Snowshoes, Ice Down the Pants, the Whole Bit

As you all know, I get ants in my pants when we don't have anything "special" planned over holidays. So, Brady was considerate enough to get work off, and we went snowshoeing. It was my first time. Here I am standing. I put this picture in so that you know that I was standing for at least part of the day.

Here I am with my sister Natalie, who brought her friend Tyler with her. They were a ton of fun. Natalie turned out to be significantly better at this than I was.


Case in point... This is one of about 20 times I landed on my bum after a quick decent down a hill.


The boys found a really sweet hill to jump off. It only took me three times (haha.."only") to get the jumping down, and avoid just sliding down (with the snow jamming up my back!).


Here's Natalie: she got it on her first go.


Brady was actually the first to jump off. The pic doesn't do him justice. He was pretty fun to watch.


This is Tyler, who gets the award for "best action shot."

Tyler and Brady found a frozen waterfall, and decided that we could handle the haul up the mountain. The snow was fresh, so the snowshoes didn't handle it all that well. As a result, we were thigh-deep in snow half the time. The boys made it fine, but Natalie and I spent a lot of time in the snow, rather than on top of the snow. It took some real determination, but we made it. Truth be told, I finally only finished climbing because Natalie did. That competitiveness really kicked in, despite having taken MANY falls down the mountain. (And I know that picture doesn't look like a mountain, but it's just a bad angle...)
The top! I was huffing and puffing.

Here's a picture from the parking lot. I'd like you to believe that we hiked to the top of that mountain.