Snowboarding Clutz

The first day of spring is just around the corner (March 20th) and there is a nice fluffy 8 inches of snow on the ground :-)
Growing up living in the mountains was a lot of fun. There is usually a good bit of snow on the ground for most of the winter......which makes for lots of fun 'winter memories'. Yes, most of you have probably been reading my blog long enough to know whats coming.........

• Me (at age 10) and Wray (at age 12) are trying out his new snowboard in our backyard. The house we lived in at the time had a backyard that started on a small slope that led in to a large yard that also sloped....right into a cornfield, and then a rather steep bank and deep ditch. Wray, who was pretty good at snow boarding was able to keep it under control and stop before ending up in the the corn field. Wray takes a few rides down the hill and then decides to give me a turn. I get strapped in and am feeling pretty confident....that is until I start down the hill and realize I have no idea how to stop this thing! I fly down the slope, through the yard, across hundreds of cornstalks, down the bank and land face first in the ditch! Put me on a stage with lights, and I've been told that I can be very graceful......but don't ever ask me to go snowboarding :-P

• My family and a few of our neighbors used to go sled riding in this big field every winter. Corn field by summer, sled ramp by winter. One time we decided to go at night, so my neighbor put up these huge lights that lit up the whole field. The hill was a sheet of ice that night. So icy in fact, that me and a friend didn't even need a sled. We just slid down in our snow pants :-) We tried a sled but about killed ourselves :-) It made for an easy walk back up the hill!

• My home school group went on a Cross-Country Skiing trip one year. We had an instructor with us who took us way back in the woods on some pretty nice trails. Now, I'm a bit more stable on skis than on a snowboard so I had a lot of fun. We got to this really big hill, and I remember not many of us made it down the first time without falling. At one point I think about 5 of us were piled up in the middle of the hill. We were all so determined to make it down without falling that we climbed back to the top to 'try, try again'.

• Just a few years ago, mom and I ( and our car) ended up in the middle of a cow field. We came over the top of a hill and slid right through a fence and into a mud pit in the field (at least, I've always told myself it was just mud :-) ) Good news: it was right at the top of our friends driveway. Bad news: Their driveway is a mile long! It was really cold that night and really really windy. The driveway had so much ice on it that I just stood there and the wind pushed me the whole way to the house :-)

• Another home school group trip, only this time we were going snow tubing. You know the big wires that you hook your tube to that pull you up the hill? (If you've ever been snow tubing you know what I'm talking about) Anyway, there was this big line of us being pulled up the hill when the tube that was closest to the top came unhooked from the wire, came flying down the hill and pulled several friends along with it :-) Tsk, home schoolers causing trouble on the slopes.......

I am determined to get my skis out this winter! I've been avoiding them because of my hands, but I really want to go skiing...so, I'm going to! Probably by next week this time I'll be posting a story about something weird that happened while skiing this week :-P Don't worry, lots of gloves will be worn with hand warmers stuffed inside. But I'm sure that the thrill of being back on my skis will be worth some extra hand therapy........