Snowboarding

Dakota started snowboarding last winter, which means that this is technically his 2nd winter boarding. While he DID have a lot of fun last year, it really was a "learning" year, and his boarding skills really lacked. Because he was going to learn to board, so was I, and so I bought a whole board setup (board, bindings, and boots) the beginning of LAST season (in fall of 2008), when things were on sale since it wasn't skiing/boarding season yet. Way to save some money....except before I could try out my new equiptment, we found out we were pregnant with Brayden. So, instead of beating myself up and causing who knows what damage, I decided to stick to skiing that season (and even then, I stopped that by the end of December, about 3 months into the pregnancy) since I'm a fairly good skiier. At least I like to think I'm not too bad at it. But, I did get to watch Dakota a few times boarding that year, and it was fun just watching him have fun. But THIS year.....it's been a BLAST! The first time we went, I vowed I probably wouldn't be getting back on a board again. However, because of my "cheapness", I decided I would MAKE myself go again because I wanted some use out of a fairly expensive board set! The second time we went this year, my dad, Scott, Heather, and Curran went also! This was Curran's first time on the mountain, and Scott and Heather put him on skiis. Needless to say, I think it was a long day for them!

There was a LOT of this:

But, of course, it was so incredibly cute!

One of the best things is that my dad brought his nice photography camera and documented all of us, which was great! We finally got some good pictures!! Dakota's getting to the point to where he could probably make it down the whole mountain (starting from the very top....top of chair 6) without killing himself! My boarding skills are getting a bit better as well, but the running joke in the family now is how funny it is watching me get off the lift. For the life of me, I cannot get off the lift on a board without completely wiping out! My dad had witnessed it a few times, and in good spirits, told Scott, Heather, and Curran that they just HAD to wait to see me get off the lift. So there they were at the top of the lift....waiting....and THIS is what happened:

Yes, hilarious everyone. Even the lift operator started to recognize me.

One cool thing that is new this year (I THINK it's new this year) is that they have terrain parks. They have a large one, complete with a half pipe towards the hotel, and a smaller one with a couple jumps close to the bottom of the hill (chair 3 I think). Dakota thought he was pretty hot stuff and wanted SOOOO bad to go try it out, so we let him. Before he left, I told him just don't go TOO fast....I really didn't want broken bones. So what did he do? He kept slowing down the the point that when he got to the jump, he didn't even have enough speed to make it up the hill (aka-jump). So that didn't work too well. But, once he got the hang of it, he loved it!  

Unfortunately, never once did he actually land any of his jumps, but he's a great sport about it, popping right back up to try again! Here's my showoff hubby:

And here's me at my best....where I was probably 50% of the time:

And this is George and Koda waiting for me towards the bottom.....I'm always the last down. Besides Curran, I guess, which shouldn't really count at this point!

In all, it was SO much fun, and I can't wait to get on the board again. However, we've all decided that when it't just the adults, and we want a good day up there, I'll be on skiis. I hate not being able to go to the top or down any challenging terrain on a board, but I'm just not confident enough. When the kids get to go, I'll be on the board.
On a side note, I'm very proud to say that after about 18 years or so of skiing, I can confidently go down North Face now, and just last time we went skiing, we did the High Traverse, hiking quite a ways up the mountain past Chair 6, and skiing powder all the way down. My dad and I agreed that people who do that more than once are crazy. George and Scott, on the other hand, thought it was the best thing ever. The only thing we have yet to tackle at Alyeska is Christmas and New Year's Chute (which will probably never happen!), and the new Northwest Passage (only because it's been closed the couple times we've went this year)!