Second time's a charm (except when re-marrying the same person you divorced)
In high school I went on a ski trip to Loveland, CO with what is now called Compass Christian Church in Colleyville. I don't know if that is what it was called then or what kind of church it even is, but my friend, Cory, got a group of us to go with them.
As I fought car sickness in the back seat of a passenger van and listened to the new Goo Goo Dolls, Dizzy up the girl (probably 30 times), I was getting excited to give skiing a go.
Sara taught us the basics and we began our trial and error of not dying on a frozen mountainside. The only thing I remember from skiing was finally building the courage to try a blue (never really mastering a green) and crashing and sliding down the mountain so much that I had to crawl back up to retrieve my skis and poles from four different locations.
Fail.
That night, as we listened to a sermon (wait, we had to do that too? Oh, tricked by the 'ski trip' marketing) this man was really bashing us for being sinners and damning us to hell. Being Catholic, I was like, what is going on?! I mean, I realize that the Catholic church has plenty of issues, but all of our gatherings usually involve alcohol (not that I drank in high school, because I didn't...but happy adults = happy children) and so I wondered why he was so angry; he wasn't in charge of my salvation. Geez buddy, crack open a cold one...it might take the edge off.
I was happy to sit though, because I probably had some light internal bleeding from the day's earlier crash.
This past week, we went on our annual family friends trip to Red River, New Mexico. We rented a cabin in the snow and had a great week of mostly [over]eating, [excessive]drinking, and sleeping. Kids really make "vacation" take on a whole new meaning.
Luckily, Alex was a good traveler in the car (thank God for portable DVD players) and he still sleeps well (although, not more) in strange locations. He is warm blooded by nature, so we bundled him up and he had no problem being knee-deep in snow. He went sledding, met some dog friends near by, and mostly ate snow. He also looked so darn cute in his cold weather gear even if we paid way too much for something that he will never fit into again after this year. Hopefully it gets cold in February. I will bundle him up and send him outside even if there is no snow, just to get some more wear out of it.
Success.
No one showed any interest in skiing, so Sara and I debated the whole week whether we wanted to go for a day. On our last full day there, we finally decided to go. Since this was only my second trip, I have no idea if the courses were good or not. It was small, and not crowded at all. Since school is in session, it was not a busy travel time, a perk of not working at school this year. On the downside, it was icy and the trails were horribly marked.
After a morning of still not really getting it, I was uncertain if I was going to last much longer after lunch or feel like a bad ass at any point that day (I try to find something to feel bad ass about at least once a day). So in a self-sabotaging act, I ate a whole cheeseburger and an order of onion rings at lunch. Ha, take that, skiing; now I have an excuse.
With 2 hours to close, something clicked and it made sense. My body got it together and I felt how my legs were supposed to feel when changing directions so that I didn't need to keep stopping and feeling like my hips were being pulled out of socket. Going fast freaked me out less and less and suddenly, I was keeping up with Sara (bless her for being so patient with me all day) and feeling like a handicapped version of Picabo Street! (before Googling that, I wrote "Peekaboo").
After my a-ha moment, while riding the lifts up, I thought more about the trip down and how awesome I was, than paying attention to the trails map with Sara. We knew they were badly marked, but I pretty much relied on Sara's navigation since I was going so slow. Now that I was able to lead sometimes, she was trying to show me the way. I half listened and thought, I'll just be extra vigilant about looking for signs.
We started going down "The Big Easy", a long green (more blue with all the ice) that would take us all the way to the bottom. I jetted past Sara and was enjoying the speed and weaving back and forth. I was paying attention to signs, and kept following the arrows for "The Big Easy". After taking a wicked turn flying around like a bat out of hell, I saw a sign pointing straight ahead on my current path for a Black Diamond. I flung my head back and yelled, "Abort the mission!!!!". I managed to stop, but Sara crashed
1. Because I scared her (and the other 5 novices around me)
2 She knew I wasn't paying attention and was concerned for my safety when I accidentally flew down a black.
Luckily, THAT sign was misleading and we made it down to the bottom safely.
Best day of skiing, ever. (Second day of skiing, ever.)
We are back and Alex starts school on Wednesday.
Hello, all the illness that we are about to encounter!
As I fought car sickness in the back seat of a passenger van and listened to the new Goo Goo Dolls, Dizzy up the girl (probably 30 times), I was getting excited to give skiing a go.
Sara taught us the basics and we began our trial and error of not dying on a frozen mountainside. The only thing I remember from skiing was finally building the courage to try a blue (never really mastering a green) and crashing and sliding down the mountain so much that I had to crawl back up to retrieve my skis and poles from four different locations.
Fail.
That night, as we listened to a sermon (wait, we had to do that too? Oh, tricked by the 'ski trip' marketing) this man was really bashing us for being sinners and damning us to hell. Being Catholic, I was like, what is going on?! I mean, I realize that the Catholic church has plenty of issues, but all of our gatherings usually involve alcohol (not that I drank in high school, because I didn't...but happy adults = happy children) and so I wondered why he was so angry; he wasn't in charge of my salvation. Geez buddy, crack open a cold one...it might take the edge off.
I was happy to sit though, because I probably had some light internal bleeding from the day's earlier crash.
 |
| I have no memory of this picture at all |
 |
| Don't look too long; the photo quality of this picture appears to give us some facial deformities |
This past week, we went on our annual family friends trip to Red River, New Mexico. We rented a cabin in the snow and had a great week of mostly [over]eating, [excessive]drinking, and sleeping. Kids really make "vacation" take on a whole new meaning.
Luckily, Alex was a good traveler in the car (thank God for portable DVD players) and he still sleeps well (although, not more) in strange locations. He is warm blooded by nature, so we bundled him up and he had no problem being knee-deep in snow. He went sledding, met some dog friends near by, and mostly ate snow. He also looked so darn cute in his cold weather gear even if we paid way too much for something that he will never fit into again after this year. Hopefully it gets cold in February. I will bundle him up and send him outside even if there is no snow, just to get some more wear out of it.
Success.
 |
| He literally chapped his face from eating snow |
No one showed any interest in skiing, so Sara and I debated the whole week whether we wanted to go for a day. On our last full day there, we finally decided to go. Since this was only my second trip, I have no idea if the courses were good or not. It was small, and not crowded at all. Since school is in session, it was not a busy travel time, a perk of not working at school this year. On the downside, it was icy and the trails were horribly marked.
After a morning of still not really getting it, I was uncertain if I was going to last much longer after lunch or feel like a bad ass at any point that day (I try to find something to feel bad ass about at least once a day). So in a self-sabotaging act, I ate a whole cheeseburger and an order of onion rings at lunch. Ha, take that, skiing; now I have an excuse.
With 2 hours to close, something clicked and it made sense. My body got it together and I felt how my legs were supposed to feel when changing directions so that I didn't need to keep stopping and feeling like my hips were being pulled out of socket. Going fast freaked me out less and less and suddenly, I was keeping up with Sara (bless her for being so patient with me all day) and feeling like a handicapped version of Picabo Street! (before Googling that, I wrote "Peekaboo").
After my a-ha moment, while riding the lifts up, I thought more about the trip down and how awesome I was, than paying attention to the trails map with Sara. We knew they were badly marked, but I pretty much relied on Sara's navigation since I was going so slow. Now that I was able to lead sometimes, she was trying to show me the way. I half listened and thought, I'll just be extra vigilant about looking for signs.
We started going down "The Big Easy", a long green (more blue with all the ice) that would take us all the way to the bottom. I jetted past Sara and was enjoying the speed and weaving back and forth. I was paying attention to signs, and kept following the arrows for "The Big Easy". After taking a wicked turn flying around like a bat out of hell, I saw a sign pointing straight ahead on my current path for a Black Diamond. I flung my head back and yelled, "Abort the mission!!!!". I managed to stop, but Sara crashed
1. Because I scared her (and the other 5 novices around me)
2 She knew I wasn't paying attention and was concerned for my safety when I accidentally flew down a black.
Luckily, THAT sign was misleading and we made it down to the bottom safely.
Best day of skiing, ever. (Second day of skiing, ever.)
 |
| Looking into the sun = Chinese Eyes |
 | |||
| Throwing out the vibe before slip and sliding down the "Crackerjack" |
We are back and Alex starts school on Wednesday.
Hello, all the illness that we are about to encounter!
 |
| This is a winter sport, right? We paid $40 dollars for the darn thing, might as well get our money's worth! |
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