What Goes Up...Must Come Down, Part 4

I believe there is a moment in every friendship when two people come to an understanding of each other. This moment can come quickly or it can be a long time in coming. Either way, once this moment arrives, the people involved have two choices. They can accept it and become better friends or they can ignore it and never really understand each other. Standing on the side of that mountain with four year olds on skis whizzing past us, Jenner and I arrived at this moment.

"So, Jenner, I think Kristi and I are going to call it a day."

" No, you are not."

"Oh, but we are. Can we walk down this mountain?"

"I don't want you to."

"I don't really care what you want, Jenner. Will Massanutten allow us to walk down this mountain?"

"Well, yes, but I don't want you to."

"Again, I don't really care what you want, Jenner. I want you to find the rest of the group and enjoy your day. We're not Marines. You are allowed to leave us behind."

"Will you go rent skis?"

"Have you lost your mind? No, I will not rent skis."

"Please, go get skis."

"If you leave me alone right now, I will walk down this mountain seriously considering renting skis." (Of course, I had no intention of renting skis, but anything that would make this man get away from me...)

"Ok. I'll go."

"Thank you. But first we have to go save Kristi."

And with that, we went up the hill to unstrap Kristi from her board of death. After a few more parting words and pleas for skis, Jenner snowboarded off to find the rest of our group and Kristi and I began our trek down this mountain. It was a good moment. Jenner and I parted still as friends, but with a better understanding of each other, and I was grateful to be able to part on my own two feet. In pants, no less.

The rest of the day was spent standing at the foot of the mountain with Kristi, watching and waiting for our friends to get to the bottom. Jenn is a great snowboarder. I was really proud of her and Katie, too. The guys are awesome snowboarders and it was a lot of fun to watch them. Later in the day, Kristi, Katie, and I went tubing. That was a lot of fun and the guys and Jenn even made their way over to the tube park to watch us for a bit. That was great :) After dinner at Chilis, we went back to the hotel to ring in the new year. Not surprisingly, only us girls made it all the way to midnight. Of course, our energy was buoyed by a performance by the New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys. Oh, was that amazing :)


All in all, it was a great way to spend New Year's Eve. I did a lot of new things in 2010 and besides going to France, I think snowboarding was my favorite. It was something I never thought I would do and I actually did it. It might have just been for few seconds but I snowboarded. Not only that, but I snowboarded with some of the best people I have ever known. Friends who challenge me and make me laugh at the same time. We do meet no ordinary people in our lives. And I snowboarded with at least six of them :)