Breckenridge

Out of the 390 pictures I took this week in Breckenridge, it was very hard to choose which ones to share with you on my blog! I had so much fun! I think I became a little obsessed with mountains because half of my pictures are of the mountains that were surrounding us. I couldn't get over how beautiful it was out there. Pictures are not enough to show how magnificent it was.

This is going to be a very long post, so be prepared! Here are lots of pictures and stories from this week!

Sunday night I stayed at a friends house with a few girls. We weren't very smart and decided since we had to get up at 3 a.m. to go to the airport that we just weren't going to go to sleep! I had never stayed up all night before, but surprisingly I was not very tired even though by the end of the day I had been up for more than 24 hours.
Lindsey, Me, Tierra, Jaimie, Molly and Krystal before we left for the airport

The girls in my room--Tierra, Krystal, Jaimie, Tsega, and Alex
I was the odd ball :)

Most people chose to do the same thing as we did and not go to sleep, but it caught up with some in the Denver airport while we waited about 2 hours for our bus to arrive.

We had a 2 hour drive from Denver to Breckenridge. The drive was beautiful. We passed a few frozen over lakes, and rivers, and drove though some of the prettiest mountains I've ever seen.

When we finally arrived in Breckenridge, we stopped at a grocery store in town so we could buy food and stuff for the week. When we finally got to our condos we had free time for few hours before we had to go get our ski equipment. We found a sled in our room so we immediately started trying to find a place to try it out. The only decent one we found in our short search was right outside our condo. It wasn't very big and went right into the road where there were was a big pick-up truck parked. The first few times no one touched the truck, but the last time one of the girls flew down the mini-hill and just kept going and went all the way under the truck!!! I don't have any pictures of it because I was videoing it, but it was hilarious!

Our condo was only 2 blocks away from down-town so we had fun walking around down-town Breckenridge and seeing all the cute little shops and restaurants.

Katherine, Tiffany, Allison, Lindsey, Me, and Courtney

Tuesday was our first day skiing. We skied all day long. All the people that had never skied before (which was most everyone) took lessons for the first half of the day. My friend, Lindsey, and I were the only 2 girls who had some experience skiing, so we were able to start the first day! Because we were the only girls, our principal didn't want us skiing alone so she told the guys that weren't taking lessons to stay with us. We started out by doing a couple greens just to get used to it, and then moved on the blues. We stayed on the blues for most of the day, until the boys decided to try and do a black! This particular run was called "Physcopath" (just by the sound of the name you can tell it is not good) Anyways, the boys made it down alright, only falling a few times, but Lindsey and I fell every time we tried to stand up. After attempting about a quarter of the run, we decided to take our skis off and slide down! Of course the boys were down at the bottom laughing and video taping us coming down! That is a memory that I will always remember!
Lindsey and I on the lift going up the mountain

The view from the top of the mountain were incredible! And when you were riding up the lift, if you turned around you could see all these snow covered mountains, and it was just beautiful.


The boys wanted to go do another black diamond run so Lindsey and I decided to stay at the bottom and wait for them. So as we were waiting we made snowmen! If you can't tell--they are tiny! That is a bottle cap on it's head! They were so cute I just had to take a picture of them!
Wednesday we skied all day again. Then Wednesday night we went night skiing on a near by mountain called Keystone. We had to take a bus to Keystone which was about an hour away. We have a few people (besides the girls on my basketball team) who have signed althetic schlorships and were not able to ski, so they came along and went tubing! On the Bus to Keystone

Keystone was beautiful! As I was skiing down the mountain I could see the beautiful mountains around me. The scenery was better here than at Breckenridge. The sun was setting behind the mountains as we were and it was so pretty!

Courtney, Lindsey and I night skiing

When the slopes closed at 9 we got some ice cream and had a snow ball fight while we waited for the bus (snow ball fights were a everyday thing for us) When I came home I was so exhausted that I could hardly move so I went right to sleep!
Courtney and I with a few of the tubers--Krystal, Chris, Jaimie, Nick and Justin

Thursday I did not ski because I wasn't feeling very well, I think I was a little dehydrated from the night before. Krystal, Jaimie, and Tierra weren't skiing because of their basketball scholarships, so Thursday we all went shopping. I was able to find t-shirts for my mom, dad, and brother, and a sweatshirt for me.

Roomies--Tsega, Jaimie, Tierra, Alex, Krystal, and I

Molly and I
At 1 p.m. we had a group picture. While we were waiting to take the group picture, we took lots of pictures with each other. At 4:30 p.m. we had dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company

Andrew, Jaimie, Taylor, Pat, Austin and Molly

Austin, Krystal, Me, Tierra, Alex, and Tsega outside Bubba Gump

Thursday night we went sledding! There was a ski run called the 4 o'clock run that ran right behind our condo that we went out on. I videoed most of it so I didn't get many pictures.

We built a ramp out of snow and we had a great time taking the sleds over it.

Friday we had to be out of our condos at 7:30 a.m. We were picked up by three 15 passenger vans that took us to a snowmobiling place! It was so much fun! Each person had the opportunity to drive their own, but some chose to ride with other people. I decided to drive one. It wasn't much different than driving a jet-ski, except it had a brake and was on the snow :)

We wore these big black suits that were very warm, insulated boots and big red helmets!

Krystal, Jaimie and I before snowmobiling
They took us to a practice course first so we could get used to driving.

We had a guide that took us on trails that eventually led us to the top of the mountain. It was soooo much fun! I mean skiing was a blast, but I had even more fun snowmobiling! It was like nothing I had ever experienced before. When we got to the top we were able to stop and take pictures.
The boys
Some of the girls
We were at 12, 500 ft, only 400 ft from the top of the mountain. I was in awe of the scenery around me. It made me think "How can someone see something like this, and not know there is a God who created it?" It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen! Again, Pictures just don't do it justice.

On the way back down we stopped at a little building for hot chocolate! Mmm it was delicious. It was the perfect thing to warm us up.

Allison, Tiffany, Courtney, Lindsey and I

After snowmobiling we headed to the airport to come home. It was a 2 hour drive from Breckenridge to Denver. We ate dinner in the airport and then we all sat down by our gate and some of us played cards. We landed in Orlando around 10:20 p.m.

This trip was such an amazing expirence. Every morning I woke up and went out on our balcony to spend time with the Lord and praise Him for letting me be in such a beautiful place with people that are dear to my heart. Sometimes I take for granted all the little things that I am able to do, like going on this trip. Well, I guess it's not a little thing, but there are not many other school that take their senior class on a trip like this. I am so thankful for the opprotunity I had to go to Breckenridge and ski, and for the safe trip that we had. I am thankful for the teachers that teach me everyday and show the love of Christ in their teaching. I am thankful for my friends and the memories that we are making together as we finish up our Senior year. This trip was a blast and I hope to go back to Colorado again someday, and maybe even go skiing! :)

"My soul finds rest in God alone;
my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock
and my salvation; he is my fortress,
I will never be shaken."
Pslams 62:1-2