road trips are amazing...

...especially the last-minute variety. they have a way of inspiring and rejuvinating me more-so than the planned trips.

my latest last-minute road trip occured this weekend. Becky and i were tentatively planning a short snowboarding outing, so we were really bummed when she had to work on saturday. we decided to shift our plans to a day later and crossed our fingers that i could take monday off. on saturday morning i called my boss and he gave me the day off. after clearing my schedule and sending a few emails to work folks, i left for colorado at around noon. i listened to podcasts on the drive and arrived in town early enough to do some reading at a coffee shop before Becky got off work. then the evening was full of yummy food and really good conversation.

we slept in a bit on sunday, but still made it in good time to the resort for a wonderful day of snowboarding! we started off taking some tougher and longer blues and it was amazing!!

in the middle of the morning, i had a spectacular fall -- i think i redefined the meaning of a face-plant. when i stopped sliding, i was face down and my goggles and glasses were around my neck and packed with snow. the inside layer of my goggles were ripped and my poor glasses were bent up. (i had earlier made a comment that i should buy a new pair of goggles, but didn't think it would be absolutely necessary!)

after lunch and a few more runs, Becky and i independently considered taking a short black diamond trail. i thought i was being overconfident (which probably caused my earlier fall), but i couldn't say no when Becky brought it up. the run was so incredible and i only fell once! it wasn't near as difficult as i expected it to be! let this be an encouragement to anyone who is contemplating learning snowboarding -- after only 6 days on a board, you too could successfully take a black! (and i had a hard time learning it the first two days!)

when we got back to town, we raced to a local restarant for Becky to meet some classmates to do homework. this brought back so many memories from study parties at letourneau -- a bunch of whacky, geeky girls doing electrical engineering homework! fun times!

then we went back to her place and had our own church together, since we missed it that morning. it was amazing! i love reading, discussing, etc the Bible with a good friend! (i am continuously amazing at how far God has brought me -- i was running from Him until 8 months ago!)

we relaxed and packed on monday morning and then she went off to work. i went to a ski shop and bought some goggles and gloves (which also needed replacing). my goggles broke at the best time of the year -- everything was 20%-80% off! my new gloves are really cool -- they have wrist guards and extra padding on the palms and knuckles! i can't wait to wear them on the slopes!

my drive home was filled with talking with Mrs C (something i don't do near enough) and listening to more podcasts. i made home just in time to go to church -- a wonderful way to start my week!