The House family went on a ski trip this past weekend, courtesy of our friends who have an amazing ski house at Okemo Mountain in Vermont. As Kara and I were packing we came to the realization we hadn’t been skiing in thirteen years. How is that even possible that we hadn’t been on skis since this picture below was taken at Okemo in January 2001?

Skiing has certainly changed since the dawn of the Bush administration. People wear helmets now and cell phones actually fit in your pockets to insure you can snap poor quality selfies to document your after mogul windburn. Some things haven’t changed, like Kara’s timeless purple North Face jacket that is just getting broken in after nearly 23 years.

On Saturday, we put the kids in ski school and hit the slopes in single digit temperatures and a steady snowfall. Kara was on her high school team in suburban Detroit so a decade plus break was nothing. “It’s like riding a bike,” she said to her husband, who can count the number of times he’s skied on one hand. I needed a lesson, a refresher course, and the next day I was on my own. Our friends Erik and Ashley haved moved on to snowboarding. Skiing for them is so 2001.

I can’t say enough about the folks at Okemo. My teacher rocked, my kids’ teachers were patient and extremely caring, and the staff all over the resort went out of their way to help. It was 1 degree on Sunday morning and my kids could have justifiably hated their first time skiing, but those teachers somehow had my son and daughter looking forward to next time.

In case you’re wondering, yeah I did wipe out a couple of times. Hey, it’s been 13 years. Good thing for the helmet…and a couple of Advil.

We live within in a short drive of Powder Ridge, Ski Sundown, and Mount Southington, so watch out. We’re back.

Here’s a story about a family trip to meet my cousins for the first time: https://dennishouse.tv/2013/01/24/journey-to-abruzzo-to-meet-my-italian-family/