SNOWVENTURE! Part Two

Now that we're done having our fabulous Snowventure in Evergreen, let me show you how fun it was so you can be TOTALLY jealous!!

Evergreen got about two feet of snow during the recent blizzard. Using Steve as a yardstick, you can see how much snow his aunt Pam and uncle Rob got on their porch!

Since it never really snowed that much in Maryland, Nikki and Steve don't own any cold weather gear. As such, Nikki had to borrow Uncle Rob's waterproof ski pants for our sledding adventure. Luckily, T-Rex and I were fine with just ear muffs and a scarf.

Aw man, T-Rex!! You're facing the wrong way! You'll go down the hill backwards if you're not careful!

Steve went down the sledding lane with a giant jump in it. Check out the look on his face!

The cold and wet aftermath of getting some sweet air.

Oh my God! I can NOT stop LAUGHING at this picture!!! Look at the look on her face! Ahahaha!!
[Nikki: I went FLYING down the damn hill but wasn't on the sled properly, so when I hit the jump, I flipped in the air. This is the exact moment I realized that I was going to die. And NO, there wasn't a video of it...thank God.]

Nikki faceplanted SPECTACULARLY. I mean, seriously, everyone went SILENT because we thought she had broken her neck and was dead. She just lost her glasses and hat and got covered in snow. THIS HAPPENED TWICE. The second time was just as funny as the first. After that run though, she decided just to stick to taking pictures. :p

Steve's aunt Pam spent all of her rides down the hill screaming bloody murder and laughing hysterically.

This is a hilarious video of me, T-Rex, and Nikki sledding down the mountain. Getting back up the hill was the hardest part...for Nikki. Neither T-Rex nor I have arms big enough to carry a snow tube back up a hill. ;p

After our trip down the hill, T-Rex and I spent the rest of the day chillin' at the top of the mountain. We saw what happened to Nikki, and even though we don't have any bones to break, he and I didn't want to risk it!

SNOWVENTURE!

Trex and I are driving up to Evergreen, CO to visit Steve's aunt and uncle's house. (Well, Steve is driving. Trex's eyes are on the sides of his head, which makes him not very good at seeing in front of him, and I don't have my driver's license yet.) Colorado just got hit with a HUGE blizzard, which dumped over a foot of snow on us in Denver but TWO FEET in Evergreen. (In Black Hawk, which is an old casino town in the mountains, they got FOUR FEET of snow!!) Uncle Rob and Aunt Pam live on top of a hill that goes down to a wide open meadow, so they have, essentially, the PERFECT sledding hill! Nikki told me that when she was a kid, she and her family used to go to this park near their house that had a great, steep sledding hill. Only problem: it ended at the road that led you in and out of the park. So kids used to go FLYING down this hill, only to have to roll off their sleds at the bottom, or risk going under a truck! (Apparently, parents didn't care if their kids lived or died back when Nikki was a child. She says it was a simpler time.)

I'm updating this from Nikki's phone on our way up to the mountains. I'll be posting all the AWESOME pics and videos later.

 Here's us all dressed up for the cold!

Nikki Post: Elk Interlude

Hi y'all!! I'm determined to make this weekend a "lazy" weekend in that I'm only going to clean out my DVR, do my homework, and UPDATE THE BLOG!! I've got several posts coming. Steve and I went to the Denver Art Museum for free recently, and we went to the Denver Zoo (with Claire!) for free that same weekend. Steve and I also went to a tweet-up at the Denver Museum of Natural Science, so I'm going to post my tweets from that event here as well. I'm gonna have TONS of pictures and a bunch of videos as well, so keep your eyes peeled this weekend!

Until then, please enjoy this video of the elk infestation in Steve's aunt and uncle's neighborhood in Evergreen, Colorado.

Nikki Post: Evergreen

Just a note: Tasha and Claire have arrived home safely from the kennel. I'm giving them a few days to get used to the apartment, and then your favorite armadillo correspondent will return to tell you about all the exciting changes going on in her life.

Steve and I spent our last night up in Evergreen before moving into our new apartment in Denver with our friend Kate. I met Kate when she and I performed in a show together back in Baltimore, and when she realized that her cross-country journey would take her through our neck of the woods, she decided to stop by and be our first official visitor.

We all went to the Little Bear Saloon in the main town of Evergreen. Steve's uncle Rob told us that it was an Evergreen "institution," and we were pleased with our decision to go there. It looks like a saloon that would have been open and popular during the gold rush; you go up their porch and walk into the bar, which has a large eating area and a small stage for performers. Upstairs, there's a pool table space and an upper level deck with tiny tables and a bar area for seating. We got some food and drinks and headed upstairs for the deck.

Kate had never been to the mountains, so she was snapping camera phone pictures of the forest across the street from us, which was illuminated by the bright glow of the full moon. As I gazed over, I noticed a black bear (!!!) just wandering through an open area in the forest. It was smallish, maybe only a couple of years old, and was just strolling along, being a bear. We were all really excited, but it disappeared into the trees before any of us could get a picture of it. Pam and Rob said that they've been living her for almost 20 years, and they've NEVER seen a bear. They were VERY jealous. :)


We went downstairs to pay our tab and watched the band of the night play for a while. They were the Minivan Blues Van, and they were great! Their bassist was a big guy who was getting really into his music...and he was barefoot the whole time. Reminded me so much of the crazy kids at Goucher College, my Alma Mater. I took a video of one of their songs for all of you to enjoy.

http://youtu.be/i9p-kI4-jqM


All in all, it was a great night with a good friend and good music AND A BEAR!!