March 2nd marked my SEVEN year anniversary of living in Colorado… and for those of you in Tennessee, can you believe it??  It seems like just yesterday that I packed up all my essentials and moved across country!  Seven years later, I am so happy I made the decision to move!

Now, even though I’ve lived here for that long… I finally did something that is VERY Colorado for the first time.

I finally went to the mountains in the winter!

Now, I’ve spent a bit of time up in the high country during the summer… but I’m not a skier or snowboarder, and I’m not the best driver in the snow and ice… so I never quite made it up there until this weekend!

When Kristen invited a group of girls to her dad’s condo in Winter Park, I couldn’t resist joining in!  I met Kristen through my friend Tiffany, and I just love her positive spirit!  She’s a native Colorado girl… so who better to serve as tour guide to this Southerner’s first trip up!

We ended up being a party of 4 – Kristen, Tiffany, and Ashley (who I just met for the first time this weekend!)

We drove up to Winter Park on Saturday morning.  After unloading our stuff in the condo, we headed to The Village for lunch.  Kristen introduced us to our first ride on a people mover.  It is sort of like a lift, yet just moves you from parking lot to the village.

While there are Cheeky Monk locations in Denver, I had never been and we were all craving a hot meal on such a cold, cold day, especially after the windy ride in the people mover!  I settled on a Blackened Chicken Pita Wrap with a salad instead of fries.  So good!!!

Afterward, we walked around the Village popping into souvenir shops and visiting along the way.  The snow was coming down, but we didn’t let that slow us down!

We initially had great aspirations of going snowshoeing and playing in the snow, but when we were done with lunch and shopping, all we really wanted to do was head back to the condo and curl up on the leather couches in front of the fireplace.

This was my view for the next few hours… curled up under a down blanket.  We watched a movie, and some of us (me) took a nap.

Later that night, Kristen took us to her favorite pizza place for dinner – Hernando’s.  Such a fun little place with great pizza!  It’s been a while since I had real-deal pizza… so good!

Afterward, we went back to the condo, back to the fireplace, and opened a bottle of wine.  We snacked on green velvet angel food cake, and we found a fun game to play in the condo.  Have you ever played Table Topics?

It’s supposed to be a conversation starter, but we had so many fun answering questions that we did this for hours!  Here are some examples of what questions in the box look like.

It was so fun getting to know these girls better and JUST RELAXING a little on a Saturday night.  What a great way to re-energize after a huge work week!

We ended up grabbing a quick breakfast and heading home in the morning, so as to avoid crazy ski traffic.  Overall, I had a blast… and I know a little more what to expect next time I’m up there.  It also makes me want to spend more time up in the mountains and to see more beautiful places like this!

Thanks, Kristen, Tiffany, and Ashley, for a wonderful weekend… I look forward to spending time with you guys again very soon!  xoxo

Have you ever spent the weekend in the mountains?  What’s your favorite thing to do while there?