Christmas in Aspen

I'm not saying I'm athletic enough to have expected snowboarding to be easy, I just didn't think it was SO hard.

My family is the type of family that would rather go on a trip than get gifts for Christmas. Of course, we all love a thoughtful item from each other, but we'd much rather have fun memories together. I guess our average family love language is quality time. Up until last Christmas (cue Taylor Swift {or Wham! if you favor the original}), we had never had the ability to afford to take a cool trip over winter break.

But my dad's business has been doing really well and my brothers and I no longer have sports and things for the parentals to pay for. So, we saved up some money, packed up too many bags, and flew out to Aspen, Colorado on Christmas day.

I absolutely adore flying. I would live in a plane if I could. Unfortunately, there is a height requirement to be a flight attendant that I miss by a whopping 3 inches. But I love airports. I love the sky. I love crappy airplane food. I love navigating airports. I love people watching. I love turbulence. I love my suitcase. I love layovers. I love delays. I love it all. So, flying into Denver at Christmas time was spectacular.

We then taxied to get our rental car which ended up being too small for all of our bags. Luckily, my brothers used to play a lot of tetris, and they figured out a way to fit it all in. Each of us ended up with a bag at our feet or on our lap, but still. The drive was beautiful. You don't know how pretty snow capped mountains actually are until you're driving straight through them. And drive straight through them, we did.

We stayed in a condo one of my dad's friends owns and rents out right outside of Snowmass. Our main goal was to snowboard, but we also enjoyed hot chocolate, good food, and a day trip snowmobiling to see Maroon Bells. Our toes almost froze off of our feet, but the view was so worth it.

(featuring my sweet dad whose idea the trip was and to whom Maroon Bells holds a special place in his heart)

Back to the snowboarding part. That stuff is difficult. My mom, my less naturally athletic brother(though his CrossFit training has toned him well), and I took a three hour private lesson. Our teacher was awesome, and Nathan caught on enough to take on the slopes alone. Mom and I, on the other hand, were just falling all over the place. We expected three hours to be too short, but we were absolutely wiped out by the end of it.

The second day we got out there, my mom chose to relax in the warmth and comfort of the ski lodge while I helplessly tried out the bunny slopes. God bless my brothers because they kept riding with me patiently as I yelled, "I think I've got the hang of it!" then fell on my butt countless times. And God bless my dad who took me down the real slopes when we were ready to call it a day. He skied down while I hung onto one of his poles like a dog on a leash. If I had let go, I would've gone tumbling down the mountain.

When we got back home, all my friends asked me how I enjoyed snowboarding, and I had a great time and I had many, many bruises to prove it.

christmas in aspen photo album