Sunday, February 20, 2011

30 by 30, #2: Cross-country ski in the city forest.

Clark's birthday was last week (Happy Birthday, Clark!), and as fate would have it, he had the day off work. (We are big fans of getting every other Friday off.) So we dropped the girls off with a sitter and headed over to the city forest for some cross-country skiing!

I'm a fan of cross-country skiing. I haven't done much of it in my life, partly because I've lived in "land of no snow" for the past 4 years, partly because I didn't have my own skis, partly because, well, life gets busy. But when we moved to Michigan, I decided that the time had come to take up skiing. And then one of Clark's co-workers sold us some used skis for pretty cheap. And then I discovered the city forest.

The city forest is a 520-acre nature park run by the city of Midland. They have a sledding hill, toboggan run, outdoor skating rink, and ski trails. Groomed ski trails. The beginning trail is even lighted until 8pm. How cool is that? So it was decided. We'd be going skiing this winter!

Unfortunately, it's hard to go skiing with 2 little girls. If anyone has any suggestions on how to take your 2-year-old and infant skiing, I'd love to hear it.

But, like I said, we got a sitter, and we went for Clark's birthday. Holy smokes, it was fun. Like hiking, but in the winter, and with more glide. We couldn't have had better weather for it - sunny, but not warm, so things weren't melting. And being a Friday, it we didn't see many other people there, which added to the serenity of it all.

And then, we got hot chocolate from 7-11. Because they have 7-11 here! (Can you believe there are no 7-11s in St George? You'd think the slurpee sales alone would keep them in business.) February 11 was pretty much a perfect day. I sure hope Clark felt the same way.

2 comments:

Karen said...

Actually there is a way to take the kids. Check out this link. You can rent these sometimes from outdoor equipment stores or college recreation centers. (We rent from Weber State.)

http://www.wildernessengineering.com/KinderShuttle.html

Here's a link to a post with pics of us using one in Bryce (while snowshoeing).

http://phippens.blogspot.com/2009/04/update.html

It's an amazing workout. :)

Celeste said...

That sounds like fun! I have never been skiing, it sounded like you'd have to be coordinated and that is not me when you strap something to my feet! but Cross country sounds less intimidating that black diamond slopes!

Happy birthday Clark