Michael & Liz are Bloggable

So this past week we went out to Colorado to visit Liz's brother's family. You may recognize their blog link on the right, they are Scott, Hillary, Brynn and Callie. It is not often that you come back from vacation feeling like you were just on vacation. If it's not one thing then it's another with trying to get back and into the swing of things where you live. I certainly could have had that feeling since the past 3 days I have been working non-stop but our trip to Colorado was awesome. So relaxing and enjoyable it felt like we were there for a couple weeks. Let me highlight a few of the... highlights.

When we got out there we all headed to Copper, Colorado where we went skiiing. I thought the rumors about Colorado were garbage that the ski slopes were harder out there than they were on the east coast. But boy were the rumors true. All the east coast slopes are nothing compared to the steepness of the Colorado slopes. The east coast green slopes are bunny slopes in Colorado. The east coast black and blue slopes are green in Colorado. And green is as far as I went while skiing. Liz and I both complained of leg pain because we aren't experienced skiers, but I wouldn't change the pain for anything. It was so much fun and is certainly something we will do again in the future.

Some of the other places we visited were local Colorado Springs tourist attractions like Garden of the Gods and the USA Olympic Training Center. The Garden of the Gods is a unique rock formation that is much different than the surrounding environment. It must have been formed by glaciers. That's my explanation for anything weird in nature by the way. If it's a weird rock formation, it's because of glaciers. It was nice to get out and see it though. The Training Center was a fun afternoon activity we did. Believe it or not, that center is only for summer sports and not winter. My impression of what we'd find is one massive building with ski slopes inside where the skiers practice. I was sorely mistaken but not disappointed. It was cool to see how our athletes prepare and the technology they employ. But if the American athletes stink it up in August in Beijing, I'm going to yell at the TV and say "I didn't see you in the Spring, you should have been training harder!".

There were two more items I'd like to highlight as .... highlights of our trip.

First, I think both Liz and I agree that we got to know Scott and Hillary's family a lot better. We really look up to them as parents and people and it was really nice to sit back and listen and be a part of the family for a week. It was fun to see how Scott played with the kids during Callie's party and how Hillary would just simply turn around and already have 4 homemade hot dog buns baked and ready to eat. The kids are of course so much fun (we will not discuss times when they have to put on shoes or go to bed, but even then it's hard not to laugh) and I don't think we would have ever gotten tired of their giggling, funny anecdotes, and game playing. And all those things are just an ounce of what we enjoyed about the trip and hanging out with the family. When planning our trip Callie told me that she didn't want me to come. I think it's safe to say though that she definitely didn't want us to go. Hopefully we can continue some yearly visits.

The other highlight of the trip, as lame as this is, was the reading. I am not a reader. When I was growing up, I would act like I was reading just so that I wouldn't have to actually read. The last book I read was Prince Caspian in the Fall of 2005. When we started the trip to Colorado that was the book I picked back up. After finishing it, I started reading a Hillary recommended book called "The Omnivore's Dilemma". Boy was it eye opening. It was just disgusting to read about the care that is taken in respect to America's food and how our meat and national crop is grown. Now why is reading that book a good thing or even a highlight of our trip? Because I think it's really changed the way Liz and I look at food and how we are going to eat in the future. Let's just say we've already been to Whole Foods, thrown away food from our fridge and pantry, and have bought local grass-fed beef from Yanceyville, NC. I'll probably continue to blog about how that new diet is going... so far it's surprisingly going well.

Here are a few of our favorite pictures and then a photo album of them all at the bottom:

It says published by Liz but I don't know why... it was published by Michael.