Easter & Steamboat Springs Colorado - A Humbling Experience

This past weekend was a long one for Blaine and I. We left for Colorado mid-day Thursday. The drive was a scary one! Unfortunately, we encountered some snowy storm conditions the whole drive. To make matters worse, our tires weren't in the greatest condition. Anyway, we made it in good time! Thursday night we just planned out our eventful weekend. 

Friday morning came and we proceeded to set up several tours: horseback riding, snowmobiling, a trip to the natural hot springs, etc. As we called several companies, we realized that we came during, what locals call, "mud season." Sounds icky, right? Mud season = ghost town. How were we supposed to know?

At first, I was a little frustrated (Blaine would say seriously frustrated). All my plans, my precious plans, were ruined! What was even more frustrating was that the ski lift was closed. Why was this frustrating? Well, during our visit there was a record-breaking amount of snow at Steamboat Springs. Yeah. Record-breaking. 

Where we were supposed to have a picnic during our hike

Anyway, it might seem like I had a horrible time. But it is quite the contrary. We were able to relax...for real. This is something that I rarely achieve. It is custom that while on vacation, we have to do all the cool things, have a ton of activities planned, wake up at the break of dawn and not stop till midnight. This was my idea of vacation, until Steamboat Springs. 

We did whatever we wanted. We ate out. A lot. We watched movies. We watched 4 in one day. That was record-breaking for me! We watched shows that we have never sat down to watch together; i.e. Chopped, Iron Chef, Storage Wars. We stayed up as long as we wanted and slept in as long as we wanted...in our California king size bed with fluffy pillows. We stayed up talking for hours in front of the fire place. We went hot tubing. This was my first winter hot tubing experience. As a Floridian, water and winter don't mix. To my surprise, I enjoyed it a lot. We hiked the super un-hikeable and snowy Fish Creek Falls. One of my favorite moments was when Blaine and I went to the movie theater to watch Rio in 3D. We rushed to the theater cause we were running late. We were worried about getting horrible seats. We purchased our tickets, entered our theater, and realized that we were the ONLY ones in the whole theater. It was awesome. 

Huge cinnamon roll at Winona's

We chose our own meat and grilled it at 8th Street Steakhouse

Delicious BBQ sandwich at Double Z BBQ

Easter Sunday was also fun. I made a little egg hunt for Blaine. The eggs had his favorite candy and romantic coupons inside. I had fun watching him and he had fun finding the eggs. We watched Horton Hears a Who (one of my favorite movies and an Easter basket filler). We also dyed eggs. Now this (you'd think that I couldn't be any more humbled) was an epic fail. That was not a hyperbole. I had envisioned my eggs being glamorous, the cutest of them all. I didn't follow the instructions cause I thought it'd be easy. The dye tablets didn't fully dissolve and we could only get our eggs to turn pink. Again, I was frustrated. But Blaine surprised me. He started to get really creative. He made hollow eggs (something that he was reminded of watching The Food Network during our stay). He was having a ton of fun finding ways to decorate our un-dyeable eggs. So it rubbed off and I made a dalmatian egg out of a white egg and cheap eyeliner. 

Blaine hollowing his egg

Ready for his egg hunt! 

This whole trip reminded me 1) of what really matters in life, 2) to find joy in the journey, and 3) who is always in charge and in control - Heavenly Father. I was reminded to not sweat the small things and to make the best of what comes your way. I know I married the right guy. We can have fun wherever, whenever. I'm so grateful for this wonderful, true vacation that was made possible by Stace & Chris. Thank you guys! This trip is definitely unforgettable.