A few weeks ago, just before the end of the summer, we met my parents for a night out.  We started out at Melvin's on Green Lake in Spicer.  Many years ago, this restaurant was owned by Marty's family, then called Little Melvin's.  Marty drew the logo to represent the fictional Melvin, which is still used today.  He's been updated a bit, but the basic look is still the same.  While we were there, I bought the last few t-shirts of this design off of their clearance table.


After dinner, we went to New London to watch the ski team.  The town is small, but they have a great team and with spots for thousands of people to sit and watch the show.  It's been years since I last watched a ski show - all the way back to the first summer that Marty and I were dating, when my brother Ryan and his team made it to the Nationals.  I love watching ski shows - the tricks are great, the people are having fun, and it feels like summer.  I didn't know anyone on this team, and yet I felt compelled to take about a hundred photos.  With my little point-and-shoot camera, I was surprised by how many turned out.  And now I'm going to share the excitement and show them all to you.  Not really ALL, just A LOT of them.

Here's a group of guys all skiing BAREFOOT.  And BACKWARDS.


This is the ballet line.  They stay connected together and do fancy moves.  And I can't totally tell, but I think they are holding on to the tow ropes with ONE KNEE.


I don't know what this trick is called, but Sophie refers to them as THE BEST FAVORITES EVER and has been standing in this upside down position every chance she gets.


We had great seats for the show, positioned right in front of the ramp.  Here you can see FIVE GUYS TWISTING AND JUMPING.  Off of a RAMP.


Again with the five guys, this time three of them crisscross around the jump while two of their pals JUMP AND TWIST OVER THEIR HEADS.


One of my favorite tricks is the pyramid.  They move slowly as the skiers climb up on the shoulders of their partners, creating a tall tower that is topped off with a kid who looked like he or she was MAYBE EIGHT YEARS OLD.


And at the end, the boat drivers show off their skills by driving by the shore at frightening angles.


Oh yeah, we were there too.


The five of us.


And it was so much fun.  Martin said that he would like to go there every day.  And maybe some summer, we'll find ourselves driving there for practice AND the shows.  I can see a few potential skiers in our group.