Resting on Turtle Creek

In January I stole away for a few days with just my parents for a quick trip to Colorado. We went to scatter my Grandpa's ashes in one of his favorite places in the world - Loveland Ski area.  My grandpa LOVED to ski. I have vivid memories of him taking me and my siblings up skiing a few times. When he got tired he'd send us off in a group and wait for us at the bottom in the lodge. I remember one time when Harrison and I deciding to take one of the harder runs down the lift grandpa had told us to ride. It was super steep and ungroomed so the moguls were nearly as tall as Harrison. I'm honestly surprised we made it down. When we told grandpa what took us so long, he wasn't angry a bit - he was proud of us!  Skiiing with grandpa was the best because he always bought us hot chocolate.

One of the amazing treasures my grandpa left me before he passed awas a memory stick full of photos and videos he had digitized over the years. Here are a few of his skiing pictures with captions he wrote. I'm so thankful he took the time to preserve these memories. Apparently in his younger years he was a speed demon! He made his goal of skiing until he was old enough to get in for free. 

Our day at Loveland was perfect! The weather, in true Loveland fashion, was cold and overcast. Every memory I have of skiing Loveland growing up involves freezing but loving it. It was especially exciting for me because I haven't skiied in 8 years. That's too long! 

Luckily, it came back quickly, and I was still able to keep up with this crazy guy. My Dad is an amazing skiier (and he'll be the first one to tell you that too!)

Harrison joined us for part of the day. Somehow he and my Dad convinced me to ski The Ridge with them (right on the Continental Divide at 13,000 ft). It was so cold up there!

See the end of the chair lift way, way up there?

A view of the same lift on my Grandpa's files!

At the top of The Ridge

I made it down in one piece in time to meet up with more family that came to honor Grandpa. I don't have pictures of half of our group. Many of my cousins were there and several had their kids with them as well. He would have loved to see his great-grandkids out there skiing too!

Part of Grandpa is now forever resting on his favorite run - Turtle Creek. While we're sad he's gone, it was such a great celebration of him and his incredible life. Thanks for teaching us all to ski Grandpa. We love you!!