Snowboarding...

So Saturday I tried snowboarding for the first time ever. It was awesome!

There were 8 of us that drove out to Monarch Mountain together on Saturday. We had coupons for buy one get one free lift tickets, so that kept things from getting too expensive, and the weather was absolutely perfect--sunny, warm, and pretty good snow conditions. It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive to get there, so we left at 6:30 am and didn't get back until about 8 pm. It was a pretty long day, and I was definitely tired by the end of it. For 5 of us, it was our first time snowboarding, so we all fell quite a few times, but by the end of the day we were getting the hang of it and having a really good time. At first I kept falling on my butt when I was trying to stand up or when I got scared because I was going too fast. Then as I got better--and braver--I tried to do more turns and things, and I started face planting a lot. By the end of the day my muscles were pretty worn out--in my legs, arms, and abs. Yesterday I tried to move as little as possible because everything was so sore, but it was totally worth it! I'm really excited to try it again, and I hope that I can remember everything I learned this time. I think Jared was excited that I enjoyed it so much because he goes snowboarding all the time in WA, and now we'll be able to go together next winter.

Despite my bruises and soreness, I was not the most injured person from our group....that honor goes to Danny who broke his wrist on the last run of the day. He wrote more about it on his blog if you want to check it out: http://danseibert.blogspot.com/. He leaves on his project trip to Kenya in a week, so pray that everything will go well, and he'll be able to accomplish all of the work with only one arm.

As far as other news goes, I'm trying to get everything ready for my trip which is now less than 2 weeks away! I have no idea what to pack, so I'll need to start thinking about that soon, and we're still waiting on our visas so please pray that they'll show up in the next couple days. Thanks again for all your support! Love and miss you all!