Boulder gets around 300 days of sunshine. Also it's not wet cold and hence you don't feel the cold much. But the sub-zero overcast days is a different story.

I got the impression that they moved to NC.

  We weren't keen on moving to Colorado, but strangely enough, 
  they had an office in Raleigh, NC, where we already had several friends. 
  It felt like serendipity.

I live in Boulder and am pretty sure this Winter has nothing on an Ohio winter.