Dude!

Michelle's siblings are not much into skiing ...

But we in-laws TOTALLY are!

So, last Thursday I got in an SUV with my sisters-in-law Ellie (above left) and Erica (above right), and Ellie's dad Kim, and we drove up to Crystal Mountain. There were several inches of "fresh pow" on the ground when we got there and the snow continued to fall off and on all day. Erica and I had decided to try snowboarding (with the clear understanding that we could switch our equipment for skiing stuff at any time.)

Here is a rare shot of Erica and I both standing up at the same time.
We expended much time and effort falling down, doing the bear-crawl, turning over (no easy trick with the board strapped to your feet), and getting up (incredibly hard) ... only to fall over again. We were getting the hang of it by the end of the morning, but were ready for a change.

Erica, Kim and I (thanks for taking pictures Ellie!)

Kim and I

After lunch Erica and I traded our snowboards in for skis. It was nice to ski. I was surprised how different snowboarding is from skiing !
I have skied a fair amount and it was nice to end the day feeling like I knew what I was doing.

Ellie and Erica practicing for the synchro competition

It was a snowy, painful, exciting, wonderful day! On the way home we saw several snow-related accidents and helped some guys in a Hummer pull a Prius out of a ditch. That was a fun drive!