Ski Vacation at Grand Targhee

For spring break it is a Pope family tradition that we ski at Targhee at least a few days of the week. It is a tradition I loved growing up, so it is one that I have kept with my own family. All four of the kids got to come, and everyone had a good time. Ryann and Carlie haven't skied much, but they did great! Ryann can parallel now, and Carlie is starting to make lots of turns instead of just heading down the mountain kamikaze style! She also got to use "the poles" this year, and was very excited for that. We didn't get very good snow because the weather was so warm the first few days it all melted, then turned icy overnight, but that didn't curtail the fun!
Reghan didn't ski, but she spent a lot of time in the pool and hot tub. She LOVED it! Any time she could escape the motel room, she ran straight out the front doors, across the entire ski area to the pool. Swimming after a fun day skiing served two purposes for me - a good way to entertain kids, and it put Reghan right to sleep (yeah!). And the hot tub felt amazing, so I guess it has three purposes. Reghan cracks me up. She would get in the pool, then see the snow out on the pool deck, so she would say "out! out!" She had to get out of the pool and get a few fistfuls of snow to eat or play with, then jump back in. What a girl!

There is also a fun little tubing hill that the older kids and Ralph took advantage of one night. They loaded up and strung tubes together to get enough weight so they could hit the fence at the top of the hill. Everyone touched the fence, and no one crashed through it, so I guess you could say it was a successful venture!
Friday and Saturday my family all came up to ski with us. It was good to all ski and spend some time together - thanks guys!

The low point of the trip for me (and apparently the high point for everyone else) was a massive crash down Chief Joseph Bowl. I ejected out of both skis and left one about 70 yards above me on the hill, and chased the other several hundred yards downhill. I remember cartwheeling over and landing on my feet just long enough to see my ski sliding away, as I thought "Noooo..come back...", then rolling head over heels again. It must have looked pretty comical, because as I hiked up to retrieve my ski, I overheard another skier say "I really want to laugh, but I'm not sure she's okay!" I wanted to laugh too, but I wasn't sure how many broken body parts I might have, so I held back. As it turns out, none. Just some minor bruising and very sore muscles; not even any pictures or video - pretty lame for a crash of that magnitude ;-).
On a more serious note, I am very grateful that I wore my helmet that morning. I wasn't going to because it was super cold, and I wanted a hat for the extra warmth, but as I was walking out the door, I just had a feeling it was a good helmet day, so I swapped out my warm hat - and am very thankful that I did!