Do you ski?

When I was younger, my mom would take me skiing. Sometimes she'd drive over 6 hours to take me to Mammoth Mountain in California. She would sit out on the deck and read while I did the slopes. Or if it was too cold, she'd sit inside by a fireplace and drink coffee. I was never a really good skier, but I had fun. Rick and I started getting into skiing and then when our girls were older we took them a few times too. We'd go to Snow Summit, which was a little over 3 hours away from home. I loved it, but my feet made it hard. I had surgeries on them and something about the ski boot hurt them, so that made it difficult and uncomfortable. When we moved to Montana, we brought our old ski equipment with us. Once we got here, we realized how outdated it was. Our skis were 15 years old. Looking at them, you would think they were cross country skis because of how skinny they were. Skis now are much wider. We took them to the Salvation Army and I'm sure they're tacked to a wall somewhere or turned into a fence by now. I highly doubt anyone skis on them. We did buy cross country skis when we moved here and we have gone a few times. I had never tried cross country up until recently. Since the equipment was so much cheaper and we have so many places we can go, we figured it would be a good investment. I am hoping we can start up with this soon so I can get a little better at it. It's different than downhill, but fun.

Rick still wants to get back into downhill skiing. We have 2 ski resorts right here, so we won't have those long drives like before. I'm a little nervous about it, mostly because of my feet. I had bunions growing up and had surgery to remove them, so now my feet are full of pins & screws. I love the sport, so maybe I'll be willing to try again. Our daughter Nicole went a few times last year and had fun. I'd love to get the boys into it. I think they would have a blast skiing or snowboarding. I was just looking at this picture and realized it's pretty old. Those are my girls, Nicole & Nichelle, who are 17 and 19 years old now. And to think about it more, the fanciest thing about my skiing is my Obermeyer hat. I can't remember how much I paid for that silly thing, but it was a lot for me to spend on a ballcap. I still have it.

Another thing I want to try is snowshoeing. In the winter, you can go into Glacier National Park and rent snowshoes to walk around. This is something I'm hoping to try. I think I could really get into this. Snowshoeing seems like it would be great for me because I could take pictures at the same time. Photography is a little hard when you're barreling down a steep mountain all out of control. One of the local sporting goods stores has snowshoes on sale right now from $69-89 and it's really tempting to buy some. I suppose it's best to rent them first, but I think this would be fun. There is one problem -- lack of snow. We're having a late season and the skiers are going crazy. It should be here soon. Think snow!