Christmas 2009 and New Year 2009/10
Rob and Hild were very excited to jump on a plane from Ottawa to Denver to spend Christmas and New Year with Kristin, Alvaro, Valeria, Nibaldo, Tigger, Austin, and Reina. They even took a chance to leave the car in the outside park-and-ride lot at Ottawa airport (more on this later).
Here are some photos we'd like to share with you.
Here are some photos we'd like to share with you.
| ALL OF US! | ||
The intrepid travellers (from left to right): Hild, Rob, Kristin, Alvaro, Valeria, and Nibaldo. |
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The intrepid doggies (from left to right): Tigger, Austin, and Reina - monopolizing the cabin furniture. |
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... although they weren't energetic all the time. They say: "Let sleeping dogs lie", and we had no idea just how much sleeping these doggies do. |
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| The cabin at Estes Park | ||
| Our cabin was nice with all the mod cons. It isn't at all like a Norwegian 'hytte' (without electricity or plumbing). We had two full bathrooms with showers/bathtubs, gas cooker and stove, refrigerator with freezer compartment, dishwasher, and a microwave.... and a big fire place. |
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The view from our cabin was great as you can see. Because of the incredible windchill we enjoyed the view very much. We only left the cabin when we absolutely had to: when the doggies had to relieve themselves or when Nibaldo and Valeria felt the urge to ski. |
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The cabin is owned and operated by the YMCA of the Rockies... so Rob took the opportunity to do the famous Y-M-C-A dance as a homage to the Village People. Outside the administration building there was also a statue of kids doing the Y-M-C-A dance. Jury is still undecided as to which rendition is the best. |
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| Activities at the Cabin | ||
Our main challenge: Get the dogs to go poop-poop and pee-pee... so we walked them and walked them .... |
... and walked them... |
... and walked them... |
.... and much happier doggies after completed poops. No one is cheerful after two poop-less days!! |
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Rob cooking and then carving the turkey - with Hild looking on. |
Nibaldo lounging while reading Condorito (Chilean comic book) |
Desperate to watch movies, Rob and Hild improvised a projection screen using bed linen, the curtain rail, hair clips, safety pins, bits of lego, and Nibaldo's first aid kit. The next day Kristin had a real projection screen delivered from the YMCA.... Smartypants! |
Eating breakfast, snacking, eating dinner, snacking.... repeat as necessary... |
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The three major food groups during our holiday: Soup, turkey and cake. |
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Rob, Hild, and Valeria playing Ricochet Robots. An extremely engaging game of strategy. The boardgame is very hard to get a hold of but you can play a version of it online at: www.ricochetrobots.com. Note the basket of sweets on the table. It is filled with much goodness including that sent from Norway by Janet including: Melkesjokolade, Dundersalt, Seigmen, Marsipangris, Nonstop. So much it actually took us all holiday to finish it all! |
Who said that lego is just for kids? Rob and Hild in intense discussion about the brown piece with three pegs and smooth sides with a nobbly bit on the shoulder - you know what I mean! Notice how they decided on not using their imagination and followed the instructions to the letter. |
Completed lego village. |
Kristin, Alvaro, Rob, and Hild started playing poker - Texas Hold'em style - at the cabin .... and kept going for the rest of the year! They got into the lingo quickly talking about 'the flop', 'the turn', and 'the river'. |
Valeria and Kristin making Norwegian Christmas tree decorations: weaved paper baskets. Everyone also participated in building jigsaw puzzles (when we got back to Lakewood). One of these puzzles was a huge dragon. It was a big challenge as it had no straight edges. While Rob and Hild promised to finish it before they left, they had to give up and leave it to Valeria-jigsaw-master to complete it. |
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| Kristin had brought all the necessities to set a wonderful table for dinner on the evening of the 24th. She had also made little Christmas stockings for everybody to put their cutlery in. |
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| After dinner we hung our small stockings on the fireplace awaiting Santa's arrival overnight - only to find more chocolate in them the next morning!!!! Yippee. |
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| Skiing | ||
Nibaldo putting the skins on his skiis during a day-trip in Estes Park. It is important to stock up on energy when skiing in the blistering cold! |
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Rob enjoyed his very first downhill ski on this side of the Atlantic. He was very proud that he successfully descended some very steep slopes at Keystone in the Rocky Mountains. |
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| Valeria and Nibaldo - the avid skiers of the family - enjoyed many days of downhill skiing in the Rocky Mountains during the holiday. This time with Rob at Keystone. |
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| Meanwhile back at the ranch.... (back in Lakewood) | ||
| After returning to Lakewood/Denver we had many plans which included both fun and work. Lots of jigsaw puzzles and playing Nintendo Wii. We also went to two very popular restaurants in Denver: The Fort for some exotic meats and old-west ambiance (Click for their website). We had elk, bison, and quail, but didn't try the rattlesnake, bison bonemarrow, or Rocky Moutain oysters (i.e. bison testicles).... hmmmm.... |
Note how Kristin stole the spot closest to the fire place. |
Note the bison on the wall with a santa hat on. |
| ... and the Melting Pot for a fondue night out (Click for their website). We started off with two types of cheese fondue dipping bread, fruit and raw vegetables. Then we had a salad each. Then came the main course with one broth fondue (coc au vin) and one hot oil fondue - dipping beef, chicken, prawn, potatoes, mushrooms and more. Finally we finished off with one black & white chocolate fondue (Ying & Yang) and one chocolate & nuts fondue - dipping fruit and bits of cake. It was delicious - all of it!!! We are grateful to the Melting Pot for making each of the fondues not so big, so we could walk rather than roll away. |
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And then we tried to work off all the food with four games of bowling. Lot of fun! |
Notice our matching but not so fashionable shoes! |
Kristin amazed everybody by producing multiple strikes using her left hand - siting that she needed to protect her fondue-hand ... As always - planning ahead. |
We had a great holiday - yet again. Thanks to Kristin, Alvaro, Valeria, Nibaldo, Tigger, Austin, and Reina. We arrived back at Ottawa airport and eventually managed to spot Yogi (our beloved Toyota Corolla) buried under the snow and completely covered in 1-2 cm of ice!! Yes, there had been yet another famous Canadian ice storm while we were away. While the flexibility of metal made it easy to remove ice from most of the car, the front and rear windshields were more difficult. With the aid of an ice scraper (which died violently after 5 minutes), a shovel, and a large bottle of windscreen washer fluid it took us over half an hour to complete the task. The physical work kept us warm even if we were soaking wet from the flying snow, ice and washer fluid. Did I mention that it was midnight? We were just grateful that it wasn't an extremely cold night - only about -10 celsius. Nothing for pseudo-Canadians! Even so - good to be home again.
Rob & Hild
January 2010
January 2010