February 19, 2012

Skiing at Afton Alps with the Iowa Boys


Skiing at Afton Alps with the Iowa Boys

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for February 19, 2012


The week started out with a family celebration at Buca in Burnsville.  The occasion?  18 years of marriage between Miss Sheri and myself!  How did she put up with me for that long?  I have absolutely no clue.  But I'm sure glad she did!


On Friday night, my old buddies from Iowa came up to spend the weekend with us.  We had a great time!  But anytime we get together and nobody ends up in jail or the hospital, it's usually a great time!


Joel brought with him a special treat for us.  He works at Quaker Oats in Cedar Rapids and he packaged this box of cereal with his own two hands.  Now I haven't actually opened the box to be sure he didn't include anything extra just to mess with us, but I'm hopeful it's just filled with some Oaty Goodness!


On Saturday, we traveled to Hastings, Minnesota to go skiing at Afton Alps.  We enjoyed some incredible weather and ski conditions which kept us flying around the slopes all day.  Luckily, we didn't run into anyone this year so that made the day even more special.


This was our first year skiing without our old buddy, Lincoln Allen, who passed away a few months ago.   We thought it would be nice if we ate a cake in his honor.  Of course, Jason Davis thought we were having the cake to celebrate his birthday which was on Friday.  We just let him keep thinking that so he'd feel good about himself.


Afton Alps isn't a huge ski resort so we found ourselves spending a lot of time on the chairlifts  together.  Which was nice.  Good bonding time happens on the chairlifts.  As long as one of us doesn't fall off.


Falling can be a pretty big concern for some of us.  Especially after one of our many rest stops at the various chalets.  The breaks come in very handy for those of us who may have some jitters about skiing if they haven't done it in a couple years.  But what is gained in courage also has a tendency to create losses in equilibrium.  It's a tough trade-off, but it's a challenge we seem to like to take.


Lucky for us, nobody sustained any serious injuries.  We just raced around from hill to hill and kept pace with one another pretty well.  I'm sure we'll all have some sore muscles in the morning, but it's well worth it.  

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