Superbowl Monday and Naga-YES!!!

We threw a Superbowl Monday party last night, and it was so much fun! I was shocked at the quantity of food and the deliciousness of it all. We had several staples-buffalo chicken dip, seven-layer dip, chili, chicken wings and so much more. Since we're a day ahead here in Japan I DVRed the game, and we watched it last night. Most everyone just ignored the sports news and did their best not to discover the final score prior to watching the game. I, not being so clever, accidentally saw the result when reading someone's facebook status. I was very annoyed, but I should have known better. Anyway, it was fun to celebrate an American tradition together. Unfortunately, everyone left all their leftovers here so I now have four bags of various types of Doritos in the cupboard right now. Not cool. 

Here's a shot of some of our grub.

Gear switch...

Last weekend, we went to Nagano. It took around four hours to get there, and it was certainly an exciting drive.

I had never seen so much snow in my life, but all of our cars did surprisingly well with our snow tires and chains.

Here's the lodge where we stayed. We had an amazing time, but the lodge was lacking in terms of cleanliness. Eek.

Not long after our arrival, we hit the slopes. The snow and mountains were beautiful, but it was a little difficult to capture any good shots with all the snow blowing around. 

I chose skiing over snowboarding this time, and I think I might have to make that a permanent choice. Although I had several wipeouts, my tush felt much better after a day of skiing than it did after a day of snowboarding. But, I need to learn to remember I have poles in my hands when I'm near others. Travis almost lost an eye on several occasions.

After carving up the mountains, we headed back to the lodge and enjoyed the most delicious fajitas I've ever tasted in my life. We all contributed some groceries, and the boys cooked up our dinner. Before you go off thinking what nice boys we must have, the real reason for their cooking was that the kitchen was less than tidy, and all of us girls decided we weren't sure we could handle the stench and ickyness of it. So, we persuaded the boys to do the cooking instead.

We spent the rest of the night playing board games, and the girls enjoyed a spontaneous '80s dance party. 

The next morning, we enjoyed some French toast and headed off for some more skiing and snowboarding before driving back to Nagoya.

All in all, it was a terrific weekend, and I'm pretty sure I won't soon forget it.