Shoop, Shoop, Shoop

This past week Justin finally had some time off! On Tuesday he just had a short meeting in the morning so we went bowling in the afternoon. The bowling center on base has free bowling on Tuesdays so we were able to bowl three free games. It was fun even though Justin doesn't like bowling. I really enjoy bowling so he said he'd go with me every time he has a free day on Tuesday. On Thursday we went out and ran some errands. I picked up my new contacts so now I have a year's supply. We also got some cold weather clothes. Since spring is supposedly on its way, everything for winter was on sale. We got warm gloves, snow pants, and hats. Then yesterday we went skiing for the first time ever! It was so much fun. We went to Showdown to ski since its the closest place to Great Falls.

It took a little over an hour to get there. It was snowing on the way there and we had to drive through mountains but we just went slow and it was fine. Once we got there, we signed up for lessons and rented our equipment. The lesson we took was for beginners who have no experience. The class was full of kids but there were a couple other adults so we didn't feel too awkward. We learned how to put the skis on and how to glide and stop. This is the beginner area where our class was.

There's a conveyor belt called the Magic Carpet that takes you up the small hill so you can practice going down. We got the hang of it pretty quickly and decided we didn't need to keep going down the small hill. So we headed over to the beginner lift.

The lift didn't go all the way to the top of the mountain which was good, but it still went pretty high. I could feel the difference in oxygen when we got to the top. After a short lesson, Justin and I successfully made it down the mountain. Overall, I think I only fell maybe twice while actually skiing. I mostly fell trying to walk in my skis or while standing still, sadly. Falling on the snow doesn't hurt at all. I did get a giant bruise on my leg from landing on top of one of my skis. But other than that, no injuries to report.

We went down the different beginner areas a bunch of times. Justin kept trying to go down this more difficult part near the bottom. Every time I went by from the easy area I would see Justin laying in the snow with one ski off, or I would see him side stepping up the hill to retrieve his poles that were 20 yards up the mountain from where he was. But after a few times, he finally made it down without falling haha.

The weather for skiing was good, from what we heard. It was snowing all day but the sun was poking through the overcast sky. One of the people who worked in the rental shop said it has been snowing for two weeks straight. That explains all the nice fluffy powder. Here's Justin in the 5 or 6 inches of powder.

And here's me. You can't even see our skis. I'm really glad we got cold weather gear. I was warm the entire day until maybe 45 minutes before we left. Even though it was only 15 degrees or so and snowing, we managed to stay quite toasty.

We had a blast skiing and now have something to look forward to for winter time in Montana. At some point we want to try snowboarding, although I have a feeling that will be much more difficult to pick up.