For the past several years, I’ve wanted to take our teens skiing. DH and I debated about whether to take an expensive, week-long ski trip out West or to give them a quick introduction closer to home in North Carolina. Just after Christmas, we headed up to Beech Mountain in North Carolina for a ski lesson and an afternoon of skiing. Everyone loved it.

When we found ourselves going to Arizona and New Mexico at Spring Break, I looked up the ski season at Taos Ski Valley. Fortunately due to lots of snow, they were still open during our trip. I packed a suitcase of ski pants, gloves ans hats — just in case. After checking the snow report and temperatures once our trip started, I found discounted ski lift tickets online since it was a weekday at the end of the season.