Skis. Colorado. Family. Tree Wells.

Some of you know that I (Tony) had the opportunity to go to Winter Park, Colorado for a few days of skiing last week. My Dad and step-mom were headed there with a ski club and I joined them, along with my cousin John. So much fun!

Here is a random assortment of snapshots from my camera phone and Teressa's Canon SD780IS that she so graciously let me borrow. (FANTASTIC little camera by the way for those of you looking for a nice small point and shoot camera for around $200. It's smaller than a credit card so you can always have it on you. It takes great video and has actually gone up in price since I bought it for her. The photos below were all shot with it or my phone)

They had already gotten over 200 inches of snow this year, by the time we arrived. Then they must have gotten another foot or two while we were there. Tons and tons of powdery, beautiful snow. This is a view from the top of a diamond that I skied with John. I say "skied" loosely. The hill kind of owned us on this one. We didn't fall, but we were far from "perfect form." :-)

What does every guy really want to ask but is too ashamed to really say?
Do these ski pants make me look fat?

John throwing up his ski pole gang signs.
People were kinda afraid of us.
Ok.
They were very afraid.

I borrowed this from Ansel Adam's collection.

Love the face.

Above. If you look closely.
You will see the half pipe. It's a lot bigger than it looks.
My Dad, John and I looked like the funniest 3 dorks playing around on that.

We had lots of fun in this hot tub while the snow came down. We all even took turns laying in the snow for a few seconds. The highlight really came when John and I decided to head back to the room and we took Dad/Beth's clothes, shoes, towels, room key, etc... with us. ha ha

We also took a pair of my Dad's... for proper etiquette, we'll say "Hanes."
We put them on the railing one night when it was going to drop to -20 that night.
The next morning, he went out on the porch to discover his clothing that had become an ice sculpture. I have to hand it to him. My Dad knows how to take a joke very very well. But for reasons of my own, and for fear of retribution, I decided not to post any photos of the incident.

We have been hearing about lots of skiers and snowboarders getting trapped in tree wells, so we decided to stage our own incident. It was hilarious and lots of fun. What a bunch of goofballs.

I could not pull John out.
I told him to not eat so much breakfast.
He sank like a rock.

The three of us.
Long gone.

Dad and Beth.
Beth did an amazing job skiing those challenging slopes by the way!

A few of the mountain from my Dad's goggles.

If you see these people on the mountain.
Think long and hard before you get on the chair lift.
Just kidding.
They are harmless.

The gang.
So much fun!
Thank you Dad and Beth!!

You talkin to me.
You talkin to me.

Skiing all morning can sure make someone goofy by lunchtime.

As I said...

When the snow would stop, the brightest blue skies would pop out.
Breathtaking.
I only wished I had some lenses and polarizing filters on me.

That's Dad and John ahead of me.

Crouching Snowflake, Hidden Snowball.
(being released in India 2014)