A Mammoth of a Vacation

Our trip in one word - EPIC - and I'm being completely serious. This trip has become easier over the years and like a cozy old sweater it begs for us to come back and get wrapped up in the awesomeness of Mammoth.

There was a total of 8 of us on the trip - Hubs and I plus the inlaws, J-Bone + Tracy, and David and his buddy Dennis. We left Orange County on Sunday morning and made our way to the 15 and eventually the 395 straight up to Mammoth. The drive can be done straight through in about 4.5 hours but we like to take our time and not be rushed. We have two mandatory stops on the way up and back which are Bravo Burger in Adelanto and Erick Schat's Bakkery in Bishop. These are both a must!

We rolled into town at about 5pm on Sunday. After getting settled we headed out to the grocery store to get our food for the week. Later on that evening we went to a local ski shop to get me some new snowboard pants.

Hubs was in charge of booking our lodging this year and he did a great job! The condo association that we stay at (Horizons 4) ranks their condos from A-C. Normally we stay at the C rated places (think 70s cabin) to save some cashola but this year we sprung for an A rated townhouse and I'm so glad we did. Our place was 2 bedrooms + 2 bathrooms and a loft with a King bed and four singles. We scored the master and I was definitely a happy camper!

Monday morning we were up bright and early for our day on the mountain. After scarfing down some breakfast we headed to Eagle Lodge to get our first session in of the trip. We boarded all morning on the Eagle lodge side of the mountain and made our way to the main lodge to get some refreshments aka tall can of Coors Light.



We hung out for a bit then made our way back to Eagle lodge for lunch. Whenever we go snowboarding we bring along our travel BBQ, it's seriously the best. We all had turkey burgers for lunch - healthy, delicious and cheap! We swigged down some margs and then headed back up for a few more hours of shredding the mountain.

Find the Margarita bottle!

That evening we must have hit the sheets at about 8pm! Snowboarding is no joke and we were beat!

Tuesday morning before we left I set up the crock pot for Chicken Tortilla soup and it was a hit! David and Dennis met up with us on Tuesday morning and we started our morning just like Monday with a little shredding on the Eagle/Canyon lodge side of the mountain.

After our little break we decided it was time to hit the top of the mountain. I've been up to the top every time we've been to Mammoth but its always a little intimidating. More pictures to come on this little adventure.

View from inside of the gondola

Adorable kiddos from Mammoth Elementary!

Tuesday night when we got back to our place we hit up the jacuzzi to soothe our sore muscles. Later on that night we enjoyed some Apples to Apples action.

We bought the 3 of 4 day passes from Costco and ended up saving a ton of money. Can you believe that the daily rate is $92 for adults!?!? Expensive but totally worth it in my opinion. With our passes we paid about $60 per day.

Wednesday was our day off from snowboarding and when we woke up it was snowing! It snowed about 4-5 inches on Wednesday.

Hubs & Jeremy putting chains on our whip

We had a lazy morning and decided to go out for breakfast. After looking around on Yelp we headed to The Stove for breakfast and my oh my was it ever delicious!

Group shot (David & Dennis were busy shredding the gnar)

Very nice Mikey!!
After breakfast we drove over to main lodge to check out the gift shop at the main lodge. Sadly nothing was calling my name but I did get a cute hot pink Mammoth sticker for my board. Later that afternoon we hit up the jacuzzi and sauna for some more relaxation.

Thursday was our last day on the mountain and it was a little bittersweet. It snowed about 6 inches Thursday and it was so much fun snowboarding in almost a full foot of powder! I've boarded in the past in fresh pow but never this much, and let me tell you it was glorious. I was definitely testing my limits this day. I even got up the courage to do some tree runs!

Love my face in this picture....I'm so in my happy place :)

Thursday evening we enjoyed the jacuzzi once again and then headed out to dinner at Burgers. I normally don't order the goods like patty melts, etc but I felt like after three days of snowboarding I deserved it! Tracy kept joking the whole time about how she eats so much that she is "eating for two." Thanks for making me feel better about getting my grub on! haha

Very tired but happy! We rounded out our trip with some yummy margaritas Gomez's. We were all so exhausted we couldn't drink more than a couple of margs. Thanks David for the drinks and the good time!

We headed out of town on Friday morning at about 10am and eventually got home at about 4pm. Thanks to everyone for making this such a smooth and enjoyable trip! Can't wait to go back!

Mammoth Vacation Sneak Peak

Happy Friday friends! Man, what a week this has been! My schedule this week at work has been totally overloaded with meetings, so much so that I feel like I haven't had anytime to actually get any work done. Whaaaaaa!!! I'm so thankful that we have an awesome weekend planned. I can't wait to relax, play and not think about work!

Still not quite ready to unleash the vacation recap on you just yet. I'm waiting on a couple of pictures are essential to the recap post. Enjoy this little sneak peak for now.

Happy Weekend!
xoxox

Time for some R&R

As I mentioned in my last post we're heading out to Mammoth on Sunday for a week of snowboarding. All we have on the list of things to do is laundry and a costco trip to load up on the necessities. Mammoth has been blessed with over 28 feet of snow this season so far! Unbelievable!

The trip I took this week to Silicon Valley went really well. I had a great time and took in an abundance of new info. Networking was a huge part of this trip as well and I really enjoyed the group dinners and meeting new friends from across the country. Staying at the Four Seasons wasn't too bad either!

Whenever I'm away for work or pleasure I enjoy documenting my trips with cell phone pics to share with my husband. In this case it was a fun way to connect the faces and names of people from work I'm always talking about. Here is my week in pictures.

One of my bosses aka drinking buddy

Yummy spumoni (Italian version of neapolitan ice cream + fruit and nuts) @ Il Fornai
Training room Tuesday & Wednesday
Thursday's training room
Tuesday - Thursday outfits for your viewing pleasure :)


Neat art on the parking garage @ San Jose airport
I hope everyone has a great weekend! Be back soon with a recap of our trip!

I'll leave you with a couple of fun quotes I heard this week for the first time.

"Fortes fortuna adiuvat" aka Fortune favors the bold

It's not who you know....it's about who knows you!

xoxo
Shorty

2011 Travel Plans...So Far

This week I am in Silicon Valley for some work training. Strategic Account Management Training to be exact, in case you were wondering. I don't travel as much as I used to with this job so I really appreciate the time I'm able to spend visiting with colleagues that I don't get to see very often. I'm super excited to get home from this trip though, so we can head out to Mammoth Lakes for some good times in the snow.

Speaking of travelling, the hubs and I are notorious for our local weekend getaways (Vegas, Big Bear, San Diego, Palm Springs, etc). This year we are planning a couple of larger trips but will definitely be squeezing in the weekend trips as well! Here is what we have planned for 2011...so far.

March via
First up is our some what annual Mammoth trip. I've gone two or three times but haven't always been able to attend due to work commitments. This year I'm going though, and lets just say I'm pumped!! I cannot wait to shred this mountain again!

May via
In early May we are meeting up with my bestie and her husband from Michigan. They've never been to Vegas and I'm really looking forward to showing them around town. I really want to give them a proper introduction to Vegas, so we are staying at the Venetian. This is mostly because it smells fabulous and because my fav Vegas restaurant is there - Grand Lux Cafe!

June via
Ladies weekend away in Palm Desert! We are staying at the always fabulous JW Marriott. Very much looking forward to spending some quality time with my ladies! On my wish list for this trip - a trip to the spa for a massage and hitting up the outlet mall on the way home for some shopping!

My mom is hosting our family reunion again this year in Southeastern Ohio in mid June. I was able to attend in June of 2009 and I really enjoyed meeting my extended family. I'm hoping that we will be able to attend this year as well! All of my closer relatives live in the area as well so it would be great to see them again as well.

July via
Some good friends of ours are getting married in late July in Kalispell, Montana at the above resort. Isn't it beautiful? Neither of us have visited Montana and we've heard lots of great things about the region. Fingers crossed that this trip becomes a reality. We've talked about road tripping it up to Montana and enjoying some time in Glacier National Park and well as Yellowstone. Ideally this would be about a week long trip.

November via
The hubs and his man BFF are hoping to run the NYC marathon this fall. Registration is done on a lottery basis and they aren't sure if they'll be able to enter the race but I would also like to see this trip become a reality. The last time I was there I was just a young pup and I think it would be so much fun to attend as a cheerleader for my boys and to enjoy the city as an adult.

I finally made it to the blog party!

Ladies, the time has come for me to jump feet first into the world of blogging. That's right, with much prodding and encouragement, I've realized now is the time for me to officially become a blogger!

"What should I expect from this "Shorty" person" you ask?

I'll probably talk about the following things on this blog:

Marriage & Family

Career
Entertaining
(I consider myself THE Hostess with the Mostest) Strange things I see in downtown LA Healthy Eating/Lifestyle
Hobbies
Travel

I'll just leave it at that for now....gotta keep my multitudes of followers hungry for more, right?
Stay tuned for a Christmas party recap that the mister and I hosted recently.