Ski Nagano

Wow!! It's been a while! To back up a bit, we had a massive party on Christmas Eve. It started out to be just for the single guys in the squadron. Then we realized that there were several new couples with no where to go.

So we invited them.

Then we realized that there were several couples we enjoyed with no kids to hang out with.

So we invited them.

All said and done, I think we ended up with about 60 people here. They killed two fried turkeys and probably could have eaten 2 more. A few of them showed up at 2pm and the last ones (the same few) left at 2:30am. (Lesson learned: If you invite single guys over Christmas Eve, expect them to stay a long time - they don't have anything else to do.)

We still had to clean up and "do Santa". It was almost 4 when we went to bed. 9am came early at our house. Thank God I have kids that sleep in!

There was more craziness after Christmas - hanging out with friends mixed in with preparing for our Ski Trip to Nagano...

Our friends, "The Janks", flew up from Okinawa on the 28th and we hung out drinking and catching up on the last two-and-a-half years until the wee hours of the 29th.

After dropping the dog off with our new best friends, we loaded up all 16 of us and all of our ski gear in 3 vans and headed out. It was a four-and-a-half hour drive up to the ski resort and we arrived just in time for Happy Hour and dinner. We stayed up late in the lounge, in front of the fire, talking and drinking the local beer. The kids made s'mores and even shared some with us.

The first day of skiing was too much. I hadn't skied in 13 years (after tearing knee cartilage during my last trip in Colorado), and the kids had never skied. By accident, the first hill we went down was not a "green" (novice) hill. There are no "bunny hills" like you see in the states, so we just had to find a "green" hill and go. But we didn't do that. We found a "red" (intermediate) hill and went with that. Noodle got off the lift, skied around the corner, and started crying. Except that I'm the mom and had to be somewhat composed, I would have joined her.

An hour later, we were at the bottom of the hill and she was ready to go in.

Her dad had coaxed her down the hill, her snowplowing, him skiing backwards, until she was back at the bottom, where she promptly announced that she was ready to go in. I was working on the theory that if you fall off a horse you get back on and was going to take her to where I knew for sure there was a "green" hill, but it turns out that Tater was exhausted and needed a rest too.

So Annie and I tried on the "green" hill for size and decided it was perfect for Noodle.

By the end of the 3rd day, she was heading down greens and reds without even waiting for us and then getting on the lift whether we had caught up with her or not.

D was on a snowboard and I was a bit nervous, as a friend who is an expert skier said it took him a day and a half to learn to board. It took D about 30 minutes. He just goes. Now, stopping is a problem... But he was even getting better at that by day 3.

Where do we sign up for the next trip?