Due to El Niño, the 2015-2016 snowboarding season has been spectacular. Some of my memories (before I forget):

• Finding the Candy Cabin at Beaver Creek
• Taking 3 days of lessons at Beaver Creek and learning how to surf the side walls
• Smacking into a tree in the kid’s fun run at Beaver Creek
• Losing my nerve, and getting stuck in the trees/powder at Heavenly
• Getting rained/hailed on at Northstar
• Discovering untouched runs in the trees at Heavenly
• Buttering in knee-deep snow in Vail’s Back Bowls
• Looking at the view after hiking up to the summit at Breckenridge. With the steep slopes and lack of air, I thought my heart was going to explode during the hike. All I could do was put one foot in front of the other. After getting to the top, the drop in was a bit scary.

Utah didn’t get great snow during the 2014-2015 snowboarding season. That said, Canyons resort was gorgeous, and I’d love to come back one day.

During the UT Alumni trip to Colorado, I learned why folks go through the trees and about Vail’s Back Bowls. My poor snowboard …

We booked tickets to Hawaii to attend a wedding that didn’t happen. Since we had never been, we went on the trip anyway. Some of  memories:

• Learning how to surf in Maui, and then spending all of our time in Honolulu surfing at Waikiki Beach.
• Driving along the Big Island’s southern coast. We went from lava fields to lush coast to volcano to rainforest.
• Snorkeling with the manta rays in Kona.
• Watching part of the Ironman World Championships.

As soon as I heard I had Thanksgiving week off, I booked tickets to Colorado for the week. As luck would have it, Colorado is having a great season of snow, and we had tons of trails open. We spent a few days at Breckenridge and stopped by Arapaho Basin and Vail. We have several great dinners, including Thanksgiving, at Modis on Main Street.

A few weeks later, we headed to Beaver Creek. With recent time spent in the mountains, I had enough confidence to try the baby jumps at the terrain park. I got air! (Maybe 2-3 inches, but it’s still air.)