Breckenridge

We headed up to Breckenridge for a day trip to see their snow sculptures.  Pretty neat stuff!

The train was one of only two that we were allowed to climb on.  The rest were works of art.

It was quite hard to get both boys up here safely.  And me, too

Choo choo!

There were some ice sculptures too, though they're not part of the competition

There's some pretty amazing stuff here

This is an international event, with teams coming from all over the world to compete.  

According to Breckenridge's own information "The Breckenridge Ski Resort makes snow recognized to be some of the best in the world.  (They spent years perfecting their 'recipe.')"  So perhaps that's part of why this is such a big deal--they provide really good snow for sculpting.

Typical

Dean's parents have gone up to see the sculptures for the last few years, but this is the first time we've joined them.

It was neat, although I don't know if it was worth the travel time.  (Our travel time was hampered by a longish detour to avoid an accident, and not leaving until nearly an hour after we'd intended.)  Next time we'll have to make sure to leave earlier in order to make it more worthwhile.

Parking was particularly hideous, too--it is ski season, after all.  We were very fortunate that we drove past Grammy and Grandpa while searching for a spot, so we were able to set the boys free with their grandparents, and didn't have to listen to them whine about wanting to get out of the car anymore.  Thanks, Del and Cyndy!

Another possibility would be to get a room and spend one or two nights and make a weekend of it.  Then we'd have time to play around as well.

We did actually think of the overnight idea this year, but the resorts were so full (due to ski season) that Dean's parents weren't able to use their sway as vacation owners in Breck to get a room.  Oh well.

Again.... typical

The uncarved block of snow.  It looks like a Borg cube.  Or maybe that was the Rhoadarmer Gingerbread entry

Our family in front of the happy family Chinese entry

Now Grandpa is holding 60+ pounds of kid

You could climb on these horses too, but Robin didn't want to so we didn't wait in line

Pretty neat!  And we had fun.