Snowboarding

So a few weekends ago we went snowboarding with Leah and her husband Brad and some of his Marines. We were following other people in a van and had to turn around three times. The only thing is that the expressways here aren't like in the US, you have to pay to drive on them and once you get on it, there aren't very many exits. So we'd get to the toll booth area where you get your ticket to get on and then we'd play charades to tell the workers we need to turn around and they'd have to open special gates and go down little roads.

Here is one of the times the guys were trying to ask them where we need to go. The guy with the blonde high 'n tight is Brad and the other guy is the one we were following. After this (the 2nd time) of turning around we took control.

So I got in the front seat with him because I'm good at reading maps and directions. We did take one wrong exit and we couldn't turn around for like 5miles, but when we read the directions, they were so simple. It took us like 3hrs to get there and only an hour and half to get back.

Ryan on the lift up

A view from the top of the run. It was the opening weekend and there was only man made snow.

Leah on her butt. She couldn't stand up. Eventually after 2hrs right there she took her board off and took the lift down.

Me :)

This is funny, at the restaurant at the bottom you can order Humburgers. I love it when they spell things wrong!


The group that went

A view of the run from the bottom

Oh that's familiar! Me on my butt! The first run down was the hardest because I've only gone once before and that was 4yrs ago. I had an interesting bruise on my butt, when we were leaving I went to the bathroom to change and I could already see it forming. It was like a speckling of bruises.

YAY!! I got to the bottom! This was my second time down, a much better run this time





Next time I'm trying skiing, just to see what it's like

Ryan at the bottom

He was much better than me but also a little rusty too.






It's such a balancing act.

It was really fun and can't wait to go back and especially since there is actually snow up there now. Plus we have to get ready to go up to Nagano in January for Martin Luther King weekend for a big ski trip the the tourism place here on base is putting on.

Ryan's Present

So I already covered it a little in the Thanksgiving post, but here are some of the pictures from setting up Ryan's new 52" Sony Bravia LCD tv. I thought it was going to be easier putting the tv in but we had to move the shelves out and extend the bridge that goes between them, move some pictures and move the rug.

Working hard to connect his X-Box. He just got an HDMI cable and the picture was really nice before but it's even better now. The only thing that isn't nice is that AFN(Armed Forces Network) broadcasts on analog, so the picture sometimes isn't the best it should be. But his X-box looks good and movies look great too.

The finished product and yes, that is wrestling on the tv too. Except it's not Monday night Raw, it's Tuesday here.

Thanksgiving!

I know that it's been almost a month since Thanksgiving, but I finally have time to blog (I'm on vacation for the week :) ) Ryan invited his work over for Thanksgiving and I had my girlfriend Leah and her husbad over and she helped me cook. So we had about 18 people over for dinner and a 24lb turkey plus a ham. We had A LOT of turkey left over. It was really fun but really tiring! I made the guys do all the dishes and even mop my floors because Ryan got turkey and ham juices all over the ground and plus my floors are so aweful and show dirt REALLY easily, I constantly have to mop my floors.

This is a picture of the set up. We took the love seat from the wall and put the big one against the wall so we could fit two fold up tables there. There is a gear issue here and you can rent anything from snowboards/skiis, any kind of camping gear, jumpy houses, coolers, chairs, tables and a bunch of other stuff for FREE!

You can see Ryan's new baby. He got a 52" Sony Bravia LCD tv a couple days before Thanksgiving. He was lucky because I was going to have to order it through the cataloge and have it shipped by boat over, and I was on the waiting list here at the exchange and they called me to tell me it was in the day before I was going to order it.


Ryan carving the turkey

What a cutie, I'm right behind him slaving over the stove. We didn't take any pictures of me cooking but I think some other people did, so I'll have to get those.

All in all it was a great time and we're going to have them over again for Christmas and I'm looking forward to that and I'm already planning my meal.