Life In Colorado

Happy 2012!

2012-01-07T19:37:00.000-07:00

It's been a long while since I have posted anything to our blog, sorry everyone:( December was filled with many firsts for Marty and I... our first Christmas tree together, our first Christmas we hosted for our families in our new house, and our first New Year's Eve party we hosted.

The first weekend in December we hiked up into the woods to find the perfect tree and we did. It had finally snowed the night before and as we were hiking around in the woods, big fat charlie brown snowflakes were falling from the sky. It was so much fun!

A few weeks later the families began arriving. My sister Meg came out first so she could get some skiing in with Marty and I, a few days later Marty's parents got here and then mid week my parents arrived. We had a house full, but it was exactly what we wanted... we couldn't wait to share our home with our families for the holidays. The winter break consisted of some skiing (we had no new snow the entire month of December, in fact today it has finally snowed a bit), baking, cooking, lots of eating consuming really yummy foods, hanging out, watching Christmas movies, games, shootin guns, and ice skating. Christmas morning was filled with lots of fun and wonderful presents for all.

New Years Eve we threw a party for our friends and had a shrimp boil. We threw potatoes, corn, seafood, lemons, and lots of great seasonings into a big pot on the patio and then brought it in and dumped it onto paper on the counter. It was so good and lots of fun! The evening ended with a big dance party in our living room filled with lots of confetti and about a half hour session of people blowing the stupid noise makers I bought:)

Here are lots of pictures (my dad loves to take pictures) of the fun we had...

early presents for me and marty

good thing we got this we used it 4 times with everyone

mom and dad had these delivered to the house for us. when they held their very 1st christmas, nana delivered flowers to them. needless to say i was balling my eyes out while reading the card my parents wrote us. this was a very special surprise!

my christmas kermit made his appearance in a few photos:)

fourteener time!

2011-08-16T17:39:00.000-06:00

this past weekend marty, myself, and our friends jarrid and liz headed over to minturn, colorado to backpack and summit mount of the holy cross. after a couple hours in the truck we pulled onto the dirt road to see a huge gate blocking our drive and prohibiting us to continue. road closed due to logging is what the sign read. we sat there for a while in confusion and then decided where we should detour. we drove about 30 minutes more to leadville to conquer mt. massive. we found a great campsite right by the creek, had a good hike in and fun first night, and a good night's sleep in order to rise early and hike to the summit. we left camp at about 7:15 and reached the summit at 11:45. the hike was absolutely beautiful and we could not have asked for more perfect weather. accomplishing our first fourteener felt pretty sweet and we can't wait to do another one!

the crew


mount massive 14,421 feet

Mt. Massive is the second highest peak in Colorado and the third highest in the 48 states, exceeded only by California's Mt. Whitney and its near neighbor, Mt. Elbert

pretty moss and flowers as we hiked up

family of mountain goats just relaxing near the top

views from the summit... and what was even cooler about the views is that they were of our valley where we live!

we made it!

we made it and so did the puppies poco and clancy!

fourteen thousand some feet can make one a bit silly:)

green is...

2011-07-16T13:00:00.000-06:00

our nice new lawn, plants in the rock garden, and some tasty herbs. we also have been adding some other things to our home like a screen door, some hanging flower baskets and some bushes along the front entry way. slowly but surely the landscaping is coming along.

30 isn't so bad

2011-06-28T17:14:00.000-06:00

June 16th I turned the big 30! Thought it was going to be yucky to turn this age, turns out... I feel pretty great! I have accomplished a lot in my 30 years and couldn't be happier than I am right now... I have a beautiful new house, an amazing husband of 4 years (June 21st), and I have obtained my master's degree in education and specialized in reading and literacy.

The week of my birthday my best friend Sara and her husband Josh came to visit for the whole week. It was so much fun! The trip included lots of best friend time, laughing, shopping, mountain biking, games, hiking, hanging out, and my birthday party!

So... if 30 isn't so bad, hopefully I can manage 40:{

it's official...

2011-04-29T21:44:00.000-06:00

i just sent in my program outcome essay to complete my graduate program!!!! two long years later i am finally finished. whooohoooo for me!

our new house!

2011-04-02T14:37:00.000-06:00

Marty and I feel extremely blessed... God has given us a great opportunity to buy a wonderful house we can call our forever home! Yes I know I am bad that I am just posting now, sorry grad school, work, and coaching track are enough to keep me busy!
Anyways...We are the proud and happy owners of a brand new 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, 2 car garage house in the mountains. The house is in the area that we have hoped to live for a long time now. Initially we began looking at this very house last June and have been trying to get it ever since. We finally closed on February 21st so we have been here for a little over a month now. We have an amazing realtor and friend Laura who has worked so hard to get us this house. Marty's parents have been a big part of this journey too and have helped us in so many ways. Thank you Laura, Mom, and Dad from the bottom of our hearts!

We are absolutely loving every aspect of owning a house vs. a condo. Just to name a few...
1) we do not have to share walls and ceilings with anyone anymore=peace and quite
2) all the space, oh the space is so wonderful! everything we own has it's own special place with lots of room to spare.
3) the kitchen is amazing. i have tons of counter space to do all my cooking and baking, and super high end appliances to assist me.
4) we finally feel at home and comfortable. we loved our condo but it was just becoming too small and not our style, we were ready for a house to have room for all our friends and family who come to visit, and to someday expand our little family:)
5) no more crazy neighbors all up in our space!

Here are some pics...

Our Home (Can you guess our spring and summer project?)

Master Suite

Dinning Room

Master Bathroom

Kitchen

Living Room (I love that the living area and kitchen are all wide open)


Upstairs Bonus Room (like another living room. we have big plans for this space some day)

There is a bedroom and the bathroom on each side of the bonus room. We even have a movie/game closet up here too.

Laundry Room, no more stacked washer and dryer in a closet.

Rooftop views from our 2nd level deck


More views from our backyard

We look forward to the many memories we will create in our new home. We can't wait till all of you come and visit.

dave's visit

2011-03-31T18:34:00.001-06:00

Ok... This post is long overdue. Our friend Dave came out to visit us way back in February and he is requesting a blog post about his visit. Apparently he does not care how many grad papers I have to write he would like me to write about him, so here you go Dave a post dedicated just to you! We miss ya!

Dave is a friend of Marty's from back in Rogers City, MI. Dave has been coming out to ski in Colorado since Marty moved here about 8 years ago. Now he has to put up with me too when he comes out:) Dave may be the greatest house guest ever... he shows up to our condo for a two week visit and there are boxes everywhere and our lives are in disarray because we were scheduled to close on our new house one of the weeks he was visiting. Closing got pushed back till the 21st of February so Dave didn't even get to see the new house, he just had to live in the craziness of the condo for two weeks.

We had a great time skiing and hanging out with Dave. Whenever he comes to visit he brings lots of snow. We had quite a few powder days while he was out here, so Dave got to "shred the nar" on his new skis! One of the weekends when Marty had a hockey game Dave and I and our friend Chris who was also visiting got a pretty awesome powder day at Highlands in Apsen. Do you think I had the camera or flip cam...nope left them on the console in the truck cuz we were so excited to get on the mountain. We had fresh tracks all day long. We even got first tracks down my favorite run at the top of the Highland Bowl (have to hike about 45 minutes up a big peak).

Dave we love when you come to visit, so come back soon. The "Dave Suite" will be ready and waiting for you in our new house.

This is your glory shot!

3 more weeks and couting!

2011-03-31T17:55:00.000-06:00

After two long years of reading, watching videos, doing weekly discussions, and papers every weekend, oh the papers... I have 3 more weeks of graduate school! It has been a long road, but I am really glad I decided to take on the challenge. Marty has been so supportive and has been a saint to listen to me read most of my papers before I submitted them. Marty's encouragement throughout my whole program has been amazing, I don't know what I would do without him. I have learned a lot about teaching young children how to read and cannot wait to start applying the new things I have learned in my kindergarten classroom. WhoooHooo, almost there!

I cannot wait to have me time!

merry christmas and happy new year!

2010-12-28T12:59:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Madsen's!
We had a very nice Christmas, but certainly missed being with the Kolacinski family as well. Hopefully next year we will have a Colorado Christmas with both families.
I think the highlight of my Christmas morning besides being with my family and giving and receiving many wonderful gifts, was Howard wearing his new ski helmet the entire time we opened presents and when Ann opened her ipod nano she starred at it for about 3 minutes trying to figure out what it was... when she did she couldn't put it down!

P.S. Dad and Sarah we definitely missed having your cameras around. Needless to say the photo above is nothing spectacular due to the fact we are in our small condo and put the camera on a tripod on the counter:) Also no Christmas morning photos:(

oh yea...i got bangs!

"the grandmas and grandpas"

2010-12-15T20:08:00.000-07:00

A classroom parent of mine said she was feeling like she wanted to do something nice for someone else... So I arranged to take my class to the nursing home here in town. I have been preparing the kids by telling them that we are going to visit some grandmas and grandpas that all live together in a big house and need help sometimes. So all last week we talked about singing and reading to the grandmas and grandpas. Today was the day that they got to ride on the little mini bus that I drove (this was very exciting), sing jingle bells quite a few times, and read a book of their choice to the residents at Heritage Park Care Center. It was such an amazing feeling to be there showing love and care at this time of year. The grandmas and grandpas were so thrilled to see all the cute little kids. It was just so precious! It made my heart smile today. After this venture was over we made a pit stop to the local Santa Mailbox to mail our letters to Santa.
In conclusion a very gratifying day!

new skis!

2010-12-05T18:42:00.000-07:00

Last winter, once again, I realized I was out skiing my skis. Don't get me wrong, the Solomon Mynx are great all mountain skis, however, I am completely infatuated with the deeeeeeep powder and needed some of those "water ski" fat skis. Had eyed a pair toward the end of the season last year, saw them at the store this summer, and finally purchased them this fall. Skied on them this past Saturday, love them! They were surprisingly great on the groomed trails...

Now I just need some powder! Please snow!

fall break

2010-10-19T17:13:00.001-06:00

We just had a four day weekend which was so fantastic! We headed south to Alamosa and went to The Great Sand Dunes National Park with our friends Tiff and Rick and their 10 year old twin boys Keegan and Rohnan. The weather was perfect sunny fall weather with cool evenings by the fire. We spent time relaxing, hiking up the dunes and then sledding down, playing bocce ball, eating yummy food, and exploring. Click on "the holt clan" link on our page to view some more pics our friends posted. Tiff has also explained our fun weekend in great detail. My blogging will hopefully become more frequent and more detailed when I finish graduate school. Only 3 more classes to go!

my best friend's wedding

2010-09-16T17:56:00.024-06:00

2 years ago Sara called me up and told me she was engaged and I remember being out and about somewhere and screaming with excitement in public. The wedding finally happened Labor Day weekend. I took off of work for 3 days to travel back to Milwaukee for the wedding (yes I left my new batch of kindergarten students with a sub after only a week of school). It was so great to be at home and hang with my family for a couple days, Sara and I had some exclusive best friend time which was totally needed, and the wedding was absolutely beautiful! It was such an honor to be the matron of honor and witness my best friend reading her vows. The reception was an awesome party with lots of dancing. Congrats once again Sara and Josh!

on the way to the wedding, riding in style in a limo

isn't she beautiful

a beautiful ceremony

sara, love your dress

i love you best friend

what a handsome man i married 3 years ago


super lady like right...

a fantastic couple

mountains and miles!

2010-07-23T19:17:00.008-06:00

4 friends, 2 dogs, 3 days, and 31 miles... jarrid, liz, marty, and i went on a 3 day backpacking trip. we began at the maroon bells in aspen, headed up and over west maroon pass, over to crested butte, and then back over east maroon pass. the weather was fantastic! friday and saturday were blue bird days, sunday had some clouds and a few sprinkles but the shade from the clouds actually felt quite nice. the thing i love about backpacking the most is that we are the only ones who can see the beauty we saw because we hiked far into the wilderness. nobody else gets to see the views unless they bust their butt carrying 45 lbs. on their back for 3 days. the hard work is always worth it!

crater lake at the maroon bells

tired pups!

copper lake: day 2

top of west maroon pass, climbed 3,5oo feet in elevation

top of east maroon pass, ready to head 11 miles back to the car.

tired, sore, and blistered feet

June..."flew" by

2010-06-30T17:53:00.016-06:00

I can't believe June is already over, it is my favorite month of the year. This has been our month...
June 2nd: Last day of school!
June 3rd: Drove to Denver, got on plane to go to Michigan to visit Grandma and Grandpa.
June 6th: Marty's birthday!
June 11th: Back in Denver again to take a trip with our good friends Scott and Nicole. We went to the Bahamas and it was so much fun!

June 16th: Happy Birthday to me!
Week of June 21st: Happy 3rd Anniversary to Marty and I on the 21st!

Kindergarten hiking camp this week.
Marty's family and a lot of relatives in town for his brother's wedding. Wedding on the 24th!

June 26th: Back in Denver for the third time this month to fly to Milwaukee to visit my family and throw my best friend Sara her bridal shower and bachelorette party.

Today, July 1st...This is literally the first quiet moment I have had all month. I have had a wonderful time with all the events and time with family and friends this month. I have spent time with my parents and sister, Meg, Daddy, and I went to Six Flags which was a blast, tonight Marty gets in and we are going to Summerfest (Milwaukee's big music fest), Sunday we go to see Dave Matthews Band, and then...whatever else the week brings us.

Summer is Here!

2010-06-10T08:51:00.003-06:00

Summer break is finally here. Another school year is finished and Marty and I are more than ready to begin relaxing and doing things on our schedule. We head to Denver tonight to catch a flight in the morning to the Bahamas with our friends Scott and Nicole. We can't wait to be on the beach!

february=family and friends!

2010-02-23T20:35:00.015-07:00

February was filled with visitors. My sister Meg came out for two weeks at the beginning of the month, she left and we had four days to clean the house again, do some laundry, and get ready for our next house guests. One of my best friends from college, Emily, and her husband James came out to visit for about two weeks as well. It was so much fun to have friends and family out here. We did lots of skiing and just hanging out. Emily and James were our good luck charms and brought Aspen lots of deep powder. It has been a long winter thus far, not much snow. Thanks Meg, Emily, and James for coming to visit us. We miss you already!

Me and little sis. Meg skied amazing! She had only been on skis two other times.

Powder Day=Very Happy Carly!!

Nice powder shot James!

Em, I love that you are smiling while you ski!

Slip...Slide... Fall... and a Little Skating Too!

2010-02-10T09:38:00.008-07:00

Sounds of non stop giggles and occasional "oofs", sights of gleaming smiles filled the ice rink. I was a brave one and packed up the mini school bus and took my two classes of 5 year olds ice skating (on separate days of course). I also had the help of my wonderful sister Meg. Out of the 31 kids total, only 2 of them had ever been on ice skates before. To see the smiles on their faces made my heart smile. I was responsible for giving these children an experience they may never forget. All of my students by the end of the 40 minutes had learned how to ice skate. Many of them said they wanted to go ice skating with their families. When the field trip was ended with cups of hot chocolate and tired little ones, we loaded back onto the bus. Me driving the bus may have been just as exciting for the kids as the ice skating. A successful two days of just enjoying my students!

Once Upon a Dream...

2010-01-20T20:38:00.012-07:00

The things I do for the kids I love. My friend Sarah's daughter Maggie was turning 3 on January 10th. Months ago, in fact on Thanksgiving as we spent the day with the Maas family, Maggie informed me she was having a princess party for her birthday. She requested that I dress up as Belle from the Disney classic Beauty and the Beast. Maggie said that I needed to be Belle because I had brown, curly hair just like Belle.

Maggie's life is all about princesses. She would have her party be no other way. Sarah, a very creative artist threw the party with all the frills and royalty a princess would expect. It was enough to make a little girl think she was really at Disney World.

A theatrical neighbor friend came as the surprise guest, Cinderella or Reallyrella as Maggie used to call it. Grandmas were fairy god mothers, Sarah was a queen. Little girls asked me how I, princess Belle got to the party? My natural response was in Cinderella's pumpkin carriage of course. Where do I live they asked? In the castle at Disney World, that is where all the princesses live!

The party was a huge success, in fact Maggie was so partied out that before all her little girlfriends left she was already in her pajamas (princess ones of course) ready for her nap.

the birthday princess

sarah made the cake!

fairy god mothers, cinderella, prince charming, a tired princess, and the queen

belle and her favorite little friend maggie

Maggie, thank you for inviting me to be a part of your special day. I love you!

A Winter Photo Shoot

2010-01-16T11:56:00.010-07:00

Over the holidays, in Hartford, Wisconsin my sister-in-law Sarah made use of her new Christmas gifts for her camera and took some amazing family pictures. Thank you Sarah for the fun time, even though it was freezing out!

The photographer and her assistant are ready to go out into the winter wonderland.

Holiday Happiness!

2010-01-03T21:18:00.016-07:00

Marty and I were fortunate enough to be able to fly back to Wisconsin again this year for Christmas with my family. All the kids and spouses were home and it was great time spent with family. All the traditions were carried out, including Christmas cookies and coffee all morning and afternoon as we opened presents. I also got to see my best friend Sara and spend the day with her and her mom bridesmaid dress shopping. The second week of our break was spent with Marty's parents who drive out to Colorado each year. We already miss everyone and look forward to the next time we all get to hang out.
I had two weeks off from work, one week with no grad school, but sadly the real world starts back up tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m.
January and February brings visitors to Colorado. Meg (my little sis) comes out at the end of this month, and in February my great friend Emily and her husband James are coming out to visit us for ten days of fun and skiing.
Here is a glimpse of the Kolacinski Christmas...

so many presents, and there aren't even grandchildren yet, we are all spoiled!

christmas eve

ryan is pretty excited about a marshmallow gun...26 year olds still like getting toys!

marty got his flip video camera. there will be lots of videos on the blog now.

are you jealous meg...

even daddy got a new toy. an helicopter to fly inside!

here i am super excited because marty surprised me with a green amethyst and diamond ring.

mom with some festive bowls.

another christmas with mom and dad madsen.

Thank you to everyone for all the moments we shared this Christmas break. Thank you again for all the nice presents. 2009 was a year to be thankful for family, friends, our jobs, and health.

yeah, yeah yeah! it's a snow day!

2009-12-08T08:14:00.002-07:00

I can remember back when I was a little kid and I would wake up on my own on a school day. On those select days I would ask mom and daddy why they didn't wake me up, they would say there is no school today. That excitement I felt as a little kid on a snow day has not changed. I love to get the 5:30 a.m. call from my teammate Syd. She always begins the conversation by saying, "It is the call you dreamed about." I usually respond by saying, "Really?". I get so excited to not go to school even as an adult. I get as excited as a little kid to go play in the snow. Off to the mountain to ski some fluffy stuff.

the one you love

2009-12-03T17:46:00.003-07:00

a little boy in my class was to be gone from school for the next month on a trip to china with his family. this tuesday afternoon our secretary saw me in the hallway, pulled me into a dark book room and gave me very sad news. the family had stopped in california to visit friends before going to china and the little boys dad passed away in his sleep. my heart began beating a thousand miles an hour and i almost didn't believe what the secretary was saying. anytime one hears something like that it makes your breath stop for a split second. my heart is so sad for the family, this man's wife, three kids, and especially the little boy. he has had a very hard time adjusting to school, not wanting to leave his parents and now to lose his daddy...i can't even imagine.

i didn't sleep very well that night, lots of thoughts were running through my head. i kept waking up making sure the one i love was still lying there with me. i would be lost without marty. i also thought about how much i love my daddy and how fortunate i am to have had him to raise me into the person i have become.

this holiday season i am so thankful for the health of my family members and friends. i love you all very much!

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

2009-10-28T18:17:00.004-06:00

To my surprise I woke up this morning with white fluffy snow upon the tree branches and rooftops. It was a beautiful way to wake up. Then to my surprise as I began my day with my Kindergarten class, it snowed from 8-4 non stop. It dumped snow. My kids and I were cozy inside and all I could think of was swooshing down the mountain on my skis. Soon enough...less than a month till ski season, I can't wait!!!!!!

I Can't Believe It Didn't Rain!

2009-10-25T16:39:00.004-06:00

Literally every single camping trip Marty and I took this summer and fall it rained, poured rain. It even rained at Country Jam this summer in Grand Junction, which doesn't get much rain as it is. We thought we would try one more time to go camping during our fall break. A bit hesitant, we packed up our gear and bikes and headed west. It ended up being the most perfect weekend. The sun shone the entire two days, it was warm, we put some miles on our mountain bikes, and Marty actually slept through the night. Till next year camping and biking...Bring on the snow, lots and lots of snow!!!

All Dressed Up!

2009-10-13T16:41:00.004-06:00

In September our friends Josh and Tisha got married up in Aspen. It was a beautiful place to have a wedding. The dinner was good, the dancing was fun (even though I got my foot stomped on by my friend Jarrid's cowboy boot, my foot is still healing), and we even spent the night at the resort. I kinda like Marty in purple.

School, School, and More School

2009-09-20T20:38:00.003-06:00

Wow, where has the past month gone? Oh yeah... school is back in full swing. This year I have a total of 30 students (I have two different part time classes). It was not my first choice to teach the part time classes, however, a huge drop in numbers has changed our Kindergarten classes a bit. I am just super thankful to still have a class, even though my work load is double. My two groups are really great kids and I seem to have some great parents too.
For those of you who may not know, I am also in school. I just started grad school about 3 weeks ago. I am attending Walden University (all online learning) and working towards my master's degree in Reading and Literacy. It has been going well so far, it is lots of work and me being diligent and getting home from work at 4:30 to start my homework.
Week 2 of grad school (last week), I sat in our office at the desk attempting to write my 1st grad paper. I new exactly what I wanted to say, however, before I began writing I needed to set up my document in APA (American Psychological Association) style, which includes numerous things, too many to even explain. But for a few: special margins, headers, page numbers, perfect grammer, citations, etc. I had several books laying around me to assist in this task. A half hour into setting up my title page and headers, I was complaining out loud to myself because I was frustrated and didn't know what I was doing. 1 1/2 hours later Marty came home to me laying on the floor with my head down crying. I haven't been this frustrated since high school when I was asking my daddy advice on homework and we got into little tiffs trying to figure things out. How was this happening again? I took a break to make dinner, apologized to my oh so patient husband, and sat down for attempt number two.
Tears, yelling, what for? My paper took me only 50 minutes to actually write. I submitted it two days early and successfully got an A- on my first grad paper. I feel pretty good. Well for now...paper number two is on the agenda for tomorrow:)

Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-20T20:21:00.008-06:00

We packed up the truck, met our friends John and Sarah and their two kids Jack and Maggie and headed over Kebler Pass. It is a 2 hour drive over the pass and then all of a sudden we were in Crested Butte, CO.

Mt. Crested Butte

Me and my little buddy Jack. Jack was in my Kindergarten class last year, and now we are good friends with his family.

Our beautiful view from our campsite. We love, love, love camping in CO!

Roasting marshmallows with Maggie, Jack already inhaling the smore I made him:)

It was a great weekend to be away with our friends. We just hung out around the campsite, ate lots of good food, and bummed around the little mountain town.

What are we going to do next...

2009-08-16T12:53:00.029-06:00

What are we going to do next was the question my daddy asked throughout the entire week he was here. My daddy was so excited to be back out in the mountains(maybe that is where I got my love of the mountains from) he wanted to constantly be doing something outside. Let's just put it this way...We went for a 7 mile hike one day and on the way back down the jeep trail to the main road, mind you we were only in the truck for like 5 minutes, my daddy asks, "So what are we doing when we get home, going for a bike ride or something?" I kept teasing him all week that he had me more busy in a few days than I had been all summer. My mom, daddy, and sister Meg came out to visit for a week. It was so much fun to have my parents and sister Meg here for a whole week. I was wishing Ryan(my bro) and my sister in law Sarah were here too. Our week was filled with hiking, lots of jeeping, a little bit of rodeo, sightseeing, cruising around town on the bikes, lots of good food, hundreds of pictures being taken(my daddy's new found hobby is photography, he does a great job!), and most important just hanging out as a family. Oh...thanks daddy for all the great pics for us to post on the blog.

Strolling through Carbondale doing some shopping.

Crusin with my mom.

Getting ready to hike Red Hill(Carbondale, CO).

Top of Red Hill on Mushroom Rock overlooking the town and Mt. Sopris.

Carbondale Wild West Rodeo

Carly and Mom(Lorrie)

Bull Riding

Dave and Lorrie (We all packed into the jeep and went up the Crown Trail).

Frying Pan River (Basalt, CO)

Ruedi Resevoir

Meg enjoying the jeep ride.

Delicious dinner at Phat Thai(Carbondale, CO)

Creek crossing on Capital Creek Trail. The water was freezing!

Thirsty Mom?

Beautiful Colorado wildflowers, with the stunning Capital Peak(Snowmass, CO) as a backdrop.

Good Times With My Best Friend

2009-08-12T16:35:00.016-06:00

I have the greatest best friend ever! Sara has come out to Colorado to visit me every year since I moved here 4 years ago (wow, time goes really fast). It was a perfect week filled with lots of girl time, wedding talk (Sara is getting married next Labor Day weekend, yeah!), pool time, a couple mountain bike rides, and even an overnight backpacking trip. I always hate when she has to leave. I can't wait till the next time we get to hang out!

Heading into the Snowmass Wilderness.

There is always some rain in the mountains. It only rained for about 1 hour hiking in. Then it got sunny, well... then the rain came again for most of the night. Our hike out was a perfect sunny day, thank goodness!

Crossing the log jam to get to the trail on the other side of the beaver pond.

Our furry little friend who had us cracking up. He decided to hop up onto the rock and do some posing for his pictures. At one point he even smiled at us showing us his big buck teeth.

A beautiful waterfall just before Snowmass Lake.

Trying to stay warm.

Snowmass Mountain (9.1 miles in from the trail head)

We planned on summitting the 14ner (14,000 ft.), however, we really would have needed 3 days instead of 2, the summit was pretty technical and we just didn't have enough time. Someday...

We biked on a trail that at the end we had a great view of Glenwood Springs, CO.

Best Buds!

Pushing hard uphill on the Forest Hollow Loop.

A Weekend In Denver

2009-08-12T16:22:00.007-06:00

Marty, Scott, Nicole and I went to Denver for a weekend. It turned out to be a very eventful weekend. We stayed at our friend Nick's and he showed us a great time around the city. We went to Water World (a huge water park), a Rockie's game, and after all that the boys even let us girls do some shopping on Sunday before we headed back into the mountains (what great husbands Nicole and I have)!

Marty, Scott, & Nick

Nicole & Carly

Look at that cute couple!

Coors Field (Denver, CO)

Toga Time!

2009-07-15T18:21:00.016-06:00

Our friends Jarrid and Liz decided to throw a toga party. Marty and I were asked to use our creative minds to help plan the Olympic Games. The 4 of us sat over a dinner and planned out the toga evening. We based most of our event choices off of the original Olympic Game ideas (and...some were completely random).
Some events that filled the evening:
Opening Ceremony-Stump Chugging

Nail Pounding (fastest pounding time)

Bean Bag Shot Put

Walk of Death (partners walking back to back on a balance beam trying to get the fastest time)

Thighs of Fire Wall Sit (I have to brag, my partner and I won this event. For those of you who don't know, you have to lean against a wall or fence in our case, in a sitting position for as long as you can) My thighs were certainly on fire! Oh and if one of the partners couldn't sit anymore they had to then sit on their partners knees (the partner still doing the wall sit).

Egg on a Spoon Race

Chariots of Fire (a.k.a The Wheel Barrel Race)

All in all it was a fun night with friends and games. The toga making part of it the night before was lots of fun too.

summer time

2009-07-05T20:48:00.010-06:00

Summer has been going great so far...Country Jam was great with all our friends. We saw Sawyer Brown, Big n' Rich, Blake Shelton, and Montgomery Gentry. I have had lots of pool time lately which = lots of relaxation, the weather has been gorgeous! We love living right in town, especially in the summer. We bike everywhere, like to all the fun restaurants we have in town. We have had several nice dinners out on the patios at the restaurants. I have had a few hiking camps with my students. Let me tell you they are tough little kids. Marty and I also went to spend the night in Aspen with our friends John and Sarah. We went out to dinner at the Steak Pit and then to the Belly Up to see Super Diamond (a Neil Diamond tribute band), it was so much fun. Marty's parents have been in town, and we have had a great time with them as well. I can't believe it is already July, summer goes by way too fast! Lots more to look forward to though...toga party, Water World (water park in Denver), my best friend coming to visit, and my family coming out in August. Hope every one's summer is going as great as ours.

Our beautiful state flower.

My in-laws hiked with us, they had a great time.

Look at these cute little hikers!

My job is to tire the kids out for their parents... job accomplished.

Birthday Surprises!

2009-06-16T13:21:00.008-06:00

Basically for the past 28 years daisies have been around on my birthday. At our first house in Milwaukee daisies always bloomed on or around my birthday. As the years went on and we moved to different houses there were still always daisies on the table for me. They are my favorite flower, such a happy flower. Once Marty and I were together my daddy passed on the job to Marty to make sure I had daisies on my birthday or else... So once again, my beautiful daisies!

Today I was awoken with a cup of coffee in bed (well Marty usually brings me coffee in bed, it is our thing) and Marty asking if I wanted my birthday presents. I was barely coherent since I hadn't sipped my coffee yet. Presents were waiting to be unwrapped. Like always Marty does a great job at spoiling me! After getting ready I went out into the beautiful sunny morning to take my group of Kindergartners hiking for my hiking camp. They all sang happy birthday to me, and then when we got back to the school one of my students and his mom had little ice cream cups for me and the kids. He also brought me a bouquet of flowers, it was so sweet. I have had some fantastic families in my class this past year and have made some great new friends. Now all I need is for the sun to come back out (once again it is cloudy) so I can go to the pool and relax on my day. Tonight Marty is in charge of dinner and then we are going out for a drink and dessert. It has been a good day so far! Thanks to everyone who has made me feel special on my birthday!

A pretty new purse, a girl can never have too many purses, especially me. A new bike jersey and a beautiful candle stand.

A Camping We Will Go...

2009-06-15T21:07:00.010-06:00

The weather here has been so crummy, and I have had enough! I wasn't going to let clouds and rain get in the way of a wide open weekend to get out and do some camping with my husband. I think the greatest thing about our camping trip was that we only had to drive 40 minutes to get to a completely remote place in the center of rugged, snow capped peaks up Independence Pass (Aspen).

Trying to stay dry and read my magazine article about Johnny Depp.

Look at all that snow. This was on the side of the road up Independence Pass.

Yes it is pouring rain, but I am still climbing and exploring our camp site.

Marty at the Cascades.

Even though it poured while we were trying to find fire wood, and while we grilled our dinner and then ate dinner in the xterra, oh and Marty got sick and we had to move from the tent to the truck in the middle of the night because Marty had the chills and it was too cold to sleep in the tent...we had a great time. We absolutely love camping and just having that time to enjoy nature, the fresh air, and each others company away from all of life's luxuries. All the above issues (rain, cold, sick) are just a normal trip with the Madsen's, life is never boring.

Rain, rain go away...

2009-06-10T11:57:00.002-06:00

It has been raining here in Carbondale for way too long. This year we ended school on May 29th! I was so excited to get my summer started early... not so much. It literally has been raining here for like 3 weeks. If the sun is out it is in the early morning before you even get your day started. Hopefully the sun will shine soon, I need some vitamin D please! Camping is on our agenda for this weekend, weather permitting (this would give me some pictures for my next entry).

Other than the rain, we have been doing well. Marty had his 31st birthday last Saturday: included a movie, dinner, and presents.
I start my hiking camp next week with the Kindergarten, I am looking forward to that, it is always lots of fun. Then comes my birthday and our anniversary in the next couple weeks. June is a celebration month! Lots of presents!!

Mud Anyone...

2009-05-25T15:18:00.004-06:00

Memorial Day weekend was spent hanging out with friends, eating yummy gluten free pizza from White House, a movie with my hubby, and 4 wheeling with friends.

I was covered in wet, soupy, thick mud from head to toe. It was awesome!

This shows we had a great time riding around in the mud.

Scott, you look too clean!

After we played for hours we had to clean up. Off to the car wash with four wheelers in tow and a pile of beyond muddy clothes, jackets, and shoes. Instead of hanging car mats on the hooks in the car wash, we hung our pants and jackets to give them a rinse. Don't worry we had any extra pair of pants in the car:)

Sun! Sun! And More Sun!

2009-04-06T20:44:00.025-06:00

Hola amigos!
We had the opportunity to fly to San Jose del Cabo, Mexico for free! So... naturally we took it. Marty and I spent 8 full days of our spring break on the beautiful sunny beach of San Jose. For those of you who truly know us, we are die hard beach bums. The most that we might do on a given day at the beach is take a long walk. We love the relaxation the warm sunshine gives us. This trip was certainly needed. The both of us feel completely refreshed and ready to finish out the last 7 weeks of the school year. We hope you enjoy the pictures and reading the details of our trip. We hope you enjoy reading about the little adventures we had along the way too.

El Zalate, this was our condo complex and beautiful pool area.

This was our view everyday from the pool deck where we basked in the sun listening to the ocean waves crashing and smelling the fresh salty ocean air.

Love the palms and interesting flowers.

The crashing sound of the quite intimidating waves was a sound we woke up to and fell asleep to everyday.

Ahhhhhhhh! The sun feels amazing!

Strolling the streets of historical San Jose.

We thought we would start one of our beach days early, really early. I am so glad I got out of bed to watch the captivating sunrise.

Our little Villa 3.

Marty and I would like to share some funny stories with all of you about our trip:

1) Went to dinner one night at Zipper's a low key restaurant on the beach playing Jimmy Buffet. Marty grabbed the pesos we had in the wallet and the credit card and we walked down the beach to go eat. As we look at the menu it says "no credit cards". Okay no big deal we have cash. Well... we get our bill and find out we don't have enough money. It would have been a 25 minute walk to go back and get more cash, so we thought it would just be easier to lean back and ask the couple behind us if we could borrow a few pesos. They certainly had a good chuckle, as I am apologizing for my husband's request. Needless to say we then had just enough money to pay the bill and leave no tip (awful I know), so we took off quickly from the restaurant and reached the dark beach before our waiter got to the table to grab the payment.

2) We walked to the grocery store, only a 15 minute walk. We were completely lost in the store, in fact we even tried to get free fish and shrimp (we didn't get a label for the seafood when we grabbed it from the seafood department) and we had several clerks laughing at us. We had quite a few bags of groceries like 6 or 7 including a watermelon and beer. We left the grocery store after 1 1/2 hours and were planning on taking the bus back to the condo. Marty wouldn't ask were the bus stop was so we walked down very sketchy sidewalks as cars flew by us ( no speed limit there), with all our groceries and flip flops that were giving me blisters. We totally looked like a train wreck. We got back to the condo after stopping several times to rearrange the bags and decided to ask where the bus stop was next time.

3) Took the bus back into San Jose one after noon to buy a picture we saw in an art gallery a few days earlier and to buy my sister a birthday gift. We were in and out of the two galleries in 20 minutes. We went back to the street the bus dropped us off at to get on a bus to take us back to the condo. So.. we got on the bus, it took a left into the historical part of San Jose and then... began going down some side streets and some more side streets. Where were we going? We were on the way out of town getting literally the 20 cent tour of San Jose. These busses are not the sweet cruisers with the awesome suspension, they were old school busses with school bus shocks. The bus was pretty full so we had to sit in the back of the bus, and our bus driver was flying through the dirt streets in a school bus! You get the picture...we were bouncing all over the place and most of the windows wouldn't open, so lets just say it was not the most comfortable ride. After a 30 minute drive though the dirt roads of San Jose the bus finally stopped to pick someone up and we saw another bus across the street facing the other direction, so we quickly ran across the busy street and got on the bus heading BACK into San Jose. We felt like we saw the entire town and everyone who lived there. Getting back into town we realized that if we just walked across the street and caught the bus going towards our condo...it would have been a 5 minute ride back to our place.

4) One night we went into San Jose to go out to eat and experience the art walk they had in town (the galleries all stay open late, kinda like our First Friday's here in Carbondale). We were sitting at the restaurant enjoying our yummy food and good conversation and of course people watching. All of a sudden this women comes up to us and says, "Hey I think I saw you on the bus coming to town, I recognize the back of your head (Marty)". We replied, "Yea we took the bus here". "Oh are you with the wedding party?" she said "Nope" we said. "Oh, it wasn't you on the bus, anyways sorry to bother you, and by the way I love your dress (carly not marty) it is beautiful!" "You two are a perfect looking couple, you look so great together." The woman walked away and a minute later her husband comes up to us to say that my dress is causing quite the commotion with the group of people there for a wedding rehearsal. "Everyone thinks you look so amazing, are you two movie stars or something?" Marty and I died laughing and responded nope we are both school teachers from Colorado. "Oh.. really" he says. "Well you both look great, have a wonderful vacation."

Lessons learned... take more money to a restaurant not just what you think you need. Wait patiently across the street for the bus heading out of town not into town and every where else. Ask where the bus stop is to avoid walking down the busy road with 6 bags of groceries including a watermelon and drinks. Always look your best in a foreign country because some American might think you are a movie star!

Our favorite things that made our trip complete:
-several whale sightings
-walks on the beach everyday
-watching the sunrise
-enjoying each others company
-a romantical dinner together in a beautiful restaurant
-no schedule to follow, in fact no need to know the time either
-finding lots and lots of beach glass (one of our favorite treasures to find)
-yummy, yummy mexican food
-not setting an alarm for 8 whole days
-oh yea, so much sun, sun, and more sun! I must say, Marty and I are rocking some pretty good tans right now!
-the fish guy that walked through the pool area every morning with fresh fish and shrimp for super cheap.

A Surprise Snow Day!

2009-03-10T17:51:00.003-06:00

The Roaring Fork Valley has definitely been having some unusually warm weather lately, Nice..., but not ideal when there is still a month and a half of ski season left. Marty has been telling me and lots of other people that I am a snow snob since I have been a bit sad and complaining about the ski conditions lately. Yes it is true. I am most certainly a powder snob, which means I am a true blue powder ski girl.

We went to bed last knowing that we needed to wake up for a Tuesday morning in Kindergarten and P.E. This morning country music kept waking me up every time the alarm went off. I kept rolling over not wanting to get out of bed, it was so warm and cozy. Finally I dragged my tired bootie out of bed and started the caffeine machine. Seconds later, my phone, which the one time was not on my night stand it was in the guest bedroom with our friend Dave who is here visiting.
I rushed into the room to hear my teammates voice on the phone telling me the good news of no school. SNOW DAY!!!!!
I crawled back into bed, there was no sleeping, I was so excited for a snow day to enjoy with my husband in the POWDER, just what I ordered!
We skied from 9:20 a.m. to 4:30 p.m today only stopping for 20 minutes today and that was at 2:30. Thats how good the snow was, no stopping. Marty and I got first tracks today on several runs. Ski patrol was dropping ropes just in time for us to drop in and ski first. We were literally choking on snow all morning. It was so deep the snow was flying over our heads and into our mouths!
We had a fantastic day, of course we didn't have the camera, but I still had to write about our day. We met up with my brother in law, and some friends, and ripped the mountain all day.

So... our friend Dave. His flight was leaving Vail at 2:15. He couldn't not get in a little skiing on a powder day. Our friend Chris who was taking him to the airport took him skiing first. Dave missed his flight today by 5 minutes. He is all set to fly out tomorrow same time, but no skiing tomorrow for him:)

"The Bird"

2009-02-17T20:36:00.009-07:00

So... a couple weeks ago Marty and I had a weekend trip planned with our friends to go ski at Snowbird in Utah. I unfortunately was on my death bed with influenza for 5 days. Needless to say we didn't get to go that weekend. However, it worked out our friends could go over Valentine's weekend. We packed our bags and skis and headed to Mormon country. Our friend Liz grew up in UT, and her boyfriend Jarrid worked for ski patrol at Snowbird for a few years. We got the ultimate tour of the mountain, and hit all the great spots to ski. For those of you that don't know about the snow in UT, well let me tell you it is unbelievable. The mountain gets over 500 inches of snow a season. This past week they received 6 feet of snow before we got there and then when we skied on Saturday and Sunday we were skiing in a fresh foot of snow. It was awesome skiing and good times. We can't wait to get back there!

Here we are...Our romantical Valentine's Day at "The Bird"! There is nobody else I would rather ski with than the love of my life.

Waiting in line for the tram to take us up to ski the "blower" snow. The tram carried 125 people up the mountain at one time. You cannot be super claustrophobic and ride in the tram.

CJ ripping up the pow in Upper Cirque.

This is Jarrid getting back in touch with the big avalanche gun. Yes, he used to shoot this off when he was on ski patrol!
Oh and the pic is certainly not out of focus, it is just snowing that hard!

Liz's glory shot as Marty called it.

Marty in "nipple deep blower snow"!

Carly riding on the magic carpet in the tunnel to get get to the back side of the mountain.

Carly skiing in Tiger Tail

Kung Pow!

2009-01-05T19:27:00.002-07:00

A great sunny "pow pow" day as locals call it. However, Marty and I came up with kung pow thanks to Marty's brother.
We are doing great, just had a wonderful 2 week Christmas break (I will update with Christmas pics when my dad sends them to me).

A Fantastic Fall

2008-11-09T20:42:00.007-07:00

Colorado is known for it's blue sky days filled with sunshine, that proved true once again this fall. We had a great fall with lots of really warm and sunny days. We got outside for some great mountain bike rides and hikes.

One of the Thomas Lakes at the base of Mt. Sopris

The old Crystal Mill in the ghost town of Crystal

Biking in Snowmass

Having fun with my students in the leaves

Country Jam '08

2008-07-23T14:31:00.014-06:00

Marty and I were the rookies of Country Jam this year. Some of our friends have been going since high school. This year it was our great group of friends that made the trip (10 of us). Country Jam... 4 days out in the hot, hot sun of Mack Colorado, going to awesome concerts, and hanging with good friends. It is quite the spectacle! We saw some really great concerts... Diamond Rio, Clay Walker, Josh Turner, and Tim Mcgraw. Clay Walker was the best show of the weekend! Slide on down and check out our pictures (some of them crazy) from Country Jam.

The endless field of pop up campers and RV's... that's a lot of generators.

Our camp. Yes we had a pool at our camp. We had to keep cool some how.

We luv ya Jared!

The infamous game of bean bag. We all love this game!

The gang, minus Brenda and Jared, where are you two? Oh wait, Brenda is taking the pic, so just Jared is missing. That is no surprise!

The hotties:)

Just A Regular Day In Colorado

2008-07-22T19:04:00.007-06:00

Marty and I out for a hike this past Sunday. We absolutely love where we live! It is so fantastic to go for an amazing hike when the feeling strikes us.

Our friends Brandi and Mike, and their pup Koda.

Capital Peak (14,130 ft.) in Snowmass Colorado.

Our cousin Michelle came to visit for the weekend. We (Marty and I, Howard my father in law, Corey, Michelle, and Corey's girlfriend) all went up Mushroom Rock for a hike. Mushroom Rock overlooks our town of Carbondale. Marty likes to call it Engagement Rock (yes, this is the place he proposed over a year ago).

Ahhh...Summer Is Here!

2008-07-02T15:39:00.016-06:00

Our summer is going great so far, fast, but great! Marty is working at Camp Run-a-muck and I am doing an outdoor adventure camp with some kindergarten and first graders. I had a fantastic start to my summer. Sara flew into Aspen on my birthday and stayed for a week. We had a ton of fun, lots of best friend time which was very needed!

While Sara was here, we went camping and mountain biking for a couple days in Fruita, CO.

June is a very busy month for the Madsen's...Marty's birthday, my birthday and then our anniversary. This year our anniversary fell on the week Sara was here to visit. We were actually camping and biking on our anniversary. Some may think yuck, but that is something we enjoy.

Happy 1st Anniversary!
The place we were biking on our anniversary was actually where Marty and I had our first date.

Spring Break, Whoooo!

2008-04-01T20:37:00.007-06:00

Marty and I couldn't wait for our spring break, we were definately ready for a break. Most people leave their homes and go on a vacation. We love staying here for the week and skiing. That is just what we did. We skied, slept in every morning, and spent time with my in-laws who were here to visit.

We even took my father-in-law skiing. Howard did great!

A few months ago Marty and I picked out a kitchen table we loved from Pottery Barn. We didn't have to spend the insane amount of money to buy it. We just put in our request to Marty's dad, and "poof" he built it and brought it out to our house last week. It looks great in our kitchen and now we have room for our friends and family to sit, eat, and have good times. Thanks again dad!

Here I am with my student Connor. He and his dad called me on the mountain and we met up for a few runs. The little guy can rip! Of course it is a silly picture he's 5, and so am I sometimes!

Sweet Skiing In Steamboat Springs

2008-04-01T20:20:00.005-06:00

One of my best friends and roommate from college, Emily, and her husband James came out to Colorado for a ski trip. We were so lucky that they were only 2 hours away from Carbondale. Marty and I took a little weekend getaway to go to Steamboat Springs to ski and hang out with Emily and James. We had a great time in the winter wonderland.

Casa de Madsen

2008-04-01T19:44:00.006-06:00

We are finally adding a new post on our page, sorry it took so long. We have been doing very well. School, our new home, and the amazing skiing conditions every weekend have us quite occupied. We have included some pictures of our new home. Marty and I bought a condo in Carbondale at the end of October. Lorrie, my wonderful mom, came out to Colorado for a week and helped us move in and repaint the entire condo. We love our place! Work is going well for the both of us, we love our new home (right in town with a view of Mt. Sopris out our kitchen window), and we have had a great winter. Marty and I have had numerous powder days this winter, 2 of them school was even cancelled! Now that we only have a few weeks of spring skiing left and two more months of school, we are looking forward to another Colorado summer filled with mountain biking, backpacking, and fun with friends!

Monday Night Football

2007-11-27T17:38:00.001-07:00

We went to Denver to watch the Broncos play Brett Farve and the Packers on Monday night football. Brett threw a touchdown pass in over time to win it for the Packers. It was sweet!

Backpacking In Snowmass

2007-10-06T13:36:00.001-06:00

Marty, my brother-in-law Corey, and myself took a one night backpacking trip in Snowmass.

The day we hiked in was a beautiful fall day in Colorado. The leaves were falling from the golden aspen trees all around us.

This was Corpie's first backpacking trip. One of the highlights for Corey was eating his beef stew once we set up camp!

The plan of our trip was to hike up to Snowmass lake and then up to the top of Snowmass Mountain. It would have been our first 14ner. However, the weather decided it didn't want us to hike any further. It poured rain all night, so the next morning we hiked 6 miles out. Corey said he hasn't even been as wet in the shower as he was when we were hiking.

Although it rained during the night and the next day, the three of us had a really great time. Being in the heart of the mountains always is a refreshing time.

The Newlyweds

2007-07-14T17:18:00.000-06:00

The first word that came to our minds about our wedding was, "perfect"! Antigua is an amazing island and it was a beautiful, romantic destination for a wedding. For three days we lounged on the beach, swam in the clear, turquoise water, kayaked, sailed, and just enjoyed the tropical sun with our families and my best friend. We all had a great time together. After the three days of fun at the beach came the wedding day. It was wonderful not having anything to stress about or take care of on the big day, in fact Marty was out jet skiing with my brother and I was laying on the beach with a pina colada in hand about three hours before we began to get ready for the ceremony. My brother Ryan conducted the ceremony, it was very intimate and special. Marty's dad, and brother Corey played their guitars and sang our song, "swept away" as Marty and I danced on the beach. My mom and dad's cousin made my wedding dress. My mom, my sister Megan, and sister-in-law Sarah made my bouquet and the guys boutonnieres. My best friend of 15 years, Sara, was my maid of honor. My sister-in-law also took all the amazing pictures during the ceremony. Marty's mom was there with a radiant smile on her face, as happy as could be that her boy was getting married. Lastly, my daddy, an amazing man, walked me down the beach to meet my groom. Like we said, everything was "perfect"! Our families and friend each played an important part on our special day. After the wedding and reception, Marty and I went to Cocos, further down the beach and honeymooned for another 7 days...
We hope that everyone enjoys looking at a little taste of paradise!

We're getting married!

2007-06-14T19:25:00.000-06:00

In a week from today, we will be Mr. and Mrs. Madsen. I can't believe our wedding is almost here. In 4 days we will be boarding a plane off to Antigua, West Indies to say "I do" and have some fun in the sun and on the beach with our families and my best friend. Check back in July for some tropical wedding pictures and details.

A Winter Playground!

2007-06-14T17:44:00.001-06:00

Okay, I know it is June and we are posting winter pictures, however, we are a bit slow on this whole blog thing. Ski season...the two words most Colorado people can hardly stand to wait for. Marty has been out here in Colorado for 4 seasons, I just finished my 2nd season and let me tell you, I can't get enough of the skiing, I absolutely love it!
This season Marty and I skiied 47 days! Our favorite of the 4 mountains in Aspen is Aspen Highlands. It includes the Highland Bowl. People around here get a bit crazy to hike up to the top of the bowl (12, 381 ft.) on a powder day. We have definately been mixed in the craze, in fact we hiked up the bowl about 12 times this past season.
We both look forward to this next season (starting the day before Thanksgiving) on our new sticks!

Lake Powell

2007-06-14T17:17:00.000-06:00

Memorial day weekend, Marty and I were invited by our friends Jason and Gina to spend a few days on a house boat. There were 10 of us (well... 11 including their dog Barly-funny huh!) there for the weekend enjoying fun in the sun and in the water. The lake is amazing. We have never been there before, so it was really cool. The lake is huge and winds its way through miles and miles of canyons.