Park City!

So, I ended Christmas break with our annual trip to Park City, Utah to ski! What a great way to end. We arrived the Tuesday the 4th and enjoyed the afternoon going into town and such. About an hour after we checked into the place we were staying, my uncle Jeff and Justin came by. Uncle Jeff went skiing for his night racing class and Justin joined us for dinner on Main Street, where we also met my aunt Julie and Jamie. We then all went back to the house and played some board games, which was a blast. The parents all then went to bed and Jamie, Justin and I began writing a song. Or rather trying to sing to a beat Justin had put together. Some of the results were pretty funny. Justin just began singing and told me to jump in whenever I felt like it. One take especially was great...he messed it up somehow so Jamie chimed in with her raspy voice since she was sick and began echoing things, sounding like a dying animal. You had to be there, but it was hysterical.

The next morning we awoke, dropped Katie off at ski school and rode the chairlift up, ready to hit the slopes. Our day began pretty easy with a few nice runs as a group, but by the third run, we all got split up. My Uncle Jeff took my mom off somewhere, Gary skied on without everyone, my Aunt Julie and Betsy took it a little slower and Justin and I got lost, trying to follow Gary down the mountain. We ended up trying to find a way to the other run by going through the trees. If any of you have ever powder skied, you'll know it's not that easy, especially when you are making lots of sharp turns, avoiding trees and branches. I wasn't so lucky one time and sank right into the soft blanket of snow around a tree that had fallen. My ski and right leg had gotten stuck on the other side of a large branch. Justin saw the whole thing and was at least nice enough to come pull me out as he laughed at my mishap in coordination. I did happen to get a nice bruise and scrape on my shin. It was a pretty hilarious experience.

But, the battle scars didn't stop there for the day. After that we decided we'd head down a black diamond from the top of a mountain to which we had not yet ventured, we came to a split in the runs. One sign pointed to the continuation of the single black diamond (which is the most difficult runs in skiing) but, Justin goes "So, how about these double blacks, Danielley?"
My dumb response? "Sure, why not? It can't be that bad."
"Thata girl! Yeah, it probably isn't even that much different."
After emerging on the other side of the trees, we came to the beginning of the run, which was an edge of the the mountain with a drop off over a 90 degree angle. It was insane! The mountain literally caved underneath itself! Neither of us desired to do that, so we traversed across as far as we could go and the ended up making our way down through the trees, where there was no run. It was awesome. At last we made it down and then proceeded to take lifts and ski down in order to return back to the lodge, where we were meeting everyone for lunch.
After eating, we headed back out and managed to stick more in a group this time. My aunt and Justin went down one side to do some moguls and the rest of us took the smoother black diamond down. I was pretty far ahead of the group, just skiing along when I managed to hit a patch of ice, causing me to completely face planted into the mountain. I hit my face (obviously) pretty hard, but I just got up, put my goggles back on and continued skiing the rest of the day. Around 4:00, when the mountain was closing my aunt and I headed in to get something hot to drink. Immediately when we walked into the warm lodge, I could feel that my eye had began to swell. I turned to my aunt and go "Um, Aunt Julie, I think I hit my face earlier...does it look swollen?" I went to ice it for a while before I had to go meet my family (Gary, Mom, Betsy and Katie) to take a family picture for our next year's Christmas card. Comical? I think so. I walk out to go meet them and Betsy immediately bursts into laughter, Gary goes to ask the photographer if they can use photo shop and my mom begins to freak out...all appropriate reactions for the my family members haha.
When we got to the car, I finally glanced in the mirror to see that I indeed had the beginnings of a black eye. It had a bleeding cut and everything! I didn't realize I'd fallen that hard.

Well, at least I can say that I've had that experience now. I had a few days of awkward stares and a great conversation starter. The rest of our trip was lovely and saying goodbye to everyone is always hard. It'll be weird to not see Justin in three weeks, since I'll be in San Francisco by the time he comes back to CA (I've seen him every like three weeks for like the last two years haha). But I'm excited as well as nervous.
It's a quick turnaround. We arrived back from Utah tonight and I leave tomorrow morning to become acquainted with Northern California.
It'll be a journey...a grand journey.