M&M Yenatsky: Snowboarding Olympics Style

This trip is becoming a tradition for us! Every year around December/January we do a snowboarding trip with friends. The first year was Vermont (2008/New Years 2009), the second year was Wyoming (2009 - our honeymoon), and this year was Utah! We weren't sure if we were going to go this year b/c a lot of our friends have newborn babies, we all have fairly new jobs, we are saving to go to Ukraine this summer, etc. A lot of reasons NOT to do the trip, but you know what? It's worth it! We love getting together with our friends and going on this trip. It's becoming a tradition! It's during the holiday season - most of the time around New Years (which is a big deal in Russia). This year's trip was our Christmas gift for each other!

Getting ready for snowboarding!

Day one in Park City, Utah. It was a gorgeous day!!! Clear blue skies, powder, and good trails!

Pictured is Dima, me, Misha, and Alex.

Me & Mish

Guna and I were the only females this year (we missed you Alona!) and were in charge of grocery shopping + cooking. This is us "stranded" b/c the boys dropped us off at Wal-Mart and then went on some excursion. Well, being the independent women that we are, we did not want to be stuck in Wal-Mart for hours so we went shopping! Hello Pier One sales - 75% off all holiday items! After Pier One, relaxing in some comfy recliners at a nice furniture store, and grocery shopping, we went on a "date" and shared some hot chocolate at McDonald's. Keep in mind we were lugging around all these groceries too! Thankfully, the boys weren't gone too long and they came to our rescue. :-)

Exhausted after a day of snowboarding. Did you know that you burn around 400 calories per hour that you are snowboarding? We were on the slopes everyday for at least four hours. Needless to say, we were pretty tired at night! We would usually come back to our cabin, shower, cook a nice dinner, and hang out. Oh! There were board games involved too. That is always so much fun. It was so awesome spending time with our friends!

Hahaha! This is me sporting my butt pad that Misha made for me two years ago in Vermont. It makes me look like I have a lot of junk in the trunk! Haha! :-) It really does help if you fall though...plus it adds an extra layer of warmth.

I LOVE my pink snowboard. I purchased it on eBay three years ago and it has been the best board! Plus, it totally matched my winter sport jacket...that's really why I got it. ;-)

Group picture at the top!

Park City also had night skiing which is really cool. We would stay all afternoon and into the evening. This is a view of the town from the slope at dusk. It was incredible. BTW, did you know that Park City hosted the Winter Olympics in 2002?

Sleigh!!!!!!

We cooked most every meal at the cabin (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), but like to take one night to go out on the town and visit a few local spots.

We were in Park City for four days...so that meant we were out on the slopes every single day! What is REALLY awesome is that I found this in the snow when we were night skiing on Day 2:

It pays to be the slow one sometimes! :-) No one claimed it either!!!!!!! Wahoo! We had my regular camera that also does videos, but this one is waaaay better. Here are some videos of our snowboarding skills (keep in mind that although it looks like I'm going slow it FEELS really fast!) Next year, my goal is to pick up my speed. I was working on lots of different patters this year (going on your toes/backwards/etc) and I also did mostly blue trails this year!

Video of Missy