Rodeo Break hasn’t been this much fun in a really long time. I can’t even remember what I did last year. Probably sat around at home waiting for someone to decide to come back home so he or she could make me happy.
But this year. I went with Tibbs’ and Tibbs’ brother’s friend’s family to Greer, AZ, about an hour out of Pinetop and thirty minutes from Sunrise Ski Resort. And yes, I did ski. But we’ll get to that later. I have to tell you the story from the beginning.
Thursday morning, we were going to start at about seven in the morning, except seven got pushed to seven thirty which got pushed to eight which ended up at eight thirty once Tibbs’ & Co. got their McDonald’s coffees. The first bit was spent alternating between talking, listening to music, and sleeping. That is, until we came upon a little tourist scenic sight where the river rushed and the wind blew (exactly like it’s supposed to. I know, radical these things of nature eh?). I took the first amazing picture of Tibbs that anyone has ever taken of her since the beginning of time as she walked towards my spot on the rock hanging over the edge of the murky brown water. If the parentals had been there, I probably would have been airlifted away from the “danger.” Apparently, they still live under the strange illusion that I don’t know how to keep from falling a cliff.
The momentary thrill ended to be greeted by another epic two hours in the car. I played Tetris (in vain attempt at beating level 4). And looked out the window at the wonderful, never-changing scenery of trees. At least the trees were actual trees versus the stick things that try to pass for trees here. Then, we got a flat tire. It was a good thing though, Tibbs and I played in the snow like little children who had finally set foot in that toy store they had been eyeing. I took another epic, prize-winning picture of her. And she promptly stole my camera to take about twenty pictures of the trees.
Friday, we went skiing…if you can count getting down a mountain that would take a normal person about thirty minutes tops to get down and managing to complete it in one hour “skiing.” As expected, I spent a wild amount of time on my ass, and trying my best not to cuss out the seventh graders (who have yet to realize that virtually everything they said at dinner would make the best “that’s what she said” jokes).
It was difficult to slide slowly down a mountain when the snow is not snow and the right glut is sore. I know, you’re supposed to switch weight from leg to leg, but it’s awfully difficult when you don’t trust your left leg at all. I swear, I’m going to end up with a big fat right quad and a wimpy little left quad (not to mention the uneven buttocks). But totally worth it.
That night, we ate dinner over at Tibbs’ brother’s friend’s family’s massive cabin (who poorly used the space provided with sticking a hallway in a bathroom… who needs a hallway inside the bathroom?). We played Cranium. Which sort of failed except that I successfully spelled “statistics” backwards on the first try.
Tibbs and I stayed up until one watching 27 Dresses and talking. People do that sometimes… talk. It’s a strange, foreign thing.
This morning, we went hiking/snow-shoeing on the faux trail at the end of the road. Someone had stolen the cow and put it by the river/creek/crick. We had a massive snowball fight in which I successfully hit someone twice (and was successfully hit at least four times, sure, hit the person trying to document the good times why don’t you?). I took fantabulous pictures of the icicles forming on the underside of logs.
