I've always wanted to learn how to snowboard for real. Sure, I've been up the mountain a few times and could get myself down with minimal damage, but I never really improved on my skills. Since January was National Learn A Snow Sport Month, I rounded up some friends from the office and we decided to give snowboarding lessons a try. We all varied in skill. Jeremy and Ben were the most experienced and Shelby had only gone once. Plus, most of us had never been to Silver Mountain and we couldn't wait to explore the terrain!

We all met up in the wee hours of the morning (okay, so it was 7am) and carpooled east of Spokane to Kellogg, Idaho. The hour drive went by so fast! Once we got there, our excitement was building. There were tons of people walking around the village and getting ready for a day full of fresh powder. We met up with Silver Mountain's Director of Marketing, John Williams and hopped on the gondola up to the lodge. The gondola is the longest one of its kind in North America (over 3 miles!) and on the way up, I was completely awed by all the gorgeous views of the mountain! And let me tell you, John is one impressive guy. He says he's tried almost every snow sport except ski biking. I didn't even know there was such a thing!

John got us all set up with Silver's awesome rental gear and set us loose to meet up with our snowboarding instructors, Weston and Fred. These two guys totally rock! We all strapped in and worked on perfecting basic snowboarding skills like skating, toe edge and heel edge. I don't know about everyone else, but I felt totally prepared to take on some serious runs after the lesson on the bunny hill! Weston took a couple of us down a run and taught us some cool tricks. We had a total blast!

Soon our newly-used muscles were sore and it was time to call it a day. We rode the gondola back to the village and decided there was no going home without jumping in the hot tub for a little relaxation first! The Silver Mountain crew was super nice and let us use their guest-exclusive Silver Rapids Indoor Water Park. Inside it was a perfect 84 degrees and there were all kinds of water slides, a lazy river ride, a surf wave and some fun toys for kids (like me.) It definitely made me want to come back and stay at the resort!

On the ride back to Spokane, we were all chatting about our fun snowboarding adventure and how great it was to take lessons. We can't wait to get back up to Silver Mountain soon and take on some black diamonds (or race each other down their snow tubing hill!)