An Ipswich ale

Turtle is trying to enjoy the trip and taking a break for a brew.

My little travel buddy...

Go turtle! The first of 3 flights today, good times in the land of stale air and grumpy travelers as we wait.

whirlwind trips

Last week we booked a flight on Sunday and boarded a plane on Monday bound for Boston. In less then 24 hours we had cleaned the house, packed our bags and figured out a plan for the dogs and the grumpy kitty to be well cared for. I had made time to stop for some gluten free snacks before we dropped the car off to get new brakes (much needed) and caught a courtesy ride to the airport and was grateful for these all day- especially at the ATL airport... scary.... so scary...
 Thankfully I had packed a good supply of yarn, all of our chargers for phones and ipods and a clean shirt for each of us as our checked bag arrived on Thursday afternoon, a mere 4 days after us. Thanks Delta! It was an exciting moment to be able to have wardrobe options again plus a more pragmatic pair of shoes then the Danskos I wore traveling and the flip flops I had tucked in my carry on as area was getting pounded with snow and the snowbanks stood 5 feet high.  I had lots of time to work on my knitting and finished a few projects during our visit.

From Droid think outside

On Saturday we packed up and jumped on a bus down to Boston- the roads were getting slick and our early flight on Sunday didn't leave much of a margin for error. We packed our bags with my gluten free snack festival and headed into a hotel near the airport. We checked in and asked about area dining and if the in house restaurant had a gluten free menu- the uncertain look had Dave convinced that my idea of heading to PF Chang's wasn't so crazy after all.

From Droid think outside

 I had used my droid navigation while on the bus to figure out that we could easily take the hotel shuttle to a T stop on the blue line and swap to the green line and end up a block away from PF Chang's. It was a Saturday night and the place had a 50 minute wait so we opted to eat at the bar so we could make it to bed at a decent hour. We even walked through the city a bit after dinner, grabbed Dave breakfast donuts at Dunkin's and made it back to to hotel within 3 hours. There wasn't much time for sleep as we were up at 3:30am and on a shuttle soon after.

From Droid think outside

The best part about our 6am flight on Sunday from BOS to ATL to MTJ was that all worked out we arrived by noon in the mountain time zone, hit a quick food shop were reunited with our monster puppies back in Telluride before the lifts closed at 4pm. Now comes the fun part of readjusting to work, altitude and life after a week away.

Travels

We're not spur of the moment kind of travelers but can be if needed. Trip booked less then 24 hours ago and almost ready to board the first leg of our flight to Boston. Dogs are with friends and away messages have been set. Thankfully we had tome to stop for some glutaded snacks despite all the chaos as it's a long day of traveling.

visits from Summit then more hats on quiet nights

Meghan and Sam came down for a quick visit last weekend and we had a good day on the mountain and a evening snowshoe with all 4 goldens. I'm also happy to share that I can now eat food at our apres hangout- The Hop Garden. Telluride Ski Resort is now offering true gluten free options for people like me. 

A philly cheese steak may seem like a simple sandwich but being able to eat a real meal instead of pocket snacks is a big deal in my glutarded world. 

will knit for wine, bring me the yarn and a bottle of red and you'll see a hat out of the deal- like this creation in green and yellow. The thickest yarn and fastest hat yet. (Burly spun Brown Sheep Company yarn, size 13 circulars, 59 stitches cast on)

Kids hat with big Poms- lots of yarn for crazy thick poms which are then trimmed to create a pretty and uniform look. (Merino Blend, size 9 circulars, 96 cast on)

 

A finally finished Christmas gift, for Big Dave  swapped to doubled pointed to finish the top for the first time and wow- not going back to trying to finish on circulars! (Mini Mochi by Crystal Palace, size 8, cast on 120) 

Dave's now on grooming life and my nights are now filled with adventures to tire out the dogs so I can work on my knitted creations. I even took time to hit a crochet class at Needlerock but it really just proved that I like knitting better. I'm stuck on hats and have lost track how many I've done now. I'm also doing multiple projects at once and have 3 hats currently cast on and in various stages of progress. I like to mix it up with needle sizes and degree of difficulty so I can swap out as needed based on energy level, attention span, color preference or ease of carry for knitting during long meetings which abound this time of year. 

dear granny...

Dear Granny,
We miss you lots. It was fun visiting you this Fall and seeing everyone together at Sugarloaf. We hope you feel better and get well soon,
Kisses and happy tails from Colorado,
CHAOS & MAYHEM- your favorite golden furry grandpuppies

Tuckered out...

Tired pups = a good night for grey's anatomy and knitting time

mayhaos snowshoe hike

Dave headed in for his final day of snowmaking today (he starts grooming tomorrow) while I had a rare day off from work and the sun was out with fresh snow on the ground. It's been frigid and around -10 degrees with the windchill so I was happy to have sunshine, little wind and 20 degrees. The sun here makes it feel 10 to 20 degrees warmer as well.  I geared up with the camera and a few layers and took the boys out to Lizard Head Pass around 20 minutes south of our house and went for a snowshoe hike on some dog-friendly groomed trails. I took almost 400 photos and played with the continuous shots to capture some of the best moments for the monsters.


They wore their packs and Mayhem's might have had a bit more weight then Chaos's but you can't tell as Mayhem was pretty excited even as the hike ended. I made them break trail a bit off to the side and by the end of the hike they figured out that they could just stick to the groomer's and work less. The snow was light, fluffy and deep which made for an easy snowshoe but a big walk for the boys.

Both dogs are now passed out and I'm set for a quiet night of knitting.