Snow Day!


As often as this Florida girl has complained about the cold to some northerner, I've been encouraged to enjoy the snow, and all that a winter wonderland has to offer. Thanks to R having president's day off last week and our wonderful CLO (community liaison officer) organizing a little trip, we finally were able to embrace the arctic.
R gives a thumbs up as he careens down the hill (granted it looks quite flat in this picture)
We headed back out to 期盘山 QiPanShan, home to the Shenyang Ice Festival for some "snow play" as we called it for the kids. Because R has only ever snowboarded and because it was only $24 (150 RMB) to ski or snowboard for the day, I thought it could be a good time for me to try to learn. The few other times I've been skiing, I've never wanted to give up the opportunity to ski to just fall on my rear end over and over again, so I've never snowboarded. With little at stake, I decided this was my chance- Winter X-games, here I come!
R on the rampolater
We really didn't make it off the bunny slope and our tailbones only lasted about 3 hours. We spent about 2 hours before lunch riding the small rampolater (a flat escalator that drags you up the hill) and falling most of the way down. Unfortunately while dongbei is cold, it's not particularly snowy so after lunch most of the manmade snow had melted down some. This made for less ideal learning conditions and we really only stayed out about an hour more (if that).


at least I have the winter style thing covered 

Thankfully, we had the option of joining the CLO (one of my many favorite people here at post) and her family tubing down a hill for the last half of the afternoon before we headed home. They also had all of your typical snow play activities- you know, dragon boat races across a frozen lake, parasailing, 4-wheeling, etc. Ah, China the land without liability waivers.

We were so thankful to get out and enjoy some fresh air and the winter amenities. I'm not sure Qipanshan made a snowboarder out of me, but at least I tried! Things are steadily warming up around here and Spring must be just a few weeks away. One can hope... happy monday!

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