New Year's 2012

This year for New Year's we went on a 8 day road trip to San Fran and then on to Lake Tahoe. It turned out to be the R&R we desperately needed. There's really nothing the city and some good clean mountain air can't do. We visited (almost) all of Tucker's favorite San Fran spots*, drove across the Golden Gate to walk around the Muir Woods, snowboarded on the hardiest manmade snow at Heavenly and Northstar, put a few bucks in the Wheel of Fortune slot, and then booked it home to the poor cats who had been fending for themselves all the while.

*Special thanks to Cole for letting us crash in his apartment while we were there and he was away.

US Open of Surfing

Thank heavens this huge tournament doesn't occur on our pier. Thousands, I mean thousands, of people gather for this yearly event. We were going to beach cruise to it. Yep, no biggie, it had to only be 5 miles at the most, we are in shape, young people. Well, luckily we clocked it in the car when we took a recent drive to Huntington. 7.5 miles? That's a 15 mile round trip on our cruisers. No thanks! So, we racked the cruisers on the FJ and parked a couple miles from the Huntington Beach pier ( that's the closest parking spot we could find at 9:00am, yes I said thousands). We watched Slatron and the final heat of Men's surfing, ate at Duke's, bought some useful tourist gear (I love my $5 Hurley canteen), and then watched Caballero shred in the skate comp. By the end of the day I was so grateful for our couple mile bike ride to the car. One day of the Open is definitely all we can handle a year, I can't wait for next.

Ice Chips

Warning: Ice Chips are frequently mistaken for snow at Mountain High.

Last weekend Tucker and I drove over to Mt. High Resort and found that the "snow" is more like chips of ice blown the previous night on the snow blower. I personally don't recommend the place unless it has recently snowed. They give you ice chips and make you play a version of Frogger (because of the exuberant amount of newbies sitting on their sore bums) and expect me to have a blast.

Tucker would like to leave a disclaimer: "Okay its not fresh pow pow...but Taras 'Ice Chips' aren't so bad once it warms up and especially if your working little jibs and park jumps around the resort (I hit the middle quads for the first time too:). I mean your in the desert right, so you can't expect too much and it also doesn't hurt when your riding at discount too....thx MadMikey. Last time it snowed Brendan and I went night boarding and did catch some really rare and nice snow in Wrightwood. It might not have been the best snow that day, but it was incredible out, the air was fresh, sun shining and I was with my baby on top of a mountain, c'mon. ya know."

Sorry for the lack of fun pictures. I always forget to bring my camera on the slopes.

Board Not Bored

We had a grand 'ol time in Big Bear this weekend. Yes, of course we made it home in time for the Super Bowl (we didn't want Tucker to have some form of heart attack from missing it). Tucker had his best boarding session of the season and I felt like a kid again going off jumps. Our brother joined us for the snow retreat and showed Tucker up on the slopes with his superior, experienced moves on the rails.

Wake in the New Year

Once again I have no New Years resolution. Although I can see how it is beneficial for some people to set goals and make commitments it just doesn't work for me. Everyday when I get out of bed I tell myself that today I am going to be a better wife, friend, teacher, person than I was yesterday. I guess in some way I am doing a daily resolution to better myself. With all of our little families recent activities time has flown by. In the last 3 weeks of my Winter Break I have had sad tears, happy tears, laughter, family fun, reconnected with an old friend, said goodbye to an old friend, and gotten closer to my husband. In 2009 I don't want to miss a beat, I want my eyes to be wide open to life and the beauty of it. I have been blessed beyond what I deserve and I want to experience all of it to the fullest.


To celebrate New Years this year we headed to Mammoth. I hadn't been to Mammoth in 9 years and I forgot how beautiful the town was. We rented a condo close to the lifts with 8 other people. We had 5 days of snowboarding, partying, playing, tubing and driving.

Happy New Year everyone! May your 2009 be happy, healthy and full of life.

Me getting pscyhed up to dominate some punk

6-8 yr old local 'tubers' down the slope

"Ye Auld Dubliner!"