Back during sophomore year, Bryan and I would be constantly text each other "daydreams," or little short stories of hypothetical situations for a cute couple.  { It was so adorable and always made me squeal with girly excitement.} One of our favorite daydreams was in the snow-- and after that, we were dying to make it a reality.  A ski trip sounded like just the bombest thing our friends could do, although we never thought it would actually happen.  Wrong.  Thanks to someone fabulous, it all came together and we were able to spend three days with all our bestest buds.
  We left on a Thursday afternoon.  I was in the truck with Chelsea, Paige, Bryan and his dad.  Listening to the new Frozen soundtrack, we drove up laughing about people's driving experiences {specifically my dumb blond experiences genetically influenced by my father} and  various other humorous things before we finally pulled up to the tiny little house we were to stay at.  Initially we were a bit worried-- the place looked way too tiny to fit 20 people, and the lockbox of the house was completely frozen.  But we got in, coziest up by the fire, and ate dark chocolate as some people played Monopoly and the rest of us just cuddled up or braided hair. Relaxing?  Heck yeah.
  The fire ended up being a bit too much for me after I a while, so I decided to cool off on the porch.  Others followed.  White snow reflected the moonlight, and the night was calm and peaceful and chilled as we sank into the chairs {even if it meant sharing seats and blankets} and watched the stars.  Up in the forested mountains, the stars were brilliant, unmarred by city polution, untainted by human light.  We gazed at them in a content gaze and tried to figure out if the brightest star was a sun or a planet.
 Once Bryan's family decided to go to bed, the males and females had to separate,  The girls went upstairs, but the party was only just started.  All six of us squeezed onto the bed and leaned forward to hear the latest gossip about girls' first kisses and who-likes-who's.  My phone locks after 11, but the other girls continued texting the guys downstairs for several hours.  Their laughter carried up through the floor, as I'm sure ours carried down.  Let's just say we definitely got ourselves all a little sleep-deprived.
   We got up early to go to the ski resort.  MAN was it a blast!  I've only gone skiing once before, but I didn't want to waste too much time on the bunny slopes.   When the guys took us to the first run, which started off with a steep run, I decided I couldn't be a sissy and freak out over the steepness, so I just went for it.  Well...  let's just say I still have a bruise a week-and-a-half later from picking up speed without being able to stop, crashlanding so my skis went flying, rolling and then skidding for 50 feet.  Nevertheless we all laughed and had a wonderful time.  Most of the time I hung out with Emily and Bryan's sister Morgan, and we found ourselves quite skilled on the green slopes, though we contently avoided joining our more experienced amigos on the harder runs that would successfully kill us.  But really, once you've chosen a level that you like, there is nothing more exhilarating than flying down the moutains with the sun on your cheeks and the wind in your hair and everything a blur around you as you gracefully sweep this way and that.  Bryan and I checked off one daydream by kissing in the snow, though I'm disappointing that I didn't get to chuck a snowball at his face.  He DID convince me to go down a blue slope, which terrified and embarrassed me as I kept falling on my butt and snowplowing as slow as humanly possible.  Funny thing was, I probably made it harder on myself by doing that.  Oh well.  No regrets :)
  We spent the rest of the time at Bryan's friend Scottie's cabin.  With his group and our group, there were probably 45 people, which was crazy but fun as we drank hot chocolate and played the bag game.  {The bag game requires you to grab a paper bag with only your mouth and nothing more than your feet or your lips to touch the ground.  Despite everyone else's difficulties, my height makes it a breeze for me.  And I was very proud of Chelsea and especially 6'1" Bryan for tying second place despite my low expecations.}  We played lots of games and were able to pretty much relax.
  I love my friends.  Even if we didn't get a lot of sleep {though I have discovered a lot of them sleep talk, including Bryan, who shouted "Anthony, I am so incredibly not naked!"}, we were able to goof off and pretty much have a once-in-a-highschool-lifetime experience.