Sunday, March 16, 2008

Family Bond

While my brothers were in town, they were wishing and praying that it snowed while they were here so they could ski some powder. Wouldn't you know, seven to eleven inches fell the day after they left! Oh, well.

It was so wonderful having them here. Mike is two years younger than me and Keith is seven years younger than me. They have been not only brothers, but also good friends with each other for many years. Keith looks up to Mike like most younger brothers do. As a girl and the oldest growing up in the household, I have not been as close with them as they are with each other. Perhaps that is why I was so excited about them visiting. I was eager to have them here so we could all be together, doing something that all of us enjoyed.

I find it interesting that skiing is something that we all love to do. For this particular activity to be something the three of us siblings enjoy so much, you might expect that we grew up grew up going skiing, or at least took the occasional ski trip as a family. Not so. Mike and Keith both learned to ski at the end or after high school and I didn't learn until just a few years ago. Skiing has never been a family thing in the past for us. I don't even think that Mom and Dale have been in a pair of downhill skis in the past twenty years...

However, I think Mom and Dale did have an influence on us that encouraged our love for the sport. Summer vacations usually consisted of road trips out west. I was introduced to mountains and wide open spaces by my parents, as we looked out the windows of the family vehicle. I was lured to the magic of beautiful landscapes because they made it possible for me to not only see them, but explore them and camp in them. Mike lives in a mountain town of Arizona, I live in Colorado, and Keith has said he dreams of living out west. I don't think this is a coincidence.

Mom and Dale may not have specifically taught us to ski, but they did give us an appreciation for adventure, wonder, awe, and the beauty of the outdoors. To me, those are the things that I experience when I'm skiing, so it doesn't seem so farfetched to believe that how we were raised has had an influence on what we enjoy to do.

I'm so glad my brothers were here to enjoy this place and these slopes with me!

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