ROAD TRIP PART I: ICE

Last week, Alexis and I decided we'd take a few days off and take a mini road trip up to my family's cabin outside of Telluride. The cabin itself is super old and on the verge of falling down, but the area around it is a breathtaking expanse of meadows, pine trees, aspen groves, and alpine peaks.

To our surprise, we arrived to a foot of snow covering everything. The weather had been colder as we drove up to Colorado, with snow covering some of the forests, but I wasn't expecting to step into a scene from mid-January.

Luckily, we'd come prepared with lots of jackets, firewood, and hot cocoa mix. I spent most of the time inside "tending" to the fire in the wood stove (sketching, drinking cocoa, and devouring the book "Wild") while Tai and Alexis played in the snow. As much as I dislike the cold, it was fun to have a little winter adventure-- especially since I knew we'd be returning to fall weather after a few days. The aspens were caught of guard by the snow as well-- they were still golden yellow and looked incredible against the white snow and dark blue mountains. 

We slept curled up on an air mattress in front of the wood stove, under piles of down sleeping bags and comforters. My breath was visible inside as I stood over the cookstove in the morning, heating water for coffee.  And despite two layers of thick wool socks and snug boots,  my toes were blocks of ice the entire time.