Old Dog, New Tricks

Part of the reason I was willing to let Peter go tubing this week was that I went tubing for the first time just a few weeks ago. That's right, this thirty-nine year old faced some pretty serious fears and joined in for a friend's birthday celebration.

I wasn't going to go at first. It would take me away during bedtime and it sounded dangerous and I was feeling anxious about the whole thing. Bryan encouraged me to at least go and be social, even if I didn't actually slide down any mountains. I begrudgingly agreed.

I didn't tell the kids what I was doing until I was about to walk out the door. Then there were tears and pleas for me to be safe. The last thing Phoebe said to me as I walked out the door was, "I love you Mommy, please don't die."

This was our adventurous group. The birthday girl is in the orange jacket. Two of us had never done this before, but I think I was the most vocally apprehensive about it, though I did try to come off as funny instead of just terrified. Fun fact: I knew two of these women while I was at BYU as a student. BYU makes the world a smaller place.

Behold, the slope.

I look happy, right? Not like I'm about to do something that scares me to the point of a mild panic attack, yeah? That my friends, is proof that I'm a good actress.

We were all bundled. I wore a base layer, regular clothes, snow pants and a sweatshirt, a scarf, a warm jacket, ear muffs, a hat, two pairs of gloves, cozy socks, and sturdy snow boots. And it was a warm-ish evening, somewhere in the high 40s, which isn't too bad for January in Pennsylvania.

I'm the one in the picture close to the camera, but turning away. For most runs we hooked our tubes together and slid down tandem in groups of two, three, or four. This upped the velocity significantly, but I opted for that rather than a solo flight. There was one run where all but two of us went alone. The chance of spinning while speeding down the hill increased dramatically when not hooked to another tube, and that didn't appeal to me.

I did not know this picture was being taken. Once we got to the bottom of the hill we would carry our tubes to a moving walkway and ride it back up to the top. Except for when it was turned off, then we carried our tubes and huffed and puffed back up the hill.

And those are my legs and feet. When it was almost time to go down the hill I would plant myself and hold on tight to the tube, ready. I didn't want to be caught off-guard, especially since I would be pulled down by the tubes I was attached to.

After the tubing we got pizza and sang happy birthday and laughed until we couldn't breathe. The talking was the best part of the night. It is a blessing to have friends to go and have this kind of crazy adventure with. I carpooled up and back and didn't get home until after midnight.

The next morning the kids asked how it was. I told them I was glad that I went because it was wonderful spending time with friends. Then they asked about the actual tubing. I told them that it was terrifying on every single run. As we started down the hill I would have thoughts like, "I really like my teeth, I hope they stay in my head" and "I am a mother! I have children depending on me! What am I doing?! This is insanity!" It wasn't until the last run that some of those anxious feelings started to fade a little.

That said, I'm glad I went. I need people and since I have made the choice to stay at home with kids, I don't have that many chances to be around people. Talking and laughing and listening filled my soul. And it's nice to know that during the year of my fortieth birthday I can still be adventurous and do new things that scare me.