Skiing Fun

We're back from our ski trip. We went to Angel Fire, New Mexico with a group of friends from our Sunday School class. We had six couples, two condos, four home cooked dinners, a lot of aspercreme, advil, and pepto bismol, and a great time!

Unfortunately, there were some injuries while on the trip. The ironic thing is that most of the injuries occurred while tubing down the mountain rather than skiing. I don't think our group will be tubing down mountains again any time soon.

Wyatt came down with a really nasty cold toward the end of the third day of skiing, so he had to sit out the fourth day, which was no fun. He did great on the three days he was able to ski, though. I was very impressed. He says his method of skiing is "controlled chaos," but I can't confirm this. He was usually so fast that I wouldn't have been able to see whatever "chaos" there was.

I surprised myself by skiing a bunch of black slopes (the hardest level there is) and not killing myself in the process. One slope, called Hari Cari, was ridiculously steep, very long, and covered in huge moguls (the ski term for hills of snow). My legs were literally shaking when I got to the top of the slope. I had to lean way forward just to see where the slope led; that is never a good sign. Thankfully, though, I made it down the slope with only a couple minor falls and no tantrums or fits of crying/screaming. That is a success in my book.

The best part of the trip was the people we went with. Our group was great. It was such a blessing to get to go on vacation with our friends. We learned a lot about each other that we didn't already know, and I heard more "that's what she said" jokes than I can count.

I remember when Wyatt and I first got married and how hard it was to transition from being single and having all single friends to finding married couples to hang out with (especially married couples that lived remotely close to us). I look back on that struggle and my many prayers that God would bring couples into our lives that we could really "do life with"...really be real with, find support in, and be able to be a support to.

I am so thankful to say that God has more than answered that prayer. The friends we have found have demonstrated such grace, love, and support to us that it really does give me a better picture of what God's love looks like. So, in short, I am incredibly thankful for our friends.

And did I mention that I am thankful for my husband? He is so fun to be around and such an encourager. I am a blessed lady!

Here are some pictures from the trip.

Wyatt and I on the slopes


The skiing men- Andre, Brandon, Terence, Wyatt, Josh and Adam

The skiing ladies- Stephanie, Jessica, Me, Carissa, Grace and Gina

The whole crew- Stephanie, Brandon, Me, Wyatt, Terence, Jessica, Adam, Carissa, Gina, Andre, Josh and Grace

One more picture, just for fun

A baby shower, a half-marathon, and some advil

This past weekend was really busy, but a lot of fun.

First off, on Saturday I helped host a baby shower for my friend Jaclyn. Jaclyn has been such a great friend to me. Great is probably not the word...ridiculously amazing is probably a better descriptive. But seriously, she and her husband (Blayton) have been such faithful friends to me and also to Wyatt. I have thanked God for them so many times, and I know I'll continue to in the future. They are going to be such great parents, and we can't wait to meet their baby boy in February!

As for the shower itself, there were a couple of recipes that seemed to be hits amongst the shower-goers, so I thought I'd post them here. First off, I made cinnamon coffee (actually Blayton was the master of the coffee maker, so he deserves credit too). This recipe comes from the Taste of Texas, a great restaurant here in Houston, and the coffee is oh so good. Just watch how much you drink. I think I had 3 cups of it, and I was seriously wired at the end of the shower.

Cinnamon Coffee (for drip coffee maker only):
Pour 10 cups of water into machine. Put 4 whole cinnamon sticks and 3 heaping teaspoons brown sugar into the glass pot. Put 1 cup ground coffee (we grind fresh Colombian beans) and 1 teaspoon cinnamon into the brew basket. Brew and stir it well. (The longer it sits, the better it gets!)

The next recipe is for Romanoff sauce, which goes over fruit (traditionally, strawberries). If you've ever had Strawberries Romanoff at La Madeliene, then I think you'll love this recipe. It is definitely not low in fat, but it's a great treat when you're in the mood to indulge.

Strawberries Romanoff:
SERVES 4

Ingredients
1/2 cup sour cream
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon brandy or vanilla
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons sugar
4 cups fresh strawberries

Directions
Mix sour cream, brown sugar and Brandy in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, whip cream until starts to thicken and add sugar--whip until thick.
Fold cream into sour cream mixture and blend well.
Serve with fresh strawberries.

On Sunday, Wyatt and I ran the Houston half-marathon. This was the second one for both of us. Overall, it was a great experience. The weather was beautiful and neither of us had injuries to speak of by the end.

The main frustration we had was the start of the race. We were supposed to be in the first "wave" of people to start, but we somehow didn't find our group and so we started towards the end of the second group. That meant that we had a few thousand people in front of us for the first few miles, many of them walking in big groups. As a result, we started off really, really slow, and there was nothing we could do about it. If I was claustrophobic, I might have had a panic attack during the first couple miles. After about 4 miles, the crowd thinned out some and we were able to pick up the pace.

Wyatt ended up with a time of 1:57:53, and me with a time of 2:00:29. My sister, brother, mom and dad came out to support us, and we really appreciated it. We went to Empire Cafe afterwards, and it was a great treat. The rest of the day consisted of a lot of sitting, taking advil, and then more sitting.

Here are a few pictures of Wyatt running:




And me running...



And us running (we didn't smile that much throughout, we just knew our pictures were being taken)...


That was our weekend. I have pictures from the shower that I'll post as soon as I get them uploaded.