Jeff’s Blog

Today my family and I went up skiing and snowboarding for the first time this season. The conditions were amazing. It was like spring skiing with deep-winter powder. After one run, I had all the skill and confidence I had at the end of last year, and I even improved today. My dad and I spent the day on blue runs.

I’m now exhausted, sore, and looking forward to next time. It’s a bit of a long drive, but it’s well, well worth it.

Tags: winter, snowboarding

Yesterday was the State Finals competition for marching band. We qualified so well in Regionals that we didn’t have to go to Quarterfinals on Friday, and then yesterday morning at Semifinals, we placed 5^th (much better than 7^th last year). Unfortunately, we also placed 5^th that night at Finals, and we expected much better. There were some bands with unreasonably high scores, and it seems like foul play, but probably not. This season was great, starting back in June, then Band Camp, and then several competitions and this.

Today, for the first time this year, my dad and I went on a bike ride. This one was only 18.5 miles, but it was pretty good for the first ride of the year. We biked down to the next town over, and spent the first hour or so biking on a nature trail outside of that town. It was very isolated, though in reality it wasn’t that far away from civilization. This trail goes right alongside a creek, meaning it was well-forested and beautiful in general. The only bad thing about the creek was the massive amount of bugs that stuck to us and splattered on our clothes, but that was tolerable as well.

We biked back into town to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, and then took a shorter way back home. This is going to be a great summer for biking.

This was the last day of the ski season. We went up fairly early, and it was incredible. The weather was beautiful and sunny, the snow was still pretty powdery and there was hardly anyone there.

We stayed mostly on greens in the morning, which were perfectly fine, and then went on blues, which were a lot better in the afternoon. Going to a big ski resort is a lot better than a small one, obviously. There are a ton more runs, the runs are wider, and in general the snow is also better.

On the way home though, we got a flat tire. We pulled over because we thought my snowboard was flapping around on the roof, but it was actually our tire. We got out and fixed it in about a half hour, which was really good considering the way it could have turned out. It was a great way to end the ski season, though.

Last Friday, my family and I left to go on a weekend camping trip because my dad had to work late on Thursday. We left somewhat early so we could do stuff that day. We tried two campgrounds until we found one that had a few empty sites, so we claimed one that was to our liking.

When we got there and set up camp, we had a lunch of PB&J, and spent the rest of the day playing catch and biking around the campground. That night we had an awesome fire, over which we roasted marshmallows and made s’mores.

The next day we had a great breakfast of scrambled eggs and sausage, and the dog enjoyed taking care of the leftovers. We spent that Saturday doing pretty much the same thing - playing catch and biking, but we also just sat around, relaxed, and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the mountains, with the occasional car driving by on the highway.

When we were cooking dinner, though, the propane tank for the grill caught on fire! We grabbed the fire extinguisher and put it out, and ended up going to a steakhouse in town where we had awesome prime rib, burritos and a burger, with sweet potato fries as an appetizer.

This morning, we had a similar breakfast, packed up, and took off.