A couple of weeks ago, Jenner suggested a snowboarding trip over New Years (for those who don't know, Jenner is a Marine who has been part of our small group for the last few months). Snowboarding and Becky? Sounds like a great idea to me! So last Thursday, Jenn, Katie, Kristi, Jenner, and I loaded up our cars and headed off to Massanutten, a ski resort near Harrisonburg, Virginia. Our friend, Jack and his sister Muriel were going to meet us there for the day and Kevin and Will (more Marines from our small group) were going to arrive late Thursday night. The trip got off to a fantastic start what with Jenn backing into the front of Katie's car, Jenner falling into a ditch, and Katie leaving a plate off goodies on top of her car. Fortunately, these events were the most exciting things to happen on the drive and they all happened before we pulled off of my street.
We got to the hotel around 3 and arrived at the slopes shortly after. Jack and Muriel were already snowboarding so Jenner and Jenn, who were going to board and ski, got their lift tickets and off they went. Katie, Kristi, and I walked down to the tubing park to buy our tubing tickets for the next day. Once Jenn realized her ski boots were a tad too small, the four of us waited for the three snowboarders to finish up so we could go to dinner. After a fun meal at Applebees (Jack's pick, of course), we said goodbye to Jack and Muriel and headed back to the hotel. A few hours and some good games of Apples to Apples and The Game of Things (my new favorite) later, Kevin and Will finally arrived. We played a few more rounds of The Game of Things and called it a night.
The next morning we headed back to Massanutten for a full day of snowboarding and tubing. Or dying, whichever came first. Having never snowboarded before, I was a little, maybe a lot, nervous but I was brave and don't think I showed too much fear :) When the board rental girl asked me how long I wanted my board to be, I knew I was in trouble. But I figured if the three year old next to me could do it, so could I. Haha. That's a good one.
We got out on the snow and Jenner explained how to strap one boot onto the board and then drag-scoot the board to walk. This is not as easy as I make it sound and I decided then to make peace with this world and prepared myself to meet my Savior. But Jenner apparently had much more faith in me and we got in line to board the lift. Boarding the lift happened so fast I am not really sure what happened. So, looking back that might be my favorite part of the whole experience and the ride up was actually very relaxing and quite lovely. Mainly because I didn't have to move around on the board but also because the view was pretty. Unfortunately, the ride had to come to a stop sometime and we had to get off. Just so everyone knows...departing the lift was NOT A PLEASANT EXPERIENCE.
To get off a ski lift on a snowboard is to experience near death in a brand new way. As Jenner explained to me on the way up, "it's like riding a skateboard". Oh, ok. Now I'm good. My only goal was to not get hit in the head or break my leg. Actually, those are my goals for anything I attempt to do. I managed to get off and I think I only brought Jenner down with me. Have I mentioned what a great sport Jenner was during all this? BUT, I didn't hit my head or break my leg, so score one for me. I got up laughing which was really the only thing to do in that moment, I was strapped to a board after all. Now, though, came the hard part because unless I wanted to move into a shack at the top of this hill, I had to get down.....
By the way, the picture is of me stoked to be there and Kevin, who is also excited but not quite at the stoked level yet....
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