Skipping School

Since Grandpa was in town this week, we decided to skip school and take him skiing.  There was fresh powder and blue skies (and a little snow too).  It was a beautiful day and the girls had a great day skiing with Grandpa.  Three generations on the hill together!

Race Day

Here's some action video for you... Hannah, Paige and Maren on race day.

Hannah

Paige

Maren

Hannah - 1st Place in her age group (Go Hannah!)

Maren - 3rd place in her age group

Paige - Disqualified due to fall, but had the best first run time out of everyone!

Izzy leads everyone on the last run of the day...

Christmas Break - Week 2

On the second week of Christmas Break, my true love gave to me.... Holiday ski camp. 

The girls spent all week getting up at the crack of dawn (actually before dawn) and skiing with coaches.  They worked on tons of skills, did lots of free skiing all over the mountain and spent some time running gates.  I thought they would be wiped out after waking up early and skiing all day, every day but they often wanted to take an extra run or two after class ended. 

It was a great week for them and they really improved their skiing skills.  I love to be able to go anywhere on the mountain with them now.  In fact, they are often taking Kirk and I on runs that we didn't know existed or hadn't been on before. 

What a great week!

Hannah and Ally waiting to run the gates.

Maren still smiling after a long day.

Hannah in the gates.

Paige having fun on the bunny hill.

First Day

We've had two beautiful blue sky Saturdays of skiing this season.  Thanks to an early snowstorm Schweitzer is open.  Thanks to cold temperatures the snow has stayed great despite a lack of new snow.  The girls are doing great.  Hannah and Paige are fun to ski with on any run at any speed.  Maren can ski all over the mountain at her own speed and Izzy can ski down the blues.  Izzy's favorite speed is FAST, but at least she knows how to stop.  It is fun to have everyone on the slopes together.

We are asking Santa for some new snow for Christmas.

Spring Skiing

Yesterday was a rare and beautiful day of spring skiing.  We had blue skies, new snow and warmer temperatures.  I headed up to Schweitzer with the older girls while Izzy and Kirk stayed home.  Izzy claimed that 'I hate skiing'.  Which isn't true (she's usually the one most eager to go), but only proves that the terrible wonderful three's have begun in our house. 

It was such a nice day that I continued an old Johnson tradition.  We grabbed our lunch backpack and headed over the river and through the woods (actually up the T-bar) to eat lunch in the sunshine at the top of Recess.  When I was a kid this was a favorite thing to do with my family.  I remember many sack lunches eaten on top of Gentle Ben with my Dad, Mom and siblings. 

Here's some spring powder skiing from Maren & Hannah:

Paige is our speed skier and usually the first one down.

The girls can go just about anywhere on the mountain now, which is great and gives us lots of options for exploring.  The t-bar accesses a whole slope of black diamond runs which usually has some good stashes of powder.  We skied powder, crud and groomers. 

It was a fun day.

Holiday Camp

This year, we enrolled Hannah, Paige and Maren in Holiday Ski Camp. They spent the 5 days skiing from dawn till dusk and loving it. They had great coaches who helped them gain confidence and improve their skills. They would come home each night telling us about skiing on runs that we'd never even heard of. I was able to go up on the last day and ski some runs with them and thier coaches. I am so impressed with all that they learned and how much fun they had. They were skiing powder, groomed, crud, gates and trees. Grandpa would be proud!

Paige and Ally waiting to run the gates.

Maren with her coach.

First Snow

It has been snowing hard for a week now. We have been sledding, skating, building snowmen and riding behind the quad. Yesterday we spent our first day on the slopes. Although the base wasn't too deep, Schweitzer opened with some amazingly soft and fluffy snow the day after Thanksgiving. We decided to take the whole family. It was Izzy's first time and she had lots of fun. Hannah, Paige and Maren picked up where they left off last year and we had a great day!

Look Dad, I can parallel ski on my first day out!

Here I am with Maren. Uh oh! Who is this crazy boy skiing into me? Oh well, I'm too good for him. I'll just keep going and beat him to the bottom of the magic carpet! That will show him that girls are better skiers! Slow and careful - that's the way to do it.

Spring Skiing

Kirk and I had our weekly ski date today. It was a beautiful day - blue skies and an amazing view. The spring skiing was fast and fun. I was savoring the day because things are warming up and spring is really on it's way. We probably don't have too many more of these days left this season.

Funny story:

As the girls were getting ready for school, Paige realized what a nice day it would be and also realized that Kirk and I were going skiing. Here is the conversation that followed:

Paige: No fair, I want to go skiing today!

Kirsten: Skip school and come with us.

Paige: (after only a moments hesitation) But I'd miss Science Friday!

I'm glad to know school gets her excited enough to miss out on a day of skiing.

Spring Skiing

Although there is not much snow left, we've been enjoying lots of beautiful spring skiing days these past few weeks. Here are some photos...

Even though they are onto bigger and better runs, the girls still like to ride the Magic Carpet!

Maren and her friend, Emily, are independent enough to load and ride without help.

Maren and Hannah on their way up the quad.

Hannah and her friend, Sarah, on the top of South Bowl.

Hannah's 4th Grade Class on their second skiing trip.

School's Out

We took advantage of no school on Friday and went skiing with the girls. Several friends were up there and the girls had a great time.

Here is everyone coming down to the skier-cross course. From top to bottom: Hannah, Ben, Ally, Paige, Kirk, Maren.

Lunch in the Lodge.

Our friend Jessamyne just learned to ski this year and did a great job keeping up with the girls.

Christmas Eve

What could be better than skiing with your sisters

on Christmas Eve?...

Skiing with Santa and his helpers, of course!

WAX ON, WAX OFF

Growing up as a Johnson, there was something that we could always count on during the winter... SKIING ON SATURDAY. My father spent many, many years on various volunteer ski patrols. I think he did this for many reasons. First, because he loved skiing. But it was also a way to fiance skiing for a family of eight.

I have many great memories of skiing (it being my favorite sport). But one that came to mind last night was a memory of wintry Friday nights spent with my Dad, in a cold garage, tuning and waxing skis. Our local ski resort, Schweitzer Mountain, has been open for skiing since Thanksgiving weekend. But since Kirk and I prefer to ski on snow rather than tree stumps, we opted to wait for a few more storms. Today was our first day on the mountain. In preparation, we dug out the ski wax, iron, file and edge tuner. I am not as diligent as my father, but I do enjoy a good tune and wax now and then. Especially in preparation for the first day of the season.

Thanks Dad for all you taught me and for all of the time you invested in our skiing. It has been a great source of enjoyment in my life. I love sharing skiing with my kids. Tomorrow is their first day of the season.

**Thanks, Dad, for supplying our family photos on CD. I love to have them available. Kudos to Kirk for the new photos. He's getting pretty good, isn't he?

Ski Swap

The ski swap is coming up on Saturday. Snow is in the forecast. Skiing season is getting closer! Yippee!

Last night the girls tried on all of their ski clothes and ski gear. We made a list of what we need for this coming season. What luck! It looks like only our feet grew this year. We need two pair of ski boots and two sets of poles. I don't know how my parents outfitted 6 kids to ski each year. I can barely keep up with 3! It will be interesting when Izzy makes it 4.