"Working" in Denver and Vail

The reason that I had even gone up to Denver was actually for a work trip. I went to a conference in Denver for a couple of days and then headed up to Vail for a sales meeting. The conference was a good opportunity for me to learn more about this somewhat new industry that I'm in and it was really good. I went out with a bunch of people from my company and we ended up doing karaoke - my favorite! I tried to steal the show as always and even did some group songs and duets with co-workers. How better to get to know people than by showing your worst side? ;-) Actually, I did the same with Scott's parents the first time I met them - this seems to be a pattern! It was really nice to get to hang out with people from work outside of the office and to get to know them better and vice versa.
















Vail must be one of the most beautiful places for the summer - I was blown away by the beauty everywhere we went. It also had the BEST restaurants - the chefs knowing how to combine all of the right tastes to keep me smiling and sated. I tried to impress with my Ms. Pac-Man skills and I think I did! :-)














Although most of the days were spent working, we got one afternoon to choose and activity. A lot of the girls chose the spa option, which did sound nice... but being in Vail, I couldn't resist the opportunity to go fly fishing! One other girl joined and we had 3 guys plus our guides. It was great! I'd only been fly fishing once before on the tip of a boat in Jackson Hole, but I really liked this type where we got to put on waders and get in the water and use a bit of a different stroke. It took me a little while to get it, but I found it easier this way than on a boat. By the end, though I didn't catch anything or get many bites, the guide told me that I had a perfect stroke and my fly was doing just the right thing on the water. Guess I'll have to try it again when there are more fish biting! I don't know if you can notice in the pictures, but I was a huge dork and got flies to put on my hat, so I could look like a real fly fisherwoman. Did it work?























The night after the fly fishing, we took horses up to Beeno's cabin, a restaurant way up in the mountains. Apparently, in the winter you can take a sleigh up there, but I loved the horseback ride! My horse was the softest and he was super sweet. The views were amazing, of course and everyone had a great time. We even saw bear claws on some of the trees we passed! Up at the cabin, there was a porcupine that lived under the restaurant and would come out in the evening. I never thought I would think a porcupine was cute, but this one was really cute! It actually followed us around and would get up on its hind legs, like it was begging for food. It followed my co-worker and I around and finally when we were leaving, it shook like crazy, I guess trying to shoot out its quills, but we were lucky and didn't get any stuck in us. There is an awesome video at the bottom of Jim and the porcupine.
















On the last day, we had some presentations still but then played a super fun game where we had questions from what we learned during the meeting. Kevin (who is actually better at the 7 degrees of Kevin than Kevin Bacon) was the police host and he played it so well!