Skiing in Michigan

Since we have lived in Michigan over 11 years now and haven't been out west during ski season for a while, I finally decided to try out skiing here. Actually, I've been thinking about it for a couple of years now, just finally had the right opportunity. My friend, who's in her 60's and is from Utah, but has lived in Michigan for about 30 years, is a skier. She goes to Utah every year for a ski trip. She raised all her boys here in Michigan though and taught them to ski here. She confirmed to me that it would still be a good experience for them here. 

When Karissa came home from school with a Discover Michigan in Winter form with a fantastic deal on it, I decided that we were going to do it!The deal was for a 2 hour lesson for $35 which included all the equipment for ages 7 and up. 9 and up could try snowboarding, so Austin couldn't try that yet. The girls decided to stick with skiing this time as well. Victoria went in Utah with me when she was really young and skied between my legs. She went in Colorado as well and had a little lesson, but I think she was 4 then, so it had been a while.

There are a ton of ski resorts here, though I didn't know. They are all old landfills. We signed up for the closest one to our house, only 45 minutes away!

As they started the lesson, I could see that they were getting the hang of it much faster than some of the other kids in the group, though most of them were about Austin's age. I also learned that, even though it stated the lesson would be for 2 hours, the lesson would only be one and that they could ski the rest of the day. Bonus! I promptly marched back into the building and bought myself a pass and rented some gear.

I didn't know what the lesson would be like, so I had brought warm stuff so I could ski, but I didn't necessarily plan on it in case I needed to be available during the lesson. It's a good thing I decided to ski, because although they had an hour's lesson on how to ski, they didn't get a lesson on how to get on a lift, or get off. When I got to ski with them, we had the typical first-time-getting-on-and-off-a-lift problems: taking too long to get to the right spot, getting lined up properly so we all could get on the 4-seater at the same time (we only did that once since Austin got run over by the lift on that one, though he was fine and it didn't even phase him), and getting off without falling. 

Victoria actually took the longest to get down the real slopes at first, after the practice slope. She kept losing a ski. Karissa surprised me by making it down the slopes without much fear. I can't say that I'm surprised by Austin's ability to zip down the slopes, even going off jumps and landing most of them. He was a natural and completely fearless, which is a little scary to me! As Karissa and I were going up the lift at one point, Austin was skiing straight down a fairly steep slope, doing a slight pizza, arms spread out with a big smile on his face! I overheard the teens in front of our lift exclaim, "Look how good that kid is!" and I yelled out to them that it was his first day and they were shocked! I would have taken a picture, but my phone had frozen and turned off by then. 

They were very tired at the end and Victoria had a bad moment where she thought she was lost, which put a bad ending to the whole day, since she was livid with me for "leaving" her. Of course she has forgotten all about that now and is dying to go again. We just might!

Victoria getting on her skis.

Karissa, getting the hang of it.

With the group.

Going to try out the practice slope. 

You can see one of the lifts in the background. There were 4. Not like skiing out west, but it was fun!

Victoria going down the practice slope.

Austin going down.

Here comes Karissa.