I’m starting to feel like I’m a local to both Breckenridge and Austin with how much I’ve been back and forth between the two places. I’ve been between Colorado and Texas a lot over the last couple months, and have really gotten to experience the best of both winters – Both the 85 degree “winter” days in Austin as well as the 0-degree, snow-covered climate of Summit County. I finally moved into a new house down here in Austin, which has been really great! It finally cooled off after a long summer full of Texas heat, so I’ve been exercising a lot more during the afternoons!
Fall Travels
After a brief trip to Colorado in early November, I officially started to move into my new house, but didn’t really get moved in until the first week of December. While in Colorado, I was able to get in a day of snowboarding – My first time on the mountain in November in years.
Thanksgiving was spent with the Cortez familia in Dallas, all of us together for Thanksgiving for the first time in forever. Isaac and Jadyn flew down with Mom and Dad, and we had a great week with all the cousins and extended family.
In December, I helped Grandpa Cortez with his end-of-year holiday memorial service at the funeral home. He truly went above and beyond to host an event for all the families who held funerals with Williams Funeral Directors in Dallas this last year, and it turned out great. I filmed and recorded the whole event, and helped with a lot of decorating and setup as well. Grandpa gave some great speeches, and even played the guitar and sang for the congregation. After both services (English and Spanish), we went out for celebratory margaritas.
Holidays in Colorado
I flew up to Breckenridge for Christmas and New Years following my time in Dallas, and jumped right into the winter snowboarding season. It really was a special time all together as a family, and on Christmas, we all got to snowboard together as a family for the first time in a while. It’s rare that all five of us are on the same mountain at the same time, and it had been two years since we had all ridden together!
In early January, our friends the Deweys came up to stay in Summit for a bit, bringing along our friend Morgan as well! We got to board with them a lot, and rode multiple days at Copper and Breck.
Overall, it was a very special time with both friends and family in Colorado. Getting to snowboard with our Texas friends barely ever happens, and we definitely packed it in with a lot of back-to-back days on the mountain.
Since graduating high school, my days on the mountain per season have dropped probably around 70-80%, which I guess was expected. However, that doesn’t stop me from enjoying a couple park days where I can throw a couple tricks and feel like a cool snowboarder again (lol). Park days with Isaac or some friends from Team Summit are some of the best days of the year for me, and I was fortunate enough to get in a couple of those in this season. Isaac and I had a great day in January together at Copper where we got to film a couple cool shots of each other with our GoPros. Check out one of his lines I filmed!
Winter Travels
Looking back at it right now, my fall and start to winter seemed to just fly by. The rest of my winter and start to spring was also crazy eventful, with the Austin freeze (losing power for almost a week!), flying out to New York with Jadyn, lots of tennis and pickleball, snowboard banked slalom competitions, and a ton of work on Gabe Media and Breckenridge Marketing. But those are some stories I’d rather write tomorrow 🙂 Stay tuned for that.
Keep grinding and living the dream!
You packed in some great times! You still got it in your snowboarding.