Well, this year we were off to Angel Fire once again for our Christmas Vacation with the family. After Jenee and I arrived back in Texas after our Immigration interview, we all caught a few hours of sleep and scrambled into the cars for a 4 am departure.
Now, I have done this trip several times now so I am becoming a bit of an expert about the whole deal. Therefore I took the first shift of driving, following behind Dad2. I did ok for the first few hours but about 6am I started too feel very sleepy. This luckily happened about the same time we took a toilet stop so I got out, relieved myself of my early morning water drinking and then proceeded to run around in track pants and a t-shirt in below freezing temperatures on the frozen grass. It was definately invigorating and I was ok for a few more hours.
The rest of the drive was uneventful and we arrived in Angel Fire, greeted by snow and ice and 10ºF / -10ºC temperatures! LOVE IT! Now I am not going to give you a complete blow-by-blow of all the events but I will give you a few stories.
Let's see; there was the one with the pull out couch. Now our home had enough bedrooms for everyone but Jenee and I, we volunteered to sleep on the pull out bed. We snuggled up under the blankets and proceeded to sleep. Some hours later in the morning I wake up, I feel like I have been sleeping with an iron bar under my shoulders and legs with a sheet for a saggy matress. So that only lasted one night. I made the executive decision that I would sleep on the couch and Jenee would sleep on the single matress. We did try and sleep on the single matress together but apparently two adults don't fit on it long wise, let alone width wise. I do seem to remember falling off the bed a few times.
And lets see, there was the one with the snowmobile. As some of you know, my mom had a rather nasty encounter with a snowmobile. Well, this year it was Eugene's turn. Poor Eugene, following the guide hit a rock, breaking the steering and shock adsorber. Well, this flipped the snowmobile, volting Eugene into the snow and then landing on top of him. This resulted in us taking the special drive to the Taos Emergency Room. After a few hours (and me sorting out 3 seasons of Friends for Jenee's iPod) Eugene had a fractured collar bone, a fractured rib and some bad bruising. A packet of pain killers and we had one lightheaded 34 year old man who thought he was a humming bird (if you are reading this seriously, he really thought he was a bee). He's actually ok now.
And I think we have time for one more story. Let's see, there was the time I went out in -13C weather to take some pictures for all of you, and then there was the time we went snow shoeing in two feet of fresh snow, but I think my favorite is the time I went snowboarding and got a little over confident. You see, I have really only stuck to the front side of the mountain for the last few years, so this year I decided to try one of the slopes on the back side. Following David, I started down the mountain and was really enjoying myself, I only fell once or twice too. And then it happened. On the last part of the slope within sight of the lift I picked up some considerable speed. Carving away, the wrong edge of the snowboard got caught and I got whiplashed onto the snow. It must have been quite a sight because when I stopped and rolled over, I had to stay on hands and knees for about 5 minutes before I had my wits about me. I had landed so hard on my tailbone that I head all the joints in my back crack, my abdominals were on fire because I had tried to use them to keep my head from hitting the snow and my head felt like someone had hit it with a rubber mallet. Next year I am buying a helmet...
Well, that was a short summary of our holiday in the snow. We had lots of fun and adventures with the family, who knows what will happen next year?
I will post some pictures tomorrow!
Nate and Jenee
