Anniversary

   I was reading Self magazine today, the anniversary of the day that I fractured the top of my humerus while riding at Steamboat Springs. My accident happened on my last run before I stopped for lunch and a much-needed break. Unfortunately, I was really too tired to keep going, and ended up with a break of a different kind!

  In the magazine I ran across these two quotes from Olympians, and found both to be true and inspiring. 

   Here's to one more snowboarding trip in 2014, and here's to not breaking anything this time around!!! Can't wait to get to Winter Park in a couple weeks… forward!!!!!

Kick@**!

   I made it to illustration circle for the second week (in a row!!!) and was planning to sketch, but Mirna kindly offered to share her gouache, brushes, and postcard-sized watercolor paper, so I painted! Today's theme was to create an Olympics poster. And here's the trouble I caused:

   It's not great and it's not even finished but I love it. I plan to keep going... and plan to do what the painting says soon again. Just booked my next snowboarding trip.

MacDo

   I eat fast food mayyyybe 6 times a year. And I am in Filet-o-Fake-Fish a and greasy delicious French fry heaven at the Denver airport right now. #preemptiveregret #slimyyetsatisfying

   On a similarly unhealthy note:

Hahahhahhahahahahaha!!!!!

Snow Cat

   Sketch for David B's thank you card (he procured the Gold Passes for us on our recent ski trip). This is his kitty, Sosa, and I call it "Snow Cat". I'm really excited for him to get it. He loved the card I drew for him last time with Sammy, the dog he hoped to get someday. But he actually has Sosa already! It was such a bummer he was unexpectedly unable to join us on this trip. Here's hoping my body is back to 100% and ready to shred up a storm next season!

Gone Shredding

   Just returned to work from my madcap four days on the mountains! Had left this sketch on my chair... And now that my skills are 10x what they were five days ago, the drawing is more accurate than when I initially drew it!  ;)

POWDER DAY!!!

   The sign on the bus says it all!!! Last day at Breck looks to be a great one!

Powder Day!!!

   Day 1 on the mountain was awesome, and today (day 2) we woke up to TEN INCHES of fresh powder! Off to carve like crazy!!!

I. LOVE. SNOWBOARDING.

   Okay, I realize that a snail could outrun me here, and I was too nervous to try linking some turns on camera for fear of falling, but...

I CAN SNOWBOARD!!! AND IT IS GOOD!!! Is it wrong that after one awesome trip I already miss it so much that I'm fantasizing about it and checking the Breckenridge snow reports to see what I'm missing? I've missed 15" of snow in the last 7 days! Hey, A-Basin is supposed to be open 'til July 4. Who's with me???

   I'm trying to put into words what I love so much about the experience. The main thing might be that it's pretty difficult when you first get started, and can be very frustrating. But that makes it mean that much more when it finally clicks. The last time I felt this exhilarated about learning something new was Scuba diving a year ago. Or swimming a year and a half ago.

   I love the visceral feeling of digging your edges into the heavy, ungroomed powder when your muscle memory clicks into place and you can move without prior calculation. I hadn't boarded on powder before—just ice at Snow Creek. Heavy powder forces you to be aggressive. It's slower than well-traveled, groomed and often icy slopes, but it can be unpredictable: if you hit a pile of snow and become airborne, you have to be prepared for it!

   Once I learned that you really have to throw your weight around to steer and control, and use the toe straps and the high backs for leverage as you link turns, everything clicked into place. Awesome.

   It wasn't easy. And I fell many times (as evidenced by the ever-present dusting of powder on my snowpants). But there's something so satisfying about mastering a skill that is so hard-won that can't compare to any other feeling. You feel free, and powerful. And confident. (At least until you wipe out again!)

   Terry and Maureen skiied with me for part of the time, and Terry noted that even when I fall down, I hop right back up again with a huge smile on my face. For me, that's what it's all about. Recently I heard this quote by John Wooden, and I really believe it: "Things turn out best for people who make the best out of the way things turn out.” Take your lumps, fight through them, and enjoy the challenge. It'll make you appreciate the results more.

Breck or bust... some bones

   Headed to Breckenridge with Maureen and Terry to gallivant about the slopes, shop, hit the spa, enjoy our private hot tub at our condo, and of course, use the heck out of our free Gold Medal ski passes (thanks to Maureen's buddy)! I happened upon these helpful tips in Fitness Magazine on how to fall properly. Love the first line: "Snowboarding leads to 100,000 ER visits every year." Mommy! If I don't come home snowboarding like a champ from this adventure, I'm hopeless!

Finally catching up on some posts

   Don't you just love holidays? I have 1000 other things I should be doing, but I'm catching up on my blog. So for those who are interested: I give you Steamboat Springs, CO for New Year's 1 and 2, and Los Angeles for Christmas: Kelley & Eric's • food • more food • rain • aquarium • Scuba • flytrap • birthday • Christmas Eve.
   And so help me, I will post photos from New Mexico (July) and Maui (November) soon!

Chicky time

   Tonight I made roasted chicken and vegetables again. I had just made it in Colorado a few days ago, but we only ate it for one meal, and it was so good that I was already craving it again. Easily one of the yummiest—and easiest—things I've ever cooked!

   The chicken I purchased included the liver and some other assorted parts, which I decided to cook up for the mutts. It made my kitchen a little stinky, but it made the dogs very, very happy. Aaaand Taylor gets to start on the diet... tomorrow.

   I need to be careful... I have been so careful about never sharing "people food" with these mutts, so that they don't learn to beg while I'm eating. I will say that they have been lurking about every time I've heated up the leftovers, but then they go and chill out. Unlike those ungrateful cats, who try to climb on my lap and knock food off my fork as I bring it toward my mouth. Oh yes, I am quite the animal trainer.

Steamboat or Bust

   This year I had the pleasure of spending New Year's Eve on another adventure... Chris invited me to come out to Steamboat Springs, CO to try snowboarding for the first time! I was really excited, for a whole lot of reasons, not the least of which because this would only be my second time in Colorado. I knew Steamboat was a famous ski destination so I was a little surprised at how small the airport was. Chris found me, we grabbed my bags, and were on our way into town.

   Nothing excites me quite like seeing mountains, and Steamboat is nestled right in them. And with the near-record snowfalls (16+'!) they couldn't have been more beautiful.

   Chris whipped up a snack of grilled Halloumi cheese (yum) and wine, and then we hung out in the outdoor hot tub and enjoyed watching fireworks from the top of the mountain. (Keep in mind it was somewhere between minus 10 to minus 20 degrees, so once you were in the water it was hard to get out!) But he had made reservations for a spectacular 5-course dinner at Bistro CV, so we braved the elements.

Photos are from Explore Steamboat

   Bistro CV lived up to the high praise in Frontier Airlines' inflight magazine, Wild Blue Yonder... the meal was just incredible. Each course was complex and delicious, from the salmon tartare to the diver scallops & sweet potato gnocchi; the seared 27-year aged ribeye to the flourless chocolate cake with berry sorbet. (And the rose champagne didn't hurt, either!) This was hands-down the best (and possibly coldest) New Year's ever. 

   Saturday was extremely cold again, with wind chills at -20, so though we were out on the mountain for lunch, we opted to hang out inside and watch movies and make dinner rather than risk frostbite. Mark & Melanie came over for dinner and we cooked up a superdelicious meal: Asian pork belly lettuce wraps, sirloin, scallops & more (eat your heart out, CV!)

   Sunday, we were up and at 'em, riding the Wildhorse gondola up to Steamboat, then grabbing rental gear for me so that Chris could give me my first lesson.

And the lucky board is... the Park Pickle. (What?!)

   Steamboat is incredibly beautiful, especially when the clouds cleared up and the sky was intensely blue.

   Nothing, however, could distract from what a huge dork I looked like:

   But, I guess that's the hazard of cold-weather gear, right, Chris?

   Chris did his best to teach me everything he knows about snowboarding, but it was a fairly huge gap, considering he's had over 20 years of experience. I put everything I had into it, but still wasn't getting very far. I'm sure Chris was disappointed, frustrated and frankly, bored, but he hid it well and was a great sport. After two hours of trudging up the practice hill (I hated to waste $90 on a lift ticket if I couldn't get the hang of it), a few good bruises on my knees and a helluva whack on my tailbone, I was pretty well exhausted.

Coccyx: 1, Jen: 0

   So we took a break for lunch, and rode up the big gondola to Hayzie's, where we met a couple of his friends. Great views everywhere, and really great food.

   I took the easy way down. This is why I'm here writing this blog today rather than in intensive care and wrapped up like a mummy, like you see in cartoons. It was worth it, for that, and for the views (the photos don't do them justice, since it had become cloudy again, and I was shooting through glass):

   Chris, on the other hand, took the fast way down: tearing it up on the mountain!

   We met up at the bottom and grabbed some groceries and whipped up a really delicious roast chicken and vegetables for dinner, then hit the hot tubs again. This guy knows how to live!  ;)

Clouds

It has been rainy & cloudy in KC for several days, so it was a treat to see the sun while driving home yesterday & today! The clouds still look potentially stormy, and the color of the sky darkens & intensifies as you look away from the horizon—from a light greenish cerulean to a deep blue-violet, making the giant, puffy clouds stand out clearly. Periodically when the clouds are thick & low on the horizon you can easily look up the road ahead, squint, and imagine them to be mountains in the distance. At least, that's how I always see them. I don't know how I manage to be born in Ohio & to kettle in KC, both conspicuously sans mountains, because I was born to be around them. I can feel it every time I visit. And even more audacious: I live but a 10-hour drive from Colorado but have never found the time to go in my 13 years in the region! When I tell people this, they look at me as if I have two heads. Many KC natives make an annual trip to enjoy Colorado. So, if I disappear for several days, you'll know where I went.