Sedona, Sante Fe, Colorado & Chicago

December 1 (Sedona) - When we got up and looked out our window, we realized how insanely beautiful Sedona is. It is filled with huge red rock formations everywhere that are indescribable. Since we could still barely walk, we toured for a bit (mainly from afar which consisted of little walking and no hills) then headed to Sante Fe.

December 2 (Sante Fe) - We toured Sante Fe for the morning then began our long drive to Denver, Colorado for days of amazing snowboarding. YAY!

December 3 - 9 (Colorado) We spent the first few days that we were in Colorado in Denver at my dad's friend Lucila's place. She has the cutest little dog and I have officially fallen in love with Chiwawas! Her name is also Maggie so Eric and her became instant best friends. Our first day of snowboarding took us to Loveland. It was a great hill... or so we thought until we went to Keystone & Vail! Lucilia has a friend with a condo up in the mountains so she got us the key and we spent 3 nights there! It was amazing. It was about a 5 minute drive to Keystone and 30 minues to Vail. So as I have already given away, the two other mountains we boarded were Keystone & Vail which were just breathtaking! We were blessed with perfectly sunny days and it was about 1-4 degrees every day we went. The day before our last day of boarding, they got 14 inches of snow so the conditions were just amazing!! Any boarder/Skiier NEEDS to go there if they get the chance. Unreal! When the 9th rolled around it was sadly time to leave Colorado :( We headed on the road and made it to Omaha where we slept at a sketchy Econolodge... well it wasn't that sketchy but Eric and I have been watching so much CSI cuz its the only DVDs we brought so I have crazy thought in my head which led me to watching the window from 3-6 am cuz I was convinced someone was breakign in. haha. Oh CSI... never again!!

December 10 (Chicago) - We continued our long drive to Chicago and checked into the Double Tree downtown (gorgeous hotel!) The concierge gave us 20% off at this bar called Timothy O'tooles so we headed over there for dinner and to watch a bit of sports (yup, Eric is turning me!)

December 11 (Chicago) - After waking up at our beautiful hotel we walked around downtown and checked out the sites. We then headed over to Ed's house (my dad's friends house where we would be spending the next few days). Eric of course couldn't miss the "BIG" UFC fight so we went to a near by bar to watch it -Buffalo Wild Wings. To anyone who lives near one - this place has the most AMAZING wings everrrr! We sat for a while as the place got pretty packed. 2 guys were walking past us looking for a place to sit but all the tables were full. We had 2 extra chairs so we offered them up. Well to make a long story short, we had a great night with them and they INSISTED on paying our $100.00 bill!! They would not let us pay it! WOO HOO! Great night!!! Note to all: if you see straglers looking for a place to sit. LET THEM SIT WITH YOU!

December 12 (Chicago) - We went to a pancake house for a delicious breakfast before heading to the outlet malls for a long day of Christmas/Chanukka shopping. It is insane how fast all food comes in America. All food is seriously fast food... no matter where you are. We have not waited more than 10 minutes (and that is considered waiting a while) for any food! I don't know if it's just the restaurants we chose but literally as soon as we take a sip of water, our food is infront of us. I have to wonder, how on earth do they cook it that fast?! Probably one of those questions better left unanswered.

December 13 (Chicago) - We went to downtown Chicago in the -15 craziness for a little tour of the city. We went up to the John Hancock observatory to check out the great views from the 96th floor. Obviously, we used our sneaky-ness and avoided paying. It was $18.00 to go to the observatory but free to go to the restaurant/bar if you got something. So we went to the restaurant "checked out the menu" ... "went to the bathroom" aka took lots of pics and left. We then went to the AMAZINGGGGG cheesecake factory for lunch and I brought Eric onto my obsession of that restaurant. We went back to Ed's place, he took us out for an amazing sushi dinner then we went to bed.

December 14 (Chicago --> Washington) - We started our LONG (16 hours to be exact) drive to Washington. Eric and I were playing a word game with two teams (team a = us... team b = us as well... yes we were competing against each ourselves haha...) but we were very heated in our competition that we didn't think to look at the gas tank. Next thing we knew the light was on and the next gas station was 27 miles away. We were happy to learn (yet again) how trusty the reserve tank is... we made it :)