Snow sculptures in Aspen

This year's Wintersköl was last weekend and we got to see the beautiful snow sculptures.
They were quite incredible!

Sunday in Aspen

Oldest Daughter and B made a quick trip up to visit us for the weekend and we took them up to the Monastery for Mass and some sight-seeing.

Scenes from around the Monastery:











Someone had carved out this Happy Face in the front yard. Yes, it truly is a very happy place.









Some folks ski to mass.








We then headed over to downtown Aspen for some breakfast. Why didn't I take a picture of Boogies??? But, here are some random shots around town:














Couldn't resist this sign.












...but apparently it's OK to wear mink, fox, chinchilla......











Interesting sculpture....








Thought this was cute, but then I found out it refers to an upcoming movie.....







Stopped by to see if our swans were still around. Nope. The lake is completely frozen over, and has been walked across.

Wordless Wednesday

Warmer weather means outdoor time

DH and I decided to take advantage of the warmer weather and go walking on Friday.







We walked the bike path to avoid the car splashes and came face to face with one of our favorite people: the man who shovels the bike path! Thank you, sir!






I thought this melting snow looked like a bumper smile. DH did not. He wondered why I would take a picture of it.







Here's Ms. Cassie at the bookstore. She thought I was taking pictures for the newspaper. I said, "Nope. Just for my blog. And now you'll be on it!" There you go, Ms. Cassie!






Here's DH next to the Ski Bum figure.












We wondered why these Law Offices had NOT shoveled their sidewalk. Wouldn't you think they would be extra careful about things like that?






This young man in the grocery store parking lot was REALLY celebrating the above freezing temps! Ahhh.... spring is just around the corner.






Two different species of snowmen.












In the evening I walked back downtown to meet DH at the Bluebird to listen to Friday Night Music. The lights were so pretty around town.






There's even a big Christmas tree still lit up.












And the music was fabulous, once again! This week it was Matt Johnson. Nice article about him in one of our local papers, right here. Bought one of his CDs. We're acquiring such a nice collection of music by buying CDs from the musicians we listen to.

New Adventure

Well, our textbook has arrived! DH and I begin our next adventure next Monday. We are officially college students again. After studying German and Russian for so many years, I'm curious about how this class will work for me. Sometimes I actually speak to myself in German, even after graduating 35 years ago. We'll see.

We did already call the professor as we wanted to know if we could get by with buying just one textbook. This book was $122 used!! What??? She left us a phone message. Yes. Just one book! Yay. Now we may have enough cash left over to buy a coffee before class! I've already had the dream where you show up to class for the final exam and realize you haven't studied for the whole semester and you know NOTHING. Oh my gosh. Does that ever go away?
I did mention to the Spanish-speaking student I'm tutoring in English that she will have to help me with my class. She got a big kick out of that. Even though the Literacy folks claim you can tutor better if you don't know the language your student speaks because immersion is more effective, I do think this will help. (Very poorly constructed sentence, I know!)
Wish us luck. Adios for now.

Wordless Wednesday

Saturday hike

We strapped on pedometers and headed south this morning -- early. Beautiful morning, a bit chilly, but perfect for heading out to see how far we'd get.

DH spotted "his" house. He'd like to live there, perfect with it's southern exposure and it's right on the river.







We kept walking and discovered this sign. What??? We never doubted we were in the United States. But why does someone feel it necessary to fence in this area behind barbed wire, and label it "Property of the United States?"









We made it all the way to the airport. Nice yellow plane!








Here's that funny sign that has you stop in the middle of nowhere to watch for low-flying aircraft.







Certainly they don't mean this plane?








Oh, they must mean this one!








We saw a festively decorated high wire








and fence.








And this young lady heading up to Sunlight for some skiing.












And check out this lovely gargoyle. Who knew gargoyles got cold?








Rosebud cemetery. I wonder why this grave has a wrought iron fence around it? DH thinks perhaps they were iron-workers....







Almost back home.








Thanks for traveling the Roaring Fork Valley with me. Oh-- it was a bit over 13,000 steps.