Ski Trip - Day 5: I broke my butt

Yep, literally, I broke my butt.

The day started out really really well. We had decided to finish our last day where we started, right in Keystone. Keystone also has night skiing that we wanted to try out at least once while we were there, so our last day was it! I also wanted to show the mountain who was boss after my epic failure of a first day.

We slept in a little bit and hit the slopes at 10 instead of 830 so that we had enough steam to enjoy the night riding as well. Chris and I finally felt confident enough on our boards to take out my good camera, so the bottom of this post will show some of those pics. I felt amazing. We did run after run, got some good pics, and had a blast. I actually started telling Chris to pick up his pace! He let me lead instead of getting run over.

We didn't even take a break to eat lunch, so at 3 we headed in for some much needed grub to re-energize. At about 4 we met Jennifer and Brett down at the restaurant at the bottom of the slopes for our last round of happy hour. After that, we headed back to the room, got some dry clothes on, and headed back out to the slopes.

I'm night blind. I don't see definitive shapes and most colors blend together. I have glasses to help with this while I'm driving, but I didn't bring my 'driving glasses' to go snowboarding. Besides the slopes being dark (they do have some lights up...like street lights, just on the slopes), the one thing I didn't account for was ice. Apparently since the snow has sat on the mountain and been ridden all day, and melted some, it forms into ice. Makes sense.

The first few runs of night skiing went really well. We all flew down the slopes. I almost took out a few kids and I followed the wrong people down to the bottom the first run (Jennifer was wearing white pants and Chris had on his ninja gear...if I could see light colored bottoms, they were Jennifer, and anyone that I couldn't see color on at all was Chris...well, in my head anyways), but that was all okay.

Then I broke my butt. I made a wrong turn. I turned down a catwalk that I didn't know existed, and lost my speed. I finally got going a teeny tiny bit, hit an ice patch (that I couldn't see...ice looks like snow to me with my blindness issues), my board slipped out from me, and I landed square on my butt...hard. Falling when you've got some speed is one thing, it carries you a little bit so you don't adsorb all of the impact. Falling on a flat catwalk going zero just sucks.

I knew I hurt my tailbone pretty badly (the docs confirmed...it's fractured), but I couldn't let that be the last run that I ended on. So, I finished that run, headed back up the gondola, and had a great last run to finish out my trip. Keystone might have left me a little more battered, but I had the final say (and those of you women out there will know how important THAT is)!

We left the next morning for Denver, had one of the worst plane rides ever (why is it that Southwest is so ghetto?!), but came back smiling with memories that we'll forever cheerish! We had a great trip and hope to make it back next year...broken tailbone and all!

I'll sum up the plane ride in one sentence. Chris's take away from it was this: We're not ready to have kids yet!

Enjoy the pics!

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Ski Trip - Day 4: Breckenridge

Day 4 was spent at Chris and I's trusty snowboarding mountain, Breckenridge. Chris decided that he was going back to Breckenridge ninja style. Not only did Jennifer, Brett, and I tell him he looked like a ninja, the guys at the bottom of the lifts kept asking him "Whatup Ninja Warrior?!". He wore black pants, a black jacket, a black face mask (it was coooold), and a red beanie. The red beanie was key in spotting him on the slopes!

I managed to have another successful day of riding, so my confidence was pretty much back 100%. All of the mountains over there did have a 'snow drought' while we were there, so there were quite a few ice patches/tree brances, etc. to watch out for. We pretty much found the good peaks that had the most snow on them and stuck with those runs for the whole day, with one exception. Brett told us not to head to peak 10 because it was so windy, and the wind had blown all of the snow off of the mountain. We had so much fun there a few years ago, that Chris couldn't resist and we headed there anyways. After making it down the cliffs of ice, we decided we'd listen to Brett next time!

We wound up splitting up for the day and meeting back at lunch, and then apres skiing it at Mi Casa afterwards. It was a cold cold day in Breckenridge, so getting in the warmth for awhile was awesome! I think with the wind chill, the temp was 0. Yep, zero. We took a walk around the town after happy hour. As we were walking back to the truck, we spotted this fox right along the bank of the parking lot. We didn't get the best picture of him (just had my point and shoot...and it was dark), but he was still pretty cool!

I'll close with some pics of us throughout the day. Happy Monday!

Me, upright!

Yes...I can snowboard again!!!

Chris trying to mimic me and my 2 thumbs up!

Chris: "Did you get the picture babe?!"

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNY!!!

Jenny became one of my best friends our freshman year in college. We went to high school together, and at the very end of our senior year started sort of being friends, but we were inseparable for most of our college days.

Jenny taught me that being a complete goof ball isn't dumb, it's fun. She taught me to dance and sing when I feel like it. She taught me that it's possible to laugh so hard in one day that your cheeks are sore for the next week. She taught me to not care what others think, just be me.

She's such a great person, and I love her to death!!! Hope you have a great one Jenny!!! Thanks for being there for me throughout the years...my life is much better with you in it! I miss you tons!!!! Have fun today at Jimmy Buffett (I figured the pirate pic of you was semi-appropriate for that)!

Ski Trip - Day 3: Helloooo Vail!

We got up early on day 3 and headed over to Vail with my new, non-ghetto, gear. The boys made a silly decision in thinking that it'd be okay for our boots to ride in he back of the truck on the drive over. They were frozen.

After we thawed our boots in the bathroom, we headed to the slopes. Jennifer and I, much to the boys dismay, kept singing 'today's gonna be a good good day' (Black Eyed Peas, slight modification to day from night). By the end of the trip, we decided we needed to learn the rest of the lyrics to that song!

We got on the slopes and headed to the back bowls. To keep this blog relatively short, I'll touch on a few fun (and not so fun) moments through the day...

I'll be happy if I never see another catwalk again for the rest of my life while snowboarding. Highly unlikely, but I'd be thrilled.

Trees aren't too fun for boarders, or at least not these 2 boarders, so we let Jenn and Brett head off to the trees while we supposidly were taking another run down the wide open bowls. Chris had grown in confidence (making up for my lack of confidence from falling everywhere day 1), and decided he was going to lead and take us down fun, new adventures runs. In the picture to the right, I've captured Chris right as he was saying "I'm SORRY babe, this sucks, don't be mad at me!!!". He led us down a path where no one else was...right in the trees! The view was beautiful, and we laughed the whole way too, so it wasn't that bad..

I had my first experience at a T-bar to get to the restaurant at lunch, and then to head back to the bottom of the slopes at the end of the day. I think it was Jennifer's first experience too. I'll sum it up by saying this: Kara: 0 , T-bar 2. Jennifer had better luck the 2nd go round, Jennifer: 1, T-bar 1. The boys, of course, did fine.

I gained enough confidence to ride ahead of Chris and stop and take pictures of him coming down, so I'll close with a few action shots! Vail was beautiful and a ton of fun. I think it was also the place that we saw the best snow, so day 3 was a success! I only fell a handful of times, so I made a good rebound from day 1!

Ski Trip - Day 2: Blizzard, where aaaare you?!

We woke up on day 2, got dressed, and headed to the rental store. The guy behind the counter almost looked embarassed that they had rented me out such garbage equipment (not embarassed enough to give us any sort of refund), and told us that we could come back after 4 and he'd have nicer gear waiting for me, and put Chris's gear aside so we didn't have to pay for that days use. Perfect!

Back at the condo, Chris did some school work, I finished my book I'd been reading on the plane, and Jennifer spent the morning doing some work (on VACATION...that's sac-religious in my book!). Poor Brett headed off to the slopes all by his lonesome.

Because the blizzard was supposed to be there by noon, at about 10 a.m, Chris and I headed outside to the hottub (we had to take our 'beanies and bikinis' picture too). It was such a beautiful and sunny day, and the hottub felt awesome on my sore legs / shins. We came in, ate some lunch, and then I headed back out to the hot tub again for my legs at about 1230. No blizzard, or even one single snow flake fell while I was out there. Realizing that I was starting to actually get sunburnt (during the supposid blizzard), I came inside. Chris finished up his school work for the day and we took a walk around Keystone to see all of the different stores and sights. We did not see one ounce of snow fall...not one single flake, the entire day. I actually think day 2 was the most beautiful day of the whole trip.

That night, after picking up new, non-ghetto gear for me, we decided that we'd head to Vail for day 3. Chris and I had never actually been there, we have somehow managed to just get in a routine of Breckenridge, Breckenridge, Breckenridge, so we went to bed excited for what day 3 would bring (without my ghetto gear!!).

Ski Trip - Day 1: HELP, I've fallen and I can't get up!

The day started as any other ski trip day 1 that we've been on together. We woke up at the butt crack of dawn, like little kids on Christmas morning, and all got ready to head out to the slopes for our first day on the mountain! Chris and I had never boarded Keystone before, and were super excited to see what the mountain had to offer.

The cool thing about Keystone is that a gondola takes you up from the base. Our condo was pretty close to the base, which was super nice. Not having to ride a lift up before you're warmed up in the cold mornings is great.

What wasn't great was my gear. Since we've never boarded at Keystone, we didn't rent our gear from our normal place in Breckenridge. My snowboard and boots looked like someone had ran over them with a massive semi truck at least 500 times. The guy at the store said it was 'well loved'. Well loved = piece of garbage. I'm not sure why I got quiet and shy at the rental place and didn't say anything more about the POS they had just given me, it was completely out of character for me,

so I took the crappy gear anyways.

I spent the majority of day one on my butt, knees, and fists. A few runs after lunch (the pic is of us going in for lunch...I'm still smiling!), I decided to let the rest of the crew take a break from me and my pathetic falling and have some good runs without me. I sat in the warming hut, rubbed my shins that were throbbing and already bruising, and gave myself a little pep talk.

Motivation was not the issue. My mindset was not the issue. The crew came back to get me after a few runs, (the pictures below are the 3 of them coming in), and we started heading back to the side of the mountain that we were staying on, which was a few good, long runs away. Normally this is awesome. With defective gear and a throbbing body, it was not so awesome for me.

Brett

Chris

Jennifer

It was hard, but I tried (probably with very little success) to not be Debbie Downer and rain on everyone else's first fun day on the mountain. On the last run, I fell 4 times within probably 50 feet of the lift and decided I wasn't boarding down the rest of the slope (I still had a long way to go) and risking breaking anything because of my faulty equipment. When life hands you lemons... I took off my board, sat on it like a sled, and sledded down the entire rest of the mountain, laughing the whole way. Chris boarded right behind me so that no one took me out, and Jennifer and Brett watched from the bottom of the mountain, thinking I had hurt myself and that was the only way I could manage to get down to the bottom until I walked up, grinned, and said "that was SO much better than falling the whole way down!!!"

We finished our first day on the mountains with a few cold, much needed, brewski's. As I iced my shins that night, Chris and Brett looked at the weather report, and Chris and I decided that our 'off day' would be day 2 instead of day 3. The weather called for blizzardy conditions after 12 p.m., so between that, and my pathetic shins, we decided to take day 2 off, relax, and go back to the rental place and get some non-ghetto gear in the morning. I fell asleep to visions of me standing and falling and standing and falling dancing through my head.

Ski Trip - Takeoff

I'm a picture fanatic. I love to take pictures to capture everything. Printing out the pictures andputting them into albums is a whole other story, but I love taking the actual pictures.

Chris and I got to the airport, and I wanted to take a 'before the trip' picture while we were waiting in the terminal. Chris sometimes is a little stubborn when it comes to pictures, but for the most part, he plays along nicely. I can't just rag on him without saying my shortcomings, so in all honesty, I'm a little bit of a control freak in how I want the picture taken.

I do not like pictures taken from straight on or down below when it's a monkey arm shot. I have a bird face, and I don't like when the angle of the shot either makes me look like I have 3 chins or a witch nose. Chris decided that he wanted to take our 'self portrait' and kept clicking away and kept saying 'smile' in the middle of my sentences. He'd check the picture, see it was bad, and say smile again without adjusting anything.

Next time he turned the camera to look at it, this is what he saw:

Sigh...the love we have for one another...

MIA

I just wanted to type up a quick post apologizing for being MIA over the past week. Chris and I went out West on our ski trip last week, and I boycott the computer at all costs when I'm on vacation.

I'll blog about our ski trip later on in the week. We had a ton of fun with Chris's cousin Jennifer, and her husband Brett. I came home with a cold and a bruised bootay, which for those of you that know me, isn't surprising at all. Days like today are when I'm very grateful that I work from home. I don't feel like explaining to everyone at the office why I'm sitting on a pillow!

Happy Monday everyone, hope you guys had a good weekend and a great Valentine's Day!!

P.S. For Gold Plate

Just to elaborate on how big of an accomplishment the gold plate is...

Our group is called the Electronic Center of Excellence. In it, there are 816 people all over the world. Of those 816 people, 84 got nominated for the Outstanding Engineer award. Of the 84 nominations, 18 total people, from all of the sites, received the award. GO CHRIS!!!

Yep, I married a superstar!!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Gold Plate

Congratulations to my husband!!!

He received word yesterday that he was getting an 'Outstanding Engineer' Award at work. They carve his name on a gold plate and give it to him as a keepsake.

In my goal of keeping positive (I think yesterday's blog was more sarcastic than negative), the gold plate means the company we work for really appreciates all the hard work and extra time he's given them over the past year. (My more negative side would've said blood, sweat, and tears..all for a gold plate?!...but I'm focusing on being positive, so I won't say that part).

It's a really big accomplishment, and I'm so proud of him! Next up, CEO!!!