Learning to Ski!!!

So......during this Christmas break, I skiied for the second and third time in my life!!!  The first time for me was eighth grade graduation ski trip in which I learned and had my first wipe-out at Redlodge MT.  The dude I ran into was Cole Nichols and he was about four foot five and I was about six foot then...I liked going fast and he was going relatively slow...It was a brilliant scene I'm sure.  Stuff and people flew everywhere and he was pretty mad at me for awhile.  Anywho, Bart was kind enough to let me borrow his boots and Colin his ski pants and such and I was off.  When we first walked down to the staging area for the free ski at Alta at three I got all rigged up and went down the tiny hill down to the chutes for the lift and about took out three toddlers not to mention myself.  Somehow I managed to make it to the chutes without any incidents or falls and onto the lift.  While I'm riding this lift I'm thinking, "what the heck is keeping you on this chair other than your own fear and common sense?"  As we reach the end, Cambria gives me the low-down on how to exit the lift chair and now I'm worried....there's a technique for getting off the lift?  I'm in trouble.  I make it off the lift but get my skiis crossed and look worse than the toddlers one third my size who at least got the exiting the lift part down...Geesh.  Next, Colin throws me a few pointers as he glides by doing a 180 seamlessly.  'gulp'  "If you can stop fast, you can do whatever you want basically."  Got it....stop fast.  Well, to make a long story short, I learned how to stop fast.......going left.  Right was a little harder.  I made it down alright the first time, again without hitting any little kids or trees.  The second and third time were better as I got the hang of it more, but I was still terrified of running over those little tykes, I mean, they are like four years old!  Very cool that they can ski but I'd be afraid if I was their parents and they saw me on the slope!

After it all, I came away feeling great and ready for more.  I think skiing will continue to be something that Bria and I do and I love that!  Heres to more fun in the snow and Utah's awesome slopes!