to catch my breath but once I did – time to roll. Beautiful venues (red rock formations, hogsbacks) spread out before us. Amazing to think that this ridge runs from Denver to Garden of the Gods (Colorado Springs.)
This was the view I had of Steve most of the day. Matt and I made sure we goofed off when Nature called Steve.
We got to the summit at 8.45 am, first ones there this morning. Great view and we had avoided the heat. We’ll do this one again.
Friday Hike: Hidden Mesa Open Space
With Cayden in half-day Kindergarten and me off – Amy and I headed to Hidden Mesa Open Space. We’re pretty fortunate. We have the best metro hiking venues within minutes of the house. We headed to the top, a little over 3 mile hike roundtrip.
4th of July Hike and Fireworks
We may have stumbled on a new family tradition.
The Purkapiles (okay – it was Steve. There was no way Camille was going to spearhead this…) were heading to Eldorado Canyon State Park. There was a moderately difficult trail to an old hotel site in early 1900′s.
Cayden made it…with a little help. We made a little mistake in the hike. When we hiked Devil’s Head, we had lunch and shade. The lunch gave energy, the shade made the hike bearable. We had neither on this day.
We had it – but not on the trail, in the truck. Fortunately, Steve had packed a feast!!! Here some pics of us raiding his backpack, Cayden giving her “I climbed the mountain pose.” Brianna was a huge help on the way down.
The kids and wives turned around at the rest stop – Steve and I pressed on to the Continental Divide view and railroad tracks. These are the tracks of the Ski Train from Denver to Winter Park. Found some railroad spikes up there.
Then we headed to our Life Group’s dinner and fireworks show. We had a great view of the city and all the fireworks, plus our own in the driveway. Great day and we loved spending it this way.
Summer At Breckenridge
We spent a couple of days up in Breckenridge at Row’s cabin. Mimi and Big Tom were in town and I think they played the Wii more than the kids did. At least now we know what to get them for their 50th wedding anniversary.
This is right across the street from the cabin. It’s the Blue River but there are beaver ponds EVERYWHERE so it’s created this little Beaver Pond Valley. It’s gorgeous.
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Amy had a hard time holding on to the camera. I’m guessing she dropped it like 80 times or something. This was the look I was giving…Amy took the picture to prove that the camera still worked.
Great time…took Mimi on her first (and only) ‘hike.’ She’s convinced I was trying to killing her.
Cooper and I At Coors Field
Some pics from the ‘take your kid to work’ day. And yes, I do think it is within the spirit of the day. My kids go to work with me every Sunday, every Wednesday, and most weekends. I count it an honor that they’ve gotten an inside look at what serving God in a local church looks like. They’ve experienced (and still are) themselves.
So a day at the ballpark is a day to connect with my kid when on some of the other days I’m working or not available. We had awesome seats – two rows up from the left field fence. Add to it that the Rockies won in the bottom of the 8th – makes for a great day at the park. Cooper even found a drug store named after him.
The Expensive Last Day of Skiing
Dad and I were running up to Arapahoe Basin for one last day of skiing. For him that would be his 5th day (not bad for a guy who lives in Alabama). It would be my 29th day of the season. To get 29 days in is incredible but not all of them were full days of skiing. One was a one run day, another was a 2-run day – way too cold.
We got a late start out of town which was fine. Gave time for the roads to clear up since we got a few inches of snow the night before.
We got just outside of Georgetown and the roads starting getting a bit icy. I was slowing down – mainly because I saw a SUV catching up with me and I didn’t like the speed he was going. As he passed me – I got a windshield full of slush, snow, and ice and at that exact moment we hit a patch of ice.
We were going 50-55 mph when the back end of my car starting pushing the front end and we were sliding towards the guardrail, spinning. The driver side front bumper slammed into the railing spinning us around so that we got a great look at the oncoming traffic. Suddenly the back end of the car hit the rail which zipped us back around facing the right direction. Since we were both wearing our seatbelts, it wasn’t a huge shock of a crash. I could feel the car wanting to go around one more time but somehow I managed to get control of it and headed for the median. The engine was dead. A quick look up revealed that traffic was coming. The SUV that flew by me was nowhere to be found.
And the airbags never went off.
Sometime in the middle of the spin, Dad and I actually had a conversation.
I said – “I’m okay. I’m not banged up or anything.”
Dad said – “I am too but we’re not out of this yet.”
As we rested in the median and evaluated the damage – we had to admit we were pretty fortunate. There were no other vehicles involved. There were no leaks from the engine, oil pan, or radiator. The engine cranked right up and we headed to the next exit for a closer inspection and to relax.
After some time at a gas station and filing a police report, we decided we might as well get a half day of skiing in. (As an aside, A-Basin was a decent place to ski. Lots of advanced and expert terrain. Montezuma Bowl is a great addition to the place. It’s not a ‘family-friendly’ place in terms of the terrain. With only a couple of green runs – you’d be better off taking your newbies to Copper or Winter Park. But if you are a bowl addict and love steep terrain – this is your place.)
On one hand I have every reason to be thankful. And I am. Dad and I walked away unscathed. The car took the most damage and cars can be replaced. There were so many things that could have gone wrong and didn’t. I thank God for all the details I can see and especially those that I can’t.
On the other hand, I’m just ticked as all get out. I saw the SUV coming up behind me and was slowing down to avoid exactly what happened. I wasn’t speeding, I was driving slower than the flow of traffic, and I was trying to be cautious. It just wasn’t enough. The 10 seconds of total lack of control was the most humbling, terrifying 10 seconds of my life.
Today I got the damage report on the Hyundai – $7700. Mainly because the frame of the car is bent. I’d rather deal with my insurance company on this than hospital bills.
Last Days At Copper
My dad was in town for a conference so he came a few days earlier to close out the season with us. We spent two days at Copper. Had 6 inches of powder the first day. Only 4 inches the next. 
Here are some of our favorite pics of the time.
After a couple of runs, Cayden was done. She’s not a huge fan of the cold, blowing snow. So while we were skiing, Caydo was bustin’ a move back in the lodge.
Here we are warming up after a long day of skiing.
This was the view going home just outside of Evergreen, Colorado looking to the west towards the Continental Divide.
Danny and The Trees
Another ski day with Danny last week. The first generated so much dialog I thought I’d share about this one as well.
First, somehow, someway we were like the 6th or 7th chair up the mountain. It’s got to be some kind of miracle but there we were waiting for the lines to open.
Second, while there was a John Denver reference during the day, no one busted out into song nor was there a conversation about him. That automatically made it a good day.
There was an inch or two of powder on the slopes, it warmed up to 41 degrees and the big discussion point was the overacting but cool voices of certain actors. AntonioBan Deras being one of them. he always says his name that way – putting the first syllable of his last name with his first name, then pausing before finishing it off with ‘Deras.’ He’s the only guy on the planet to be able to pull that off. If you think I’m kidding – try it with your own name.
GrantEng Lish. Doesn’t remotely work. I had a former student make fun of the way I say my name. She said I pronounced it “Gran Tenglish” really emphasizing the “T” of Grant. My response was – it’s my name so I’ll pronounce it the way I want. I’m guessing AntonioBan Deras would say the same thing. Except he’s cooler.
“Oh yesssssssss, he issss.” With the “Oh” said very fast and the ‘s’ of the yes sliding into eternity. It’s the coolest accent in the world and I dare anybody to disagree. Ricardo Montalban has the same thing going on. It’s the whole Spanish thing going on. It makes anything sound sexier than what it really is. I mean, what else can explain all the bottles of Nasonex in my house?
Danny noted that you can’t really talk about Ricardo without talking about William Shatner (Star Trek: Wrath of Khan) which led to many hours of William Shatner moments.
Danny continued, “It’s rare that two actors with such over the top voices and acting appeared in the same movie. Can you imagine a movie that had both AntonioBan Deras and Ricardo Montalban?”
G: “They were. Spy Kids 2.”
Danny gave me approximately the same look I gave him when I learned he had John Denver on his iPod.
I started my defense immediately. “My kids love the movie. Personally, I’ve never seen it from beginning to end. Honestly.”
Somehow this leads us to Christopher Walken. Again, I’m not sure how we got there but got there we did. Danny does a spot on impression of Christopher Walken doing the “Cowbell” Skit of Saturday Night Live.
Most of the day was spent with us speaking in one of these voices and saying “Oh yessssss” way to many times.
The last run of the day provide some drama for us…well, mainly me. I took off through the trees on the last run and cut one of the corners a wee bit too tight. On the back side of the tree (the blind side) was a branch. It felt like someone had popped me in the face with a switch. It hurt a little, messed up my helmet a bit and fogged up my goggles. So I cruised to the edge of the trees, plopped down to rearrange my goggles and helmet as they were now all cock-eyed and fogged up.
A snowboarder comes screaming up beside me.
“Dude…are you okay?”
I look around, he’s talking to me. “Oh yeah, just getting my goggles unfogged.”
“Are you sure? Just relax for a bit.”
I start laughing. “I’m fine, man. Thanks for checking on me.” And stay off the drugs.
“Just relax and you might need a stitch or two. In fact, I’ll go get ski patrol.”
It occurs to me at this point that I may be the one clueless. I reach down grab a handful of snow and place it where the branch popped me in the face. Blood. And lots of it. I look back up in the trees and in fact there is a pool of blood with a trail leading to me.
The snowboarder is white and I’m having to calm him down.
“It’s probably a scratch. You know how bad some cuts bleed. It’s okay.”
After a few minutes of snow pressed on the face, the bleeding had stopped. It was about a half-inch gash along my cheekbone. The snowboarder stayed there the whole time. We hugged and exchanged email addresses.
Okay, that last line was a lie but that is where I felt like this thing was going. To be honest if the shoes were reversed, I’d done the same thing – stay there until I knew he was okay.
This whole time, Danny is on the phone with his bride clueless to what was going on. I catch up with him and he sees the blood and says in his AntonioBan Deras voice…
“Oh yesssss. A beautiful battle wound to woo your beautiful lady.”
G: “Unfortunately what I’m going to hear from said beautiful lass is something along the lines of “that’s why I hate skiing in the trees.”
We ended our day debating which of the voices – Shatner, Walken, Banderas, or Montalban – would we want to narrate our life story?
I picked AntoinoBan Deras. With Christopher Walken in second place.