Expected Unexpected: Colorado Adventures!

So...is it too late to talk about Christmas?? Does the fact that I came home from the holidays to a tv AND a computer that no longer decide to turn on work as a good excuse?? I think so!! And no, as most ask, they were both unplugged...so no lightning struck them..just a tag-team plan by both of them to challenge my trust in the Lord all the more! But within days, a tv was given to me for FREE as i await the time to get a new one! Of course it is much smaller than mine...so i had two options...shrink my living room and put my couches two feet from the tv or squint my eyes...I chose to squint...hopefully this will not cause me to get glasses in my future! haha! And even a little while later, my sweet uncle Dan gave me his old computer! Im so thankful...now I can blog and facebook and catch back up with the world again!

So on that note...spending Christmas in Colorado was great, cold, adventurous, and tiring! Our not so small family of 6 piled into a not so big suv and drove all the way there and back!! We had the great privilege to make a couple stops on the way...St. Louis to visit my Uncle Glenn & fam AND also our long-time family friend, Shaun and his sweet family! These stops served as great time-outs from the car travel...6 tall Floyd's in a suv just dont stay sweet, patient, and calm voices for too long! haha

So why Colorado?? Well besides me, none of the Floyd kid's have seen real deal snow! Breckenridge was the home of my precious great grandparents and so it was great to remind ourselves of many long-ago life memories (well at least introduce the other kid's to those memories)! And of course...SKI!! And whats a blog post without a funny story!!

So we all set out..for the FIRST time...we are all going to be brave and try! Matthew and Kobi decide to snowboard while the rest of us decide to ski! We hit the slopes..or rather they hit us...we are on the green (the beginner short slope)...I neither know how to turn OR stop...both necessities, but you could live with just knowledge on just one, but without either...it creates such a terrible and miserable time! Being the athlete that I am, I was not laughing, but getting angry that I could not at least get it enough to get down the hill!! All the while, Matthew and Kobi have taken quite well to snowboarding (thanks to my friend Victoria who joined us for the day and taught the boys) and went down the hill 4 or 5 times in my lacking of getting down once!! I ended up taking the ski's off, sit on them, and slide my unhappy butt down the hill--with mom and Jayci riding as well, beside me! Jayci and I decide to trade our ski's for snowboards...and so then Victoria, the boys, and us girls head to a different resort that lets you ride the slopes in the dark because they have lights!

We ride the gondola up the mountain...our first stop is actually the last stop..the very top peak of the hill (obvious sign #1 something is not right, but missed it)...absolutely beautiful--even though it is pitch dark!! Matthew and Kobi take off and Victoria stays behind to give Jay and I a few lessons!! Finally, gosh darnt, I figure it out!! I wave Victoria off to go ahead and go and Ill teach Jay and go down the slope with her! So we set off together...this slope is full of many hills and than bowls (flat surfaces between hills to slow skiers down)...but the bowls created such torture for Jay and I...because we would get stuck on them and you cannot snowboard without a hill...so the first bowl (obvious sign #2-missed again) we spend over an hour on!!! misery!! Finally the second one, i figured out how to take my foot out and treat it like a skateboard and slide my way to the next hill! I noticed that every couple hills there was a phone on the side of the slope to call in emergencies (obvious sign #3--missed yet again)! After about 3 hours on the same slope (i know i know and we are getting better, but it just takes time)...but this man in a yellow jacket comes racing down in his skis and stops to talk with us...he asks, "are you Ashley and Jayci??" WHAT?!?! He then says that my family has sent him to find us because they are worried about us and do not think we will make it down the mountain! (obvious sign #4-missed again) Thanks for the concern but PUH-LEASE!! I assured him that we are fine and to mention to the family that when he found us, we were both STANDING!! haha

Not ten minutes later a skier dragging a toboggan (he is a rescuer--obvious sign #5-starting to think now...) stops and asks us if we are ok...do we have a target on our backs or something?!?!? I told him we were fine and Jayci asks him how often he comes down the hilll..haha...we joked we might catch that ride later! And then...I ask him where we are in reference to the bottom of the slope...his answer..."almost half-way"...ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!so then I ask..how long is this thing? he answers...3 miles...after almost falling over, i laugh hysterically that my first attempt at snowboarding is down a 3mile insane slope in the dark!!! This cannot be happening!

So after another hour...Jayci is just getting so tired..and she finally calls it the quits! I flag down a rescuer (who later mentions that it only takes him 6 minutes to get down the 3mile slope-JERK) and we hop on that toboggan AND Jay and I have the highlight experience of our trip...he pulled us so fast down that hill...it was AMAZING!! I dont know why we took so long to get that FREE ride...whats wrong with us!! We enjoyed waving to all the skiers as we flew past them...haha...you dummies are still on the hill!!