What a beautiful day!!

It was gorgeous here. Big bright blue skies! See look….

I had a great time on the mountain today. No falls. Okay, I’m lying but really there were only like 2, maybe 3. Not even hard ones. I ended up snowboarding all afternoon with two of my kids, one of their older sisters, and eventually one of their dads. It was fun. There is no better incentive to race down a mountain than following two of your students and not wanting to make an ass of yourself. I can’t wait to go again next weekend. Here’s a pic of me on top of the mountain. I think the other reason I snowboard is to see the awesome views from the top of a mountain. Hey, you have to make it down the mountain somehow. Oh, yeah, back to the picture. One of kids took it. I took of my helmet and stuff so I wouldn’t look so stupid. If you want the stupid pic click - img_0186.jpg

Spent the day on the mountain

I didn’t get in many runs today, but I did spend all day on the mountain. My kids were in contests today and I got to watch them show off. The first contest was rail jam. I got to film the contestants on the first rail. I had a great view. I realize that I might like to watch this stuff, but I have no interest in trying it myself. Here’s a picture of the rail.

 

The next contest was big air. That was really cool to watch. The contestants were doing flips, turns, and awesome jumps.  Once again, fun to watch, but I have no interest. I didn’t get a picture of the big air. I was so amazed that I forgot to pull out my camera. I did take a picture of the chairlift that I spend a lot of time on. It’s the one on the right. I’ve only been on the one on the left once. Some of my kids took me up on a run, so I could watch them in the park. I’ll eventually get on it again, but not yet.

There was a really good crowd that showed up for the competitions today. Several teachers and families that weren’t skiing came to support the kids. It’s a great community. The weather was awesome. It was warm and the sun was shining. I think we are supposed to have good weather this week. Temps in the high 30’s and 40’s. I think there is a chance of RAIN one day. That will be strange, since we’ve only had snow for such a long time. The only bad thing about it warming up during the day is that the snow and ice melts, but then freezes again at night. It’s very dangerous. I fell walking around downtown last night. I wasn’t hurt, but could have been. I guess all of my falls from snowboarding have helped. I’ve got a very busy week, so I have to go for now.

Weekend Catch Up

Well, I went boarding on Saturday. It was cold and snowing the whole time. I went on a run with some of my students. They took me over to the park, so they could show me their jumps, flips, and turns. I.have.no.interest. in doing that. I just want to enjoy going down the mountain. They are really good and its fun to watch. I just like my board staying on the snow. I don’t need air, big air, or any of that. Sunday was Super Bowl. Go Giants!! I went to Kristen’s house to watch the game. It was packed. Nice people, great food and beer. I ended up watching the game upstairs with the “serious football watchers.” I couldn’t hear the commercials downstairs. lol It was fun and I won a bet since the Giants pulled it off. : ) And today still counts as the weekend for me. I had another SNOW DAY!! I got the call at 5 am. Yeah! I wanted to go snowboarding again, but I was stuck in my parking spot. Really stuck. The snow plough came through and pushed snow up to the top of my tires. I got towed out this afternoon. Good times. I’m now parked across the street and will be until the some of the snow/ice melts which should be around…..maybe, March or April. I had a nice lazy day today. The snow stopped early this afternoon and the sun was shining really bright. (urgh, i should have been on the mountain) I think the storm has moved on and we are going to get a few days off from the snow. I’m glad since I have recess duty this week. It’s hard to take the kids outside and just have them stand in the snow. They can’t sled. They can’t throw/kick snow. The basketball courts are covered. The soccer field is covered. We go stand in the snow for 20 minutes. ?? Anyway, not so much going on in Colorado just snow. : )  Surprisingly, I’m not tired of it. (yet) I only have the kids for 3 days now, since Friday is parent/teacher conference day and the kids are off.(again) Have a great week!

Snowboarding Take 4!

Today was my 4th day to go boarding. I still love it. There is nothing more satisfying than taking on a mountain and riding it down. (okay, i’m sure there are. play along) I linked my turns today. : ) Translation: I started out on my heel side and turned onto my toe side and the other way around. The sides are just what you think they are. Toe side is the side that your toes are on and vice versa. I’m getting much faster, but still afraid of speed. I’m no longer afraid of having my back to what is below me. It is just a very awkward stance that will become natural if I keep doing it. I’m strapped to board with my knees and ankles bent, pelvic bone forward, all my weight on my right foot, leaning towards a mountain trying to remember how the hell to just slow down. I still love it even when I do kiss the ground. This is such an improvement because last time I was freaked out. I would tense up and fall. I don’t even feel nearly as sore as I normally did. I did fall on my ass really hard one time. It still hurts. It will probably still hurt tomorrow. I know some of you don’t understand, but it is totally worth it. Anyone want to come visit? The mountain doesn’t close until April 4th!! I know a great instructor.

I ate so much snow!!

Well, I’ve been testing the waters with snowboarding. I went Saturday and took another lesson. I’m learning to turn. Notice I said “learning” because I haven’t mastered it in any way. I took a hard fall. It was hard enough that my hat and my goggles flew off my head. I have whiplash and my instructor came to my side pretty quickly. You know what I did….kept laughing. My instructor was nice enough to throw some snow at me to keep me laughing and having a good time. We had a little snowball fight going on. It’s fun. I love the snow and I’m still amazed that I’m staying warm on the mountain and  not freezing my butt off. Oh, wait, that means I would have to have a butt. lol

I had an adventure just to get up the mountain on Saturday. I was supposed to meet my instructor at 11 on the deck. I, finally, made it around 12:20 or so. It was raining in town and I didn’t think much of it as I headed up the road to the lodge. The road was a little wet, but no biggie. Suddenly, it was no longer wet. It was white. It was snowing pretty hard and the road was covered. I was driving right alongsliding up the mountain and about half a mile from the lodge when two cars had the road blocked in front of me. I still don’t know why they were stopped. They weren’t stuck. They didn’t loose any equipment. I don’t know. What I do know is that it was not the place for me to stop. I immediately while stomping on the break began to slide back down the mountain. I was waving cars and trucks around me or  I was going to back into them. Finally, I managed to stop. A family stopped and tried to help me. We put gravel under my tires. We made a trail of gravel up the hill. Nothing worked. After standing in the snow for about an hour, I was pushed up the mountain by another truck. My nerves were shot, but I grabbed my board and up the mountain I went. Oh, what a day!

Just because I didn’t have enough aches and pains from Saturday and because it was a SNOW DAY, I jumped back on my board for a few hours yesterday. No instructor this time. Much more difficult. I went to a different mountain and all the way to the top. I made several trips on the chair life mid-mountain, but eventually had to go all the way down. I took another bad fall. This time it was face first. I had snow up my nose, in my goggles, everywhere! I was hurting, but, again, I couldn’t stop laughing. I threw off my goggles, my helmet, my gloves and kept giggling. It hurt so bad. I guess I should say it hurts so bad. I think that was the moment that I realized how tired I was.

Anyway, I survived a weekend of snowboarding. I had an extra day off work. I can barely move my head from side to side and my thighs are feeling pretty tight. It may sound terrible, but I really love it here. I love seeing the snow. I love feeling it flutter down on my face. I love the snowball fights. I love seeing the wildlife. I love the unpredictable weather. I do not love my truck here, but there’s not much I can do about that right now. I did learn how to change my windshield wiper blades this evening! Yeah, I rock like that. I can now put air in my tires and change my wiper blades. I need to figure out the oil change next. hmm….I should probably just take it somewhere for that one. If I’m still awake in a little while, I’ll try to post some pics from Christmas. I’m tired and they are on the other laptop. Going to take some ibuprofen and relax. : )

I ride goofy!

I have a new love. I went snowboarding for the first time. It was awesome! I’m so freakin’ sore and I know I’m going to feel worse tomorrow. I can’t wait to go again. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to until after my trip to Memphis. : ( It will be great to see everyone, but I’m really going to want to go up a mountain and glide back down. I pretty much had a private lesson, since it was Thursday and most people were working. My instructor rocks!! He was supportive and everytime he praised me, I messed up. If he jokingly told me how horrible I was I did even better. We danced down the mountain and went right back up again. (That’s how they teach you.) The majority of times that I fell were on my own free will. I would get going too fast, start laughing, or just get tired and decide to sit down. Jon, my instructor, would turn around and laugh at me. We made snow angels. We watched other snowboarders. It was very peaceful to sit on top of a huge mountain  on the side of the mountain with the little hills with it snowing. A bunch of my kids were there. They were very polite and stopped to check on me. They really wanted to do a run with me, but I’m no where near their level yet. I need to master getting off the lift first. I’ll get better at this once I put my stomp pad on my board. My back foot kept sliding off when I would stand up.

Oh, and to explain my title. I ride like a lefty. My right foot leads. You either ride regular or goofy. I guess everyone should have known that I would be goofy. lol