Teaching an old dog new tricks

Garrett had two requests for Christmas this year: a new snowboard and for me to let him teach me how to snowboard. 

I am not the most athletically-inclined or coordinated person and seeing as even skiing is a challenge for me, snowboarding has always scared me a little bit.

However, Garrett LOVES snowboarding and even spent a year in Utah working as a snowboard instructor. 

So seeing as I've been trying all these new things lately like dying my hair and refinishing furniture I figured I would humor my husband and give him what he really wanted for Christmas. 

After a few sweet craigslist finds for snow and goggles, I was ready to go (and somehow envisioned that I would be a natural).  All of our extended family spent two days at Alyeska Ski Resort a few days before Christmas--which was a blast--and I quickly learned a few things:

a) I am not a natural at snowboarding.  I did, in fact, fall down pretty much all day long and banged myself up pretty good.  But still, I had a lot of fun and pretty much laughed all day long.  By the end of the day, Garrett said that I had learned in a few hours what many learn in a few days.  Just being a sweet, nice husband?  Maybe.  But I'll take it. 

b) My body can't take abuse like it used to be able to.  Okay, so I don't really think that 27 is old, but my body was telling me otherwise the day after snowboarding.  I expected to be sore (and I was), but I didn't expect to have strained so many muscles and have whiplash so bad that I spent the next few days on pain medication.  I'm too young to fall apart like that, right!?  Or not??

c) I think I would have picked up on snowboarding much more easily about 15 years ago.  I was amazed by all the five year olds zipping down the mountain on snowboards.  How do they do that!?  You can teach an old dog new tricks, but it's easier to teach as a puppy.

d) Despite the massive bruises and whiplash that are still lingering, I had a lot of fun snowboarding!  I can see why my husband loves to snowboard and I would like to go a lot more and actually be able to ride down the mountain someday rather than crash down it.  However, a part of me is scared: is it worth the possibility of repeating the painful repercussions afterwards?

Regardless, Merry Christmas to my honey who got exactly what he wanted with a bonus: plenty of video footage on his i-phone of me falling down all day for his continued enjoyment and laughter.