Tubing!

Today we went tubing at Mad River Mountain with the Smiths. This trip was really a belated Christmas gift - we decided to have a fun outing with the kids instead of getting gifts for each other this year. But the weather didn't cooperate over Christmas break, so we went today. We wanted to go on a Sunday morning so it wouldn't be crowded - last year we went on a Saturday aftenoon and it was so busy we only went down the hill 5 times in over two hours. Our plan worked - today we went down 10-12 times, and took a half hour to eat lunch during our three hour stay.

We all had a blast. There was a slight problem with Lindsey at first, who decided once she got to the top of the hill that there was no way she was going down in a tube. No way. The catch was that she had to go down in a tube at least once - its the only way to get to the bottom of the hill. Through the help of Andy and a Mad River employee who was awesome at his job, she was finally convinced to go down the hill once. And after that first trip, she decided that it was fun, and then she was fine the rest of the time.

The eight of us went down the hill in all kinds of different groups, but the most fun was when all eight of us went down together. The slopes were very fast -much faster than I remember last year. We had to be very careful to not actually put our bottoms in the tube - you had to hold your butt off the ground or it was very painful - lots of bouncing on the ice. But once you learned that, it was fine. I just can't believe how fast we went down that hill.

All in all, an awesome winter activity, but now I'm ready for our tropical cruise!