Mama's Day Out

You will never believe what I found yesterday. Hills in North Dakota. Not mountains, there most definitely aren't mountains around here, but hills big enough for 2 chair lifts and some snow skiing!

Whoa! Look at the size of that mountain!

I've actually heard of this so called skiing in North Dakota thing a few times, but decided I really had to check it out. A friend told me that compared to where I come from it will feel like bunny hills, but I was undaunted. Fresh snow (even if it was mostly man made,) hills, sun, skis, and exercise sounded like Christmas to me. So I called on my dear and brave friends Anna and Carla and we piled in the car at 6:00 AM and drove the 2 1/2 hours to Huff Hills Ski Area about 25 miles south of Bismark/Mandan.































A little back ground on Carla and Anna. Carla was born and raised in Carrington, ND. She has never seen a mountain before in her life. Before she met me, she didn't do many outdoor sports or activities. She likes to be outside, but I think I opened a Pandora's Box of outdoor possibilities. Before she met me she didn't love going out on the water. Now we are part of an annual canoe race. Before she met me she didn't know anything about skiing, but yesterday she hopped in the car and went to check it out anyway. I give her a lot of grief, but honestly, she is really brave. As we were nearing the Ski Area (I want to say Ski Resort, but that is over-doing it a bit) she started to get very nervous. She was freaking out about the size of the "mountains" and Anna and I were laughing and telling her that those aren't mountains. Now Anna is from San Diego, CA and has seen a little more of the world. She has also been skiing before, but only once and it was like 12 years ago. Do I have brave friends or what? Carla was nervous/excited all week as we planned this. She wanted to go buy boots to wear with her ski's, but I explained to her that there are special boots, called ski boots, that you rent with your ski's. It was all very foreign to her.































Anyway, we stopped at a gas station on our way and bought energy drinks and goofy sun glasses because we felt like teenagers getting out from mom's yolk and we wanted to act silly and stupid like teenagers getting out from mom's yolk.
























We had a great time. We hit the bunny hill first, for a little warm up, and then Anna and I braved the lift. Carla stuck to the Bunny Hill and the ski school for a couple hours. I quickly found out that in the language of North Dakota skiers, Black Diamond translates to hard Green or very easy Blue. Regardless of the hill size and difficulty, I had the best day. It was warm. By North Dakota winter standards it was down right hot! High of 47, no wind, and lots of sun. From the top of the hill you could see for miles down the Missouri River. Breath taking. It wasn't too long before Carla joined us on the real hills and we just had a blast. Lots of laughs. I'm quite sure the two of them have some sore muscles today. I was expecting some, but so far I'm feeling great. The only time I fell was before I even put my boots or ski's on. I was walking down some outside stairs in my tennis shoes and fell down them. Seriously, I skied like (almost) a pro but I can't walk.































I wish I had more pictures to share, but I didn't want to carry my big old camera all day. Carla had a smaller camera, so if she e-mails me those pics, I'll post them.































One more thing. Please note my super cute ski outfit. My awesome husband was in Bismark on Friday and decided I needed something new for my outing. I felt like "One Hot Mama". In order to get enough use out of that outfit to make it worthwhile (it was not cheap) I'll have to start skiing every weekend. Ryan and I are taking the kids next Saturday. I can't wait!

Here we are refueling at Jonny Corinos before our long drive home.

Anna's in the green hat and Carla's in the black.

I think our server was a little weired out by us.