Taos.

Well the dust is slowly settling from spring break madness and our trek across Texas to the white-capped mountains of northern New Mexico.  We took the small men skiing in Taos last week, and that was an adventure of epic proportions. 

First off, we’ve never spent that much time traveling with our kids, and we definitely had never experienced the pure bliss and delight of being trapped in a vehicle with them for twelve hours straight.  It's going to take a high-powered vacuum and some Goo-be-Gone to transform my ride back to its previous state.  If you happen to see an SUV around with about 50 dinosaur stickers stuck to the inside back window, it's mine.

Secondly, we’ve never taken a vacation that required so much crap gear.  We’re typically beach bums – a few flip flops, some sunscreen, a couple arm swimmies – all set.  Well guess what.  Skiing (or any snow-related sport for that matter) is not so minimalistic. 

Finally, only one of the five of us actually possesses any winter sports ability worth claiming, and it sure as heck ain't me.  I grew up knee-boarding and skiing on bouyant salt water, which is a far cry from the unforgiving nature of frigid, hard-packed snow.  I had only skiied twice before, and that was in high school. 

Anyway, all-said, we had a grand time.  The two older boys spent three days in ski school and loved it - Gman was skiing blues by the third day.  I spent one day skiing, remembered that I totally sucked at manuevering those narrow and gangly sticks attached to my boots, and opted for snowboarding lessons on day two and three.  I loved it.  Granted, I wasn't very adept at the intracacies of looking like Shaun White, but I did okay.  Good enough to stay upright for a few turns before eating snow.  I worked muscles I never knew existed (and definitely felt the next day), but there was immense satisfaction in knowing I opened myself up to something new and embraced it.  And I was incredibly proud of the boys for tackling a fresh, unfamiliar challenge with valor, optimism and enthusiasm.  They inspired me.  And, Gman thought it incredibly cool that his mom was snowboarding.  So, apparently my newly acquired skill has upped me a few notches on the motherly coolness scale.  Score.

I'm in the middle, pretending to know what I'm doing.

As for Taos, a kitschy, quirky, laid-back atmosphere prevails.  Many of the locals and ski instructors work on what my husband and I call "island time", which is ironic considering it's in the mountains, but truly they are in no hurry around there.  There's less hustle and bustle and more attention given to small talk, and many people there really try to live green.  The women wear minimal make-up, the men sport beards and dreads and I swear that every local has at least three tattoos.  I noticed that the really popular spot for one was right on the breast plate/neck.  Honestly.  I went into a local pizza parlor one night (which was incredibly unique, cozy and the perfect spot for a Jack Kerouac poetry gathering) and every single one of the employees sported huge, intricate tattoos right on their chests - even the women.  And by the way, the pizza rocked.  Truly one of the best I've ever had.  Ever. 

When I showed up for my snowboarding lesson, the instructors all routinely used words like gnarly, rad and bitchin' - and they knew instantly (and pointed out I might add) that I was a snowboarding rookie.  Apparently I stuck out like a palm tree on the mountain top.  But you know what?  I sort of just went with the flow and soul of the place and kind of fell into a relaxed rhythm.  Don't get me wrong, there were many stressful moments with six kids in one house (we shared with our cool neighbors and their kids), a hundred pounds worth of snow gear to haul back and forth, minor injuries, altitude sickness and respiratory infections - we had to tote coolers just to keep antibiotics preserved. 

But even through all of that, Taos infused itself into our conscience (and maybe our subconcious too) and shared a secret or two about how to let go.  Unravel.  Decompress. Enjoy.  Live. 

It was gnarly, dude.