Snowcation

I am so over winter. I was thinking last night, its been four months of on and off snow and freezing cold temps. Will spring ever come?! My love loss for cold weather always gets the best of me when we book our "snowcation" in November before the reality of what the next few months hold. However, once we arrive, there is no place I'd rather be. What place is that you might ask? Snowmass, Colorado, right outside of Aspen.

Beautiful sunset over the mountains in Snowmass.

View of the ski runs flying into Aspen!

This was our third year straight going to Snowmass for a cold weather vacation. The past two years we have flown into Denver and made the long, but beautiful drive to Aspen. This year we got a great deal on tickets, splurged a little and decided to fly into Aspen. We got an early flight out of Indy, to Chicago then straight to Aspen. We would have arrived around 10:15 a.m. and be  snowmobiling the Maroon Bells by noon, so we thought.... Upon arrival to Indy, we learned our conneting flight in Chicago to Aspen had been cancelled. Fearing the worst, we learned our best option to make it to our destination would be to fly to Dulles (Washington D.C.), Dulles to Denver then Denver to Aspen. We made all the connections, were able to land in Aspen and had all our bags around 3:00 p.m. It made for an extremely long travel day and needless to say we didn't get to take the snowmobiling trip, but we did go to fun dinner instead.

Saturday was our first ski day at Snowmass. It didn't take me long to get the feeling back and before I knew it, we were heading up the chair lift to hit the blues! Matt spent the day at the spa and met back up with us for lunch, then again at the end of the day at Basecamp for après ski. Saturday night we went our for a fabulous dinner at Ellina. It has a small, eclectic menu, but everything that came out of the kitchen was delicious!

Après ski drinks Saturday! Jessica, Doug, Jenna, Doug, Amy and Matt

Sunday we were all VERY sore from the first day on the mountain. We decided what better way to start the day than bloody mary's with bacon! It was a great way to help ease some of the soreness.

We had another great day. It was a little warmer and much sunnier than the day before, which made for some amazing views while enjoying the slopes. Have I mentioned how much I love it out there? Its absolutely gorgeous.

Of course we enjoyed apres ski then some mandatory hot tub time, followed by a great dinner at Takah. This is one  of Jess' favorite places to eat at while in Aspen. We learned that the owner is retiring and closing the restaurant. We all decided that we needed to go in and purchase Takah so we could ski all day and work at night, living the good life...oh to dream!

Group photo before dinner.

Monday was our last day of skiing :( We got out early and there weren't nearly as many people on the mountain as there were throughout the weekend, which was awesome! It's even more incredible to ski when there aren't a lot of people to worry about. We made the most of our time as we were cutting the day short to go to Aspen Mountain to see the Elk Mountains, which a part of the Maroon Bells and form the western part of the Continental Divide. The gondola ride to the top of Aspen Mountain takes about 15 minutes, but the veiews are the tope are well worth it! It was a little bit cloudy out, so the pictures don't do it justice.

Going up! Gondola ride up Aspen Mountain. You can see Aspen in the background.

After our time in Aspen, we went home to take advantage of the hot tub for our sore bodies. Matt wanted to make a luge track down the back yard, but decided to make a loveseat out of the snow in the back yard instead. We of course had to test it out and sit on it, in our swim suits! The pictures of the run from the hot tub to the snow seat and back are pretty priceless, but they didn't make the cut. Jenna prepared an awesome dinner for us at the house, its awesome to travel with someone who loves to cook!

Group photo from the Sundeck at Aspen Mountain.

Below are some more photos from the trip. There were so many fun and beautiful photos, and due to so difficulty getting them embedded withing the text, enjoy below.

Enjoying Snowmass

Day 2 of post ski outside drinking. So much fun!

Aspen Mountain

Jess and I in Snowmass - I think that is the Maroon Bells in the background.

Snowmass Mountain

Such a fun trip! Thank you +Jess Paugh  for inviting us to go with you again. We absolutely love this trip and I'm not sure this post does it much justice! Also, a big shout out to Jenna and Doug on their engagement while in Aspen! Congrats!