Snowboarding at Mammoth Mountain

We just got back from another long weekend at Mammoth Mountain, skiing (hubby) and snowboarding (me). We took along daughter #2 and one of hubby's business associates. The weather was great, the skiing/riding was great, the company was great.

One of the best things about skiing or snowboarding, besides the good exercise and leg-strength building, is the sheer enjoyment of it all. Just spending the entire day outdoors in the clean, crisp air, surrounded by the fragrant pines and listening to the swoosh of skis over snow is enough to renew your spirits and help get everything else into perspective.

It's too easy to work, work, work, without even looking up at the sky, day after day. That's why it's so important to purposely schedule outdoor activities so we'll take time out to get outside and reconnect with who we are--physical beings and not just minds encased in bodies.

With best wishes for a long and healthy life,

The Jogging Grandma

Fit at First

Anyway, during those first few years after turning fifty, I managed to stay pretty fit. I was going for long swims at the gym nearly every day. I was running in 5 K's and 10 K's on a regular basis. I found a "hiking buddy" and was hiking in the mountains every now and then. And the weekends I wasn't doing a race or a hike, I usually ended up at the beach for a good swim in the ocean.

I wanted to learn to surf, but that didn't happen. My overall fitness improved, though!

I did learn to snowboard. It was very painful for the first three years or so, but I finally mastered the necessary skills well enough so that I wasn't falling down all the time, and then snowboarding got to be fun.

For my 55th birthday, I decided to try skydiving. In tandem, of course! It was a great thrill, and besides, when I landed, the man I had been dating for the past several months presented me with a ring and asked me to marry him! That was in June, and we married in August! (By the way... we met on a ski trip!)

With best wishes for a long and healthy life,

The Jogging Grandma