This year, I bought my fiance snow shoes for Christmas. I know he loves to snowboard, and because I don’t, I wanted to come up with a fun activity we could both do in the winter. Hence, I also said “Merry Christmas to me” and bought myself a pair. How could I get him some and expect him to go adventuring by himself?

With this gift wrapped and ready to go, I mentioned to my fiance that it would be fun to go into the mountains for a day over Christmas since it was a long weekend. He quickly agreed and recommended we rent a cabin for a night. We found a beautiful cabin in Grand Lake for a very reasonable price and booked the trip a few nights before.

Because we were planning to be in Grand Lake Thursday through Friday, I recommended opening some presents (snow shoes) early and then we could open the rest on Christmas. He again quickly agreed. I had thought that I crafted the perfect plan: we could enjoy his gift while in the mountains!

And we did.

On Thursday, we arrived in Grand Lake and visited the YMCA at the Rockies. The facility was beautiful and had so much to offer: ice skating, crafts, cross country skiing, smores, and tubing and more.



I yet again attempted ice skating (my annual tradition of skating for a short time and hoping my skill set increases slightly) and we also tried cross country skiing for the first time. We both looked inexperienced as we struggled to get our boots clipped in. Then we looked even more inexperienced as we started to move. Wow, was it a challenge to get in the groove.


I admit I did a pretty good job until we tried going downhill. The skis had zero traction, and I couldn’t control my speed. My skis went on top of my fiance’s who was in front of me, and I forced myself to fall. This was fall one of three for the day. Getting up was no easy feat. I suppose if you count my falling as an attempt to get back up, I fell more times than three!

Anyways, it was a blast.

And that night, we opened presents. I opened trekking poles. Then he opened trekking poles. He opened snow shoes, and I opened snow shoes.

Yes, the reason he was so quick to agree to my suggestions was because he had the same exact plan all along. We had given each other the same gift…and ended up with four snow shoes total.

The next day, we tried out the gifts and snowshoed on some of the most beautiful trails.




It was an unpredictable trip, but it was also very memorable. (I am hoping next year I can buy him something he didn’t already purchase himself…but for one year, it was pretty funny)

It’s not often someone can say they went ice skating, cross country skiing, and snow shoeing all in two days. I feel lucky to have experienced this mini pre-Christmas getaway, and I have no doubt I will slowly turn into the gal who says winter is “okay.” 🙂