Today is Navi's 2nd birthday! Apparently I don't love her, because I took her to doggy daycare at 5 am and went snowboarding! (That's not true. I love her lots. She loves daycare!)
We got up far too early, and I'm sure I whined up a little storm while we loaded the snowboards into our snowboarding rack, threw all our gear in the back, and drove to daycare to drop off Navi. Then we drove over to pick up Andrew and Jay, load up all their gear, and drove to Kirkwood. I love Kirkwood because it has a lot of fun terrain. There are lots of steep trails, trails with a more gradual slope (yet still pretty fast trails), and lots of terrain types. There are trails filled with trees to swoop around, wide open trails, little cornices to jump off (no thank you), large cornices to jump off (no way), groomed trails, ungroomed trails, and goodness knows what else. The mountain is also really big. The only weird thing is that since the summit is around 10,000 feet in elevation, whenever I am on a trail that is so gradual that I have to remove a foot and push to traverse the trail, I get really winded and out of breath. Thankfully there's not much traversing at Kirkwood, unless you just want to torture yourself. Then you can find all the traversing you want.
Jay is an awesome snowboarder and he used to be a snowboarding instructor, so he gave me a few tips on how to turn faster. I've never been on a mountain with such steep terrain, so sometimes I end up not being able to turn very quickly. So I end up having to go painfully slow and coming almost to a stop before making my next turn. He gave me a lot of pointers, and a few drills to try, and I think I'm already getting better. Practice makes perfect! He and Andrew are a lot of fun to be around. They are the kind of people who always see the silver lining, and are really cheerful, joyous, and wonderful to be around. Jay is the kind of person you want to learn from, too. He's always got a smile, something to comment on to pick up your spirits, and then he gives you a few pointers. Even if you manage to screw up every single thing he asked you to try to focus on, he still finds something that you did more correctly than before to comment on. I like people like that because its always easier to digest, "your back hand was so much more stable that time! I'd still like to see you focus on keeping your shoulders a little more steady, and use your legs a little more" than it is to digest, "you didn't really manage to keep your shoulders steady, so your legs aren't being used as much as they should be." Just the way you phrase things can really change someone's day, and both Tim and Jay are excellent at phrasing things so that you always feel good about yourself. I'm sure Andrew would be the same, but I've never had the chance to learn from him. He is an incredible skier, though, I'll say that much.
After a long day of snowboarding, I got a migraine, so I quit a little earlier than the others. I catnapped in the car while they kept snowboarding/skiing, and then when they got back to the car, we drove home. It was a long drive, but we picked up Navi before we dropped Andrew and Jay off, so they got to deal with her happily licking their faces into oblivion while driving the last few miles home.
When we got home, Timmy and I gave Navi her happy birthday bone! She always licks the nasty looking bones with an air of desperation when we go to the pet store...and I finally caved and bought a nasty bone, although less nasty than the bones she would prefer. She loves it! Normally after going to daycare, she passes out within 30 minutes of getting home. But because I gave her the bone, she stayed up late! I had to take the bone away before she would go to bed!
We got up far too early, and I'm sure I whined up a little storm while we loaded the snowboards into our snowboarding rack, threw all our gear in the back, and drove to daycare to drop off Navi. Then we drove over to pick up Andrew and Jay, load up all their gear, and drove to Kirkwood. I love Kirkwood because it has a lot of fun terrain. There are lots of steep trails, trails with a more gradual slope (yet still pretty fast trails), and lots of terrain types. There are trails filled with trees to swoop around, wide open trails, little cornices to jump off (no thank you), large cornices to jump off (no way), groomed trails, ungroomed trails, and goodness knows what else. The mountain is also really big. The only weird thing is that since the summit is around 10,000 feet in elevation, whenever I am on a trail that is so gradual that I have to remove a foot and push to traverse the trail, I get really winded and out of breath. Thankfully there's not much traversing at Kirkwood, unless you just want to torture yourself. Then you can find all the traversing you want.
Jay is an awesome snowboarder and he used to be a snowboarding instructor, so he gave me a few tips on how to turn faster. I've never been on a mountain with such steep terrain, so sometimes I end up not being able to turn very quickly. So I end up having to go painfully slow and coming almost to a stop before making my next turn. He gave me a lot of pointers, and a few drills to try, and I think I'm already getting better. Practice makes perfect! He and Andrew are a lot of fun to be around. They are the kind of people who always see the silver lining, and are really cheerful, joyous, and wonderful to be around. Jay is the kind of person you want to learn from, too. He's always got a smile, something to comment on to pick up your spirits, and then he gives you a few pointers. Even if you manage to screw up every single thing he asked you to try to focus on, he still finds something that you did more correctly than before to comment on. I like people like that because its always easier to digest, "your back hand was so much more stable that time! I'd still like to see you focus on keeping your shoulders a little more steady, and use your legs a little more" than it is to digest, "you didn't really manage to keep your shoulders steady, so your legs aren't being used as much as they should be." Just the way you phrase things can really change someone's day, and both Tim and Jay are excellent at phrasing things so that you always feel good about yourself. I'm sure Andrew would be the same, but I've never had the chance to learn from him. He is an incredible skier, though, I'll say that much.
After a long day of snowboarding, I got a migraine, so I quit a little earlier than the others. I catnapped in the car while they kept snowboarding/skiing, and then when they got back to the car, we drove home. It was a long drive, but we picked up Navi before we dropped Andrew and Jay off, so they got to deal with her happily licking their faces into oblivion while driving the last few miles home.
When we got home, Timmy and I gave Navi her happy birthday bone! She always licks the nasty looking bones with an air of desperation when we go to the pet store...and I finally caved and bought a nasty bone, although less nasty than the bones she would prefer. She loves it! Normally after going to daycare, she passes out within 30 minutes of getting home. But because I gave her the bone, she stayed up late! I had to take the bone away before she would go to bed!
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