Snowboarding = Ouch

I just love ridiculously useless gifts.

Who wouldn't love a straw like this??!!  Santa is so cool.

As usual, I am awed by how quickly this year has come and gone.  Did Christmas really just happen?  Such a blur.  Literally...look at this pic.  Guess our camera was sleepy too this Xmas morn...

The festivities began at 3:30 am.  No, this pic was not taken at 3:30.  We made them go back to bed (and by 'we' I mean Matt after I kicked him to let him know his precious offspring we up at 3:30).

We spent the afternoon with my parents where Santa was good to everybody again and then ate a lunch that was to die for.  I should've taken a pic of the food.  It would've made you drool.

The next day we ventured to Ruidoso for a Christmas snowboarding vacation with Matt's family.  And, as it turns out, you CAN teach an old dog new tricks.  It just takes 5x as long.  We arrived before noon, jumped in our snow bunny suits, and headed up the mountain.  My "somewhat more agile than me" 8 year old promptly eyed his snowboard appraisingly, strapped it on, and started zipping down the slope.  On his feet.  Twerp.

I, however, spent the better part of the first 2 days flat on my ***Bleeeeeeep.  Edited for content***.  The instructor made it look SO effortless but holy gee-whiz those suckers are slippery!


Here you'll notice the instructor in his green vest, little sister and niece on the lower left, and yours truly as indicated by the red arrow.  Stupid snowboard.

Grandma, Papa, and Grant hanging out while we all took a snowboarding lesson...

The top of the mountain...

Here are a few of us as we headed up the mountain on Day 2.  It looks like I've got my arms wrapped around my family in a loving embrace.  It's probably closer to the truth to say I was using the girls for support because I could hardly stand from all the falls on Day 1.

Day 2 did NOT start out with a bang.  After determining that the bunny slope was an evil ***Bleeeeeeep.  Edited for content***  I moved over to the beginner slope on the recommendation of the little sister (who consequently picked up the snowboarding thing in about 3 seconds also.  Twerp.).  I came off the lift successfully and then proceeded to fall half way down the slope at which point I ripped off the stupid board, crawled over to a nearby tree, and cried for 15 minutes.  I seriously considered hiking the rest of the way down and trading in my board for skis.  I already KNEW how to ski, why in tarnation was I torturing myself like this??!!  


In the end, I decided I probably wouldn't be setting a very good example for the youngling by giving up on only the 2nd day.  So, I strapped the sucker back on, stood up, and lo and behold I snowboarded the rest of the way down the slope!  Halleluja!  For the record, this was exactly how I learned to ski.  It turns out the bunny slope is entirely too flat....it's a wonder anyone learns anything over there.  The beginner run has just enough slope to give you some momentum, which in my case was the key.  I guess it's just like learning to ride a bike.  You're not going to learn to balance by just sitting there.  You need to be going to figure it out.

The rest of Day 2 and Day 3 were total insane fun.  I may never ski again.  And I know Jaden is hooked too.