Skiing & Snowboarding

We've been so busy with hockey and dance this winter that we haven't had a chance to go do another fun winter activity: skiing/snowboarding. But we finally had a chance today and decided to take it. We packed up the kids and headed out to Cannonsburg Ski Area near Grand Rapids to hit the slopes. Heidi and I used to go skiing a couple times each year when we were in college. Nathan and I snowboarded a couple times last year but Heidi has been skiing only once in the last 10 years or so. An interesting twist this year was we put Allison on skis for the first time. We probably could have worked with her and taught her how to do it but we figured she'd be more likely to complain or freak out if we did so we sprung for a 1 hour lesson and Heidi and I agree that was the best idea we've had in a long time. By the end of the hour, Allison had mastered the "snow plow" technique and her instructor took her up the chairlift and let her come down one of the medium difficulty runs!! Seeing that, Nathan decided to set aside his fear of falling off the chair lift and rode up with Heidi to the top of the same run and snowboarded down. By this time, I had re-injured my back while bending over to buckle my boots and ended my night after only one time down the hill (big bummer...but that's another story). So Heidi, Nathan, and Allison went up the chairlift and down the run for the rest of the night. It was a bit cold but it was snowing constantly and there were a few inches of fresh powder. It was a great night for skiing.

The instructor said he was pretty surprised Allison was doing so well since she'd never been skiing before and suggested if we do another lesson with her sometime he'd be able to take her down the face (most difficult run). I don't see any need for that at the moment but we're really happy she had fun. We'll have to do it again before all the snow melts.