A little bit of snow

It's hard for me to believe it's really the holidays with all of this sun and warm weather! To make it hit home a little more, we headed off to the slopes the day after Thanksgiving. Sure, there were only 12 inches of snow at our SoCal ski resort (which we visited last winter), but seeing that little bit of snow made us smile. Maybe it is December after all!

It was bright, sunny, and 55 degrees that day at Mt. High. We didn't even need our coats until the sun went down on the other side of the mountain and put us in the shade. Who said snowboarding had to be freezing cold?

Since my 17-year-old brother of a snowboard instructor was two states away and we already learned that husbands are not meant to teach wives, I bought a beginner's package and made my first visit to Winter Sports School. For less than the price of three lift tickets, I got the lift tickets, rentals, AND a two-hour group lesson each day. This turned out to be an even better deal when my "group" was just me and one other girl. Needless to say, it was a rather effective lesson! I can now go both heel side and toe side, and am working on my turns. Baby steps, you know.

(PS: It turns out my instructor fully agreed with the whole "boyfriends/husbands shouldn't be teachers" thing. She was cracking me up every time we'd go on the chairlift, because she'd hear a boy give a girl instruction and then yell down and say, "No, that's not right! Do X instead!" ... from forty feet above.)

After my lesson, I graduated to higher runs and showed Matt all of my new skills.

I can make it all the way down the mountain at above a snail pace without biffing it! This is obviously a major accomplishment, and Matt was very impressed.

Of course, he's always three-upping me with his fancy tricks and such. I love watching him have so much fun. Unfortunately, I only got this one blurry picture before the camera died. I guess we'll just have to go back soon.

We stayed at the resort for a little night boarding before taking off to Fresno, where I covered the state cross country meet in pouring rain that Saturday. And just to document our trip to the middle of the California, where we may never go again, here's one of the pictures I took for the paper:

It was a great holiday weekend!