Thanks for keeping my throne warm for me pal

I'm back! Sorry it's been so long. My weekend was fun, and I've been kind of swamped since I got back. Here's a (not so) brief recap of things.

We rented a cabin at Brian Head Ski Resort in Utah. It was pretty expensive, but not by the time we divided the cost between 16 people. The cabin we were in was really nice, probably nicer than any home I'll ever own. Unless I'm able to find myself that sugar mama that is. (the picture really doesn't do it justice)

I got there early on Thursday, in fact, I was a little too early since nobody else was there and I couldn't even get in without breaking a window or something. But, since it was my dad's birthday, and my parents only live another hour and a half away from where I was at, I decided to surprise him by showing up at the door (I called my mom first so she would know I was coming and keep him around the house). My sister and her husband had the same idea and flew down to see him (her husband's a pilot), so that pretty much solidified our status as the favorite kids.

Friday we got up and went mountain biking. We did a 14 mile trail that was almost all downhill. It was a bit technical (compounded by the fact that the trail was either muddy or covered in snow for most of the way) so I ended up crashing a few times. Nothing too bad, but enough to scrape up my knees some. It really isn't as bad as it looks, it's just that it kept bleeding as I rode and mud from the trail got mixed in with it, but most of it washed right off when I took to getting myself cleaned up. Later that night I learned how to play Texas Hold 'Em, and broke even, so all in all the day was a success.

It pretty much snowed all day on Saturday, so that didn't leave us with the option of biking. I guess we could have, but that would have been crazy. Instead of sitting around the cabin all day long (I'd have hated to have gotten cabin fever and resorted to cannibalism) I decided to drive over and visit my grandma who is in the hospital with an infection in her leg. The roads were pretty bad, and I almost turned around, but then it lightened up as I came down off the mountain so I continued on and solidified my place as the favorite grandkid as well. I visited with her for about an hour until it seemed like she was getting worn out. I needed to get back over the mountain before the roads got too icy anyway, but I still felt guilty walking out of there. At one point in our conversation she asked me if I'd come over alone (I think she was trying to find out if I had a girlfriend, but she never came out and said it). I told her that I did (come alone), and that my friends were all back at the cabin playing cards, watching TV or working on their laptops, to which she replied, "Laptop people huh? That's who you run around with?" Yes Grandma, I run around with those crazy laptop people. Later that night I won the whole pot at Texas Hold 'Em. Look out World Series of Poker, here I come!

Since the snow storm left everything even more wet and muddy than Friday was, we decided to drive down toward Zion National Park to go biking there on Sunday. It was a lot of fun, even though the trail wasn't all down hill and that meant I had to work to get my biking in. This trail was only about 8 miles, but it wore all of us out. Here's a picture of me riding around on the rocks just minutes before successfully landing a jump off about a two foot drop. Unfortunately, I was so busy being proud of myself for staying upright on that one that I failed to see the next dip, and I went flying over the handle bars and landed flat on my back(note to self: Next time you can pat yourself on the back after the ride).

Anyway, I could go on and on (even more than I already have, I promise), but I have to go watch my friends lose a softball game right now, so I'm going to call it quits for tonight. I hope that all of you had a weekend that was as good as mine, but I doubt you did. It was exactly what I needed.