I can snowboard!!!
We had SO MUCH FUN!!!! It was totally great. Houston would probably have run up and down and up and down the entire time by himself, but he decided -- as did we all -- that it was most fun to all go down in one big group. We went faster that way, although it's not certain if it was the fog creating a layer of super slick ice on the snow or the extra weight. See, the tubes are rubber innertube type tubes with vinyl coated canvas coatings, with straps attached for hand grips and a big strap ending in a nifty cable grabbing device to let you get hauled up the hill by the cable device even if you lack the strength or attention span to grip something for that long. Then, you get to the top and choose which of the five channels gently scooped out of the snow to go down. And then you go! The thrill of zooming down the hill without the labor of hauling yourself and your tired, heavy children back up the slope was supreme.
Later on i broke away from the group to go to the snowboard area. Since i've never actually gone down anything bigger than a sledding hill on my snowboard, i went down the easiest straight shot hill first. Boooooo-Riiiing. Immediately i graduated myself to the deeply piped course, which was astonishingly fun. It turns out that i can snowboard without falling every time! I even did, like, jumps! I haven't done a jump AND turn yet. I guess that might have to wait until my 37th birthday event.
So Katrina had fun, squealing and laughing and not getting out of her tube not even once. And soaking her entire bottom half with melted snow. Houston had fun flirting with danger in a safe environment. Karen had fun on the cable tow, in a moment which would be tragically less funny if described. Beth had fun thinking she was probably going to die, or kill someone else who foolishly stood in our way.
Highly recommended. If you live somewhere that wasn't scraped flat by massive glaciers, somewhere where there are actual MOUNTAINS, please please go slide down them on something or other.