Skiing: My First Ski Trip in Petoskey, Michigan

On a ski trip, sometimes you gotta ski, sometimes you gotta dance!

Ski Trip Friday:

Friday after work I get a text from JoeJoe: “Ready when you are. the longer you take the drunker i drive.” On the way to his car after I finally get out of work I begin asking him how drunk he was, but before I can get it out he falls off the curb 🙂 then he insures me that he has not been drinking 🙂

So, with a little help from his new dear British Emily (also dubbed JoeJoe, like TomTom) which is not in fact a Tickle Me Elmo that predicts the future, and headed off on a long drive to Petoskey, Michigan. On route we encountered a strange animal circus, no parades at the flags, snow, a McDonald’s in the middle of a highway (and I do mean smack dab in the middle of a highway) that I never knew existed, and much much more boring stuff. I also got the pleasure of describing to Joe in much detail how the whole process of American Idol works 🙂

After a 6+ hour drive we finally made it to the Super 8 in time for everyone to go to bed.

Ski Trip Saturday:

Woke up bright and early to shower myself in pinkness. I had pink long underwear (top and bottom), a pink t-shirt that said je t’aime (and was the brand My Funny Valentine 🙂 only $5 at Target!), gray sweats (boo), pink snowpants, a pink scarf, and a brown jacket that had pink piping, pink lining and a labeled lip gloss pocket! Everything else was either brown or black because I either couldn’t find it in pink or didn’t want to spend four times as much. 🙂

Anyways, I suppose I should stop talking about my clothes and start talking about skiing 🙂

So my first ski trip started off with a lesson for moi, since I’ve never skied before. BobbyK decided to take a snowboarding lesson, Jodie (BobbyK’s friend) took a ski lesson with me and everyone else went on their merry way because they already knew what they were doing. The lesson started out really dumb since the instructor had to start over three times when more people came.

So it was during this lesson that I learned that I suck at skiing. I was the first to fall on level land as we practiced our turning sideways (people kept using terms for these things, I don’t remember them). Then when we went up on the bunny hill I kept sliding around and wasn’t able to catch up to the group so the guy kept on without me. Then when I had to try to turn on the mountain I veered off and every time I tried to move I felt like I was slipping. So I didn’t want to move so I just stood there crying until this guy Jeff who I think was an instructor in training came to help me back. Then we did some other things during which I crashed. Then we went down the mountain and I crashed. 🙂

The instructor dropped me off all teary eyed with my big sis Alina (dubbed so because she is always inevitable the one taking care of me), and we went in to get some hot chocolate. 🙂 Everyone met up for a snack at that point where I got caught up on MattH’s impaling his lip on his pole. ouch. The things i miss on the kiddie hill!

After our snack, Alina stayed with me to help me out and really helped a lot. Our first mission was to go back to the rental area to exchange my 150 skis for 130s (baby skis!) Then we went and had a mini-lesson where she helped me with my turning and pizzaing. MK helped some too (me: Ahh!Ahh!Ahh!, Matt: What are you screaming for, you made it! Me: That was my happy scream!) But alas, then JoeJoe came to steal them away to go ride on real-people hills.

Left to my own devices, I actually did pretty OK because I am sometimes more willing to try something different on my own because no one is standing there watching me and maybe judging what I’m doing. Finally everyone came back for an incredibly overpriced lunch (in what other place does a hot dog cost more than a hamburger?)

After eating, Alina, Me(a)g(h)an, JoeJoe, and MK came out to my little hill to help me some more. Alina and Me(a)g(h)an helped me a bit down my bitty hill before they decided I was ready to go up to the real top of the hill. Boy, were they mistaken 🙁

My one-sided conversation up the chair lift went something like this…Ahh!Ahh!Ahh!*hyperventilate*…and repeat. Alina held her poles out in front of my to act as a safety guard. Alas, I was actually able to make it off in one piece and fairly decently. Then I looked down.

So…yeah. Alina and Me(a)g(h)an had me do one turnthingy then I crashed. Then I couldn’t get up and was scared of slipping and now crying and hyperventilating and then I sat there for a while and then finally got up and cried and hyperventilated and then finally we started walking sideways across the mountain to an area where it would be safe for me to walk down. So…yeah…I walked down the rest of the way until we got back to where the baby hill began and I skied down that in three turnythings doing OK. At that I called it a night, got some hot chocolate, took some pics, and sat in the snow.

(me and BobbyK)

(BobbyK on the lift)

(Joe and Brandon skiing)

(Matt and Matt skiing)

Then it was Pizza Hut (Emily lead us the wrong way, but we found it), hot tubbing, and force-feeding the chocolate peanut butter surprise cookies I made down everyone’s throats before hitting the mattress for the night.

Ski Trip Sunday:

The morning started with a pathetic walk through the rental area where first I had to request a (free) lift pass for the bunny area, then tried on my boots and after I told the woman working there that they were pinching she told me I had them on the wrong feet, then going to the ski guy he brought out a pair and I said “nono, I’ll take the 130s,” and he looked at me weird.

So…yeah…I took the magic carpet up to the bunny hill…and kind of panicked. The snow was different and there were more obstacles (a kid class going on, a little frame for them to ski through, ski lift poles in the middle of the area…) So…yeah…I kind of stayed there and cried for a bit until Brandana came and brought me down (he walked and held me up on the skis.)

Then we all met up for lunch and MattyK and Joe and Matt took me up to help me. We ended up going down with me in a pizza and Joe going backwards holding me up 🙂

Then we went up the magic carpet and while MattH and Joe were throwing snowballs at each other, Joe managed to completely fall off 🙂 Even *I* didn’t fall off the magic carpet! hehe. So then they all taught me how to do things and then Joe left and the Matts decided I needed to go to the top. Eep! I relented when all agreed that I wouldn’t be able to see the bottom of the hill from the top (which is good because then I can’t tell how high I am).

So…I wedged between the two Matt’s on the ski lift and they got to hear my screams and hyperventilating. Then they took me down the scary scary mountain. It took quite the long time, but I finally made it to the bottom in one piece! Well, kind of. I was going down and about to turn the other way then MK yelled for me to keep going the way I was going and he almost ran me right into another skier!! hehe. Then JoeJoe came back and was very surprised that I had been up there and we all went again. I didn’t scream as much on that ski lift and MattyK distracted me by trying to convince me that my pants weren’t really pink and pointed out kids who were pinker than me. 🙂 I did really good that time and made it down fairly well in only four turns, most of the times stopping myself and only crashing a bit. The one time I did crash it was on a semi-steep part of the hill and it took several hilarious tries to try and get me up, but between Matt and Matt I finally was on my feet! hehe.

(I took a pic of myself to prove I skied)

(I then took a pic of my skis because you couldn’t see them on the last pic)

(Matts on a ski lift)

After I made it safely down the hill the others left promising to come back to finish off the day with me, so I went down the bunny hill a few more times (I didn’t want to go up to the top alone and would only go with MattyK, Matt, or JoeJoe because I trust them and they know me very well) but it got boring so I took a break. Alas, the runs they did were longer than expected and they didn’t make it back for me in time to do a last run 🙁 Hopefully next time…

(JoeJoe wore PINK socks)

Now I would like to just take a moment to tell all my friends that they are just simply amazing. I am so grateful that all y’all had such patience in putting up with my lack of ability and my nervous breakdowns. You help me through so much and are always there for me. Thank you so very much for being so awesome. I only hope I can return the favor some day. Je t’aime.

I now apologize for the very un-Val amount of photos from this trip, but, you know it’s rather hard to take photos while in large gloves and/or while tumbling down a hill 🙂

My first ski trip in Petoskey, Michigan

Bucket List Idea: Go Skiing. My first ski trip in Petoskey, Michigan