Hi friends! Matt and I are back in DC after an amazing reunion with my grad school friends out in Breckenridge, Colorado.
We planned this trip back in November in honor of my friend Libby’s 30th birthday, which is later this week. Perfect excuse for a reunion! Libby’s dad owns a place in Breckenridge, so she invited us out west for some wintery fun.
It was so nice to see my grad school crew again. I really miss those ladies! Loved the time to catch up, especially in such a beautiful location.
Considering we only had two full days in Breckenridge, we packed in a TON of adventures. Here are the highlights, not including hot tub happy hours and a couple delicious dinners out in town.
Skiing with Matt on Friday
Matt and I were the only ones in the group who hadn’t skied out west yet, so we headed off first thing on Friday to get in some time on the slopes.
It wasn’t too crowded, which was awesome, and we had fun getting our ski legs back. Matt was nice and stuck with me on the easier slopes for the first part of the day, but I made it to the blues pretty quickly!
Snow suits, helmets, and goggles are so attractive:
Colorado skiing is definitely a big step up from east coast skiing, as we had heard. I didn’t notice TOO much of a difference in the snow quality (it was less icy, but otherwise pretty similar – I think normally it’s more powdery but it hasn’t been too snowy out there yet this year), but I really loved that the runs were so long. On the east coast, the runs are all so quick you spend a ton of time on the lifts. In Colorado, the lifts had you so high up that it took awhile to get back down, which was awesome.
It was also SO beautiful out there – the views were unreal.
We also had the greatest ski lodge lunch ever – amazing tacos from a place called Vista Haus up on Peak 8. Beautiful, right?
As for snacks, we enjoyed the last of my Tart Cherry Pie Snack Balls. 🙂 These were a big hit with the group!
Such a fun morning with my favorite guy. 🙂
Yoga at Meta Yoga
On Friday afternoon, I left Matt on the slopes (he had a blast hitting up some of the harder runs) and headed back to meet the girls for yoga! Elle had booked all of us a private afternoon yoga session at Meta Yoga in downtown Breckenridge as a special treat to Libby for her birthday (Libby is an avid yogi).
We all LOVED the class – the instructor was amazing and so nice, and it was really fun to get some alone time with the girls, too. <3
We followed yoga with coffee/tea and cookies at a nearby coffee shop so we could catch up. 🙂
Snowshoeing for the first time!
On Saturday, all of us had a huge epic brunch – Libby made this recipe for Poached Eggs in Tomato Sauce with Chickpeas and Feta, which came out awesome (although it took way longer to cook than expected thanks to the high altitude situation)!
Plus bacon and fruit!
Once we were fueled up, a big group of us headed out to snowshoe!
This was my first time trying snowshoeing and it was really fun. A lot like hiking, just with tons of snow around. 😉
We were out there for about 2.5 hours, enjoying the gorgeous sunny day and beautiful views.
I think it must have been some mistake that I wasn’t born in Colorado… lots of outdoorsy adventures + sunshine = happy place.
Cross country skiing!
Another first – I’d never been cross country skiing before, either! After snowshoeing, I fueled up on some leftovers back at the house for lunch (we made a big pot of Elle’s delish Vegan Quinoa Chocolate Chili with cornbread on Thursday night).
And then it was time for another adventure! The rest of the crew wanted to rest up, so my friend Lauren and I headed out for a solo cross country skiing adventure. 🙂
We drove over to Frisco Nordic Center and headed out from there – Lauren is from Colorado and actually owns cross country skis, so I was able to borrow some from her. Perfect!
It was such a blast – Lauren had been to this area before and loved it, so she was excited to share it with me. Check out these views:
I absolutely loved cross country skiing, too! Very intuitive. Lauren and I had a blast catching up while gliding along.
We ended up being out there for about 1.5 hours – it flew by! We even saw this beautiful horse drawn carriage near the end. 🙂
So there you have it! A fun and action-packed weekend. Matt and I were so sad to say goodbye to everyone yesterday! We’re already thinking it’s time to plan another reunion, perhaps back in Chapel Hill. 🙂
Have you ever skied out west? Where?
Have you gone snowshoeing or cross country skiing? Did you like it?
