I Just Fell on my Face

I spent this past weekend falling on my face.  A lot.  It was fantastic, and possibly even mind-blowing.  Why?  Because this weekend I was snowboarding up at Copper Mountain with the kids from my internship.  My internship placement this year is with a small nonprofit in Denver that runs an outdoors experiential leadership development program for low-income minority youth.  Basically, I win.  One of our annual trips is the snowboarding trip to Copper.  As an intern, I was able to take a group of 12 youth up to the mountains where they were able to rent equipment at no cost and have free access to the mountain for the entire weekend.  It was a blast.  Most of the kids had never been snowboarding before and some had never even been to the mountains.  Being able to include these kids in the frequently exclusive outdoors  world was an amazing process to witness.  I spent the entire weekend on the slopes with the kids, falling on our faces and taking it all in.

Powder!!

Thus far this ski season has been amazing! It is only January and some of the major ski resorts like Copper Mountain and Breckenridge have base depths between 70 and 90 inches. Just in the last week most resorts have received 40+ inches of snow. It’s pretty amazing that some of these world-renowned ski resorts are only a short drive away from Denver.

Winter break in the Rockies…

The great state of Colorado is not my home of origin; yet, it’ll be my home for the holidays.  I don’t have ample amount of funds to travel back home to see family and friends so I’ll be spending the holidays here in Denver, and I could not think of any better place to be.  Denver is a growing metropolis—ranked 24^th in U.S. population—with a small town feel; so, there’s plenty to do with plenty of good folks.  For turkey day I was able to meet-up with about 20 other random, die-hard Saints’ fans to watch football, share stories, and, of course, chow-down on a fabulous spread of food—Saints won a close one.

The festivities don’t have to stop there.  Colorado is full of fun events, activities and adventures during the winter months.  When it comes to the great outdoors, I personally don’t ski or snowboard, however, I do enjoy snow tubing and cross-country skiing.  In a couple of weeks some friends and I will make the most of a weekend getaway in the mountains.  We’ll spend a couple of nights in a cabin then make our way up to Vail for the annual Snow Daze festival.  I’ll be back in class before too long, but spending my entire winter break in Colorado will be a time well spent with fond memories.

Peace,
Phillip

Loving Denver!

One thing I love about living in Denver is that there are a ton of great things to do here, and it gives the people you love an ever greater reason to come visit! With the number of visitors I’ve had since living in Denver I’ve gotten to do a lot of really great things. I’ve been able to engage in many different outdoorsy activities such as skiing, hiking, outside concerts at Red Rocks, Rockies & Nuggets games as well as being able to hang out downtown in the LoDo area checking out new restaurants and the nightlife Denver has to offer.