Taos

For the first time since our honeymoon, Steven & I went on a vacation all by ourselves last week. I know, sounds indulgent doesn't it? This year marks our 10th anniversary, and I insisted that we appropriately celebrate with a just-the-two-of-us getaway. We both agreed we wanted to go skiing, and with the purchase of the 4Runner we thought (ok, maybe I thought) it would be fun to drive it out to Taos since it's only a day's drive away. I grew up experiencing some awesome and serious road trips, so I wasn't scared. Steven's only trepidation was taking his new baby (the 4Runner, obviously) to an unknown place in unknown conditions.

We hit the road at 5:30 a.m. last Thursday and arrived in Taos about 13 hours later. The West Texas stretch was painfully boring as was the part of New Mexico up until we reached the hills and mountains. The company, however, was quite charming and good to look at. We ate at a local cantina when we got in that evening that was quite good. Only after chugging a gallon of water were we brave enough to have alcohol. Altitude changes and a day's drive left us a tad dehydrated.

We stayed at a really nice place; I figured that after 10 years of no such vacations it was worth the splurge. Indeed it was. We had an awesome condo that gave us ski-in/ski-out access. No wasted time driving in and dragging your gear around, we just hopped right on the lifts, it was awesome!

Friday we skied for a good 4 hours or so, came in for lunch and then headed back out that afternoon. It was snowing pretty good, so after our faces were stinging in pain from the snowfall as we raced down the mountain at unbelievable speeds we headed back in. The snow that night made for awesome skiing the next day. I was amazed that I wasn't sore at all this time. I guess those workouts really have done me some good! The morning of day 3 though Steven & I both were a little stiff and feeling our age. Although, that may have something to do with our collision the previous day. We were skiing down the mountain just as nice as you please and about to steer our course toward the blue run as opposed to the drop off onto the black that was straight ahead when a pack of wolves descended upon us. Ok, not wolves, but a handful of speedy, skilled skiers came whizzing by giving us no choice but to crash into each other. So romantic, right? Steven may have suffered a slight concussion but wouldn't admit it. Really though, there were no injuries the whole trip, so we are most thankful.

There were a few blunders, most notably the time we were lined up to get on the lift and Steven stepped forward and got on the lift without me. Oops. So this is me riding next to some stranger behind him. I will say that is was much easier to only have to keep track of each other rather than a large group of people as we have done on ski trips in the past. We passed this little waterfall spot of melting snow as we were skiing back down to our hotel and Steven decided to film it. So here is your moment of Zen.

We really had a wonderful time. I can have fun with Steven anywhere, which is awesome, but in that setting we just had the best time. We loved Taos and will definitely be going back. Hopefully with the boys next time. I can totally see Will speeding down the mountain. Matt would probably rather sip hot chocolate and map out our route, but he'd enjoy the snow.