Snow

Rather than doing Filthy Fifty today, I did something much harder: I went snowboarding. It was really really fun and I'm so glad we went. But every time we hit the slopes it's pretty amazing to me that I'm even there at all.

Tim took this picture of us on the chairlift.

Austin at the end of the day. He is so good and so fast that a picture on the hill is NOT a possibility.

Tucker hams it up for the camera. I SWEAR we did not force him to be barefoot and half naked in 20 degree weather!

So my history with snow sports is not a great one. My parents were terrified that I would break a leg if I skied, and living in Sacramento and going to a nice high school meant that nearly everyone was off in Tahoe skiing on the weekends. I desperately wanted the raccoon eyed, red nosed apres-ski sunburn that my friends sported. One time I was allowed to go night skiing with my church group. It was fun to go fast, but it was my only opportunity to try skiing.

Then college. I was poor and didn't have equipment, but our dorm did a cross country ski day. I wore two pairs of jeans (because it was going to be cold!) and was soaked by lunchtime. As the day wore on, and I got colder, it got harder and harder to move. I ended the day coming off the hill on a snowplow.

My final ski experience came when Tim and I were engaged. Tim started skiing at age 5 and he's the kind of skiier that people watch because he's so darned good. I wanted my fiance to be proud of me. So when I fell and my bindings didn't release and my knee popped, I just kind of shook it off and kept going. Knee popped several more times that day, and I walked with crutches for months after that.

So when Tim and the kids learned to snowboard, I felt the fear and did it anyway. I didn't want to ski -- it just felt way too risky. But snowboarding, where your feet are both connected to the same board? Well, that seemed to make more sense. The learning curve for snowboarding, at least for me, was steep and painful, but by the second season I was going down intermediate runs. In fact, we were at Northstar on my 45th birthday, and Tim got the entire lift line to sing "happy birthday" to me! But later in that year I had a really bad day on the slopes and my confidence hit an all time low. And last year I didn't even get onto the board at all.

So today I reminded myself that I am NOT a sidelines mom, and headed up the hill. It took a while to feel comfortable, and my legs were definitely a little tired from yesterday's run, but after the first few runs I was having a great time. I only fell once -- when Austin's coat got tangled in the chair lift and he shoved me as I came off the chair!

So a great time was had by all, and even though my entire family is better than me (that's not a hard thing, being better at snowboarding than I am!), I'm just happy to be right there with them.