It wasn’t a typical cross country skiing race where skill and speed are factors.
In this race, it was all about cooperation. Three kids and two parents, lined up like a caterpillar, with their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them, inching along in unison, trying not to trip one another, while racing toward the finish line.
“We all really worked well together, I noticed,” said Alec Wyatt, 11, who won that ski relay with his teammates – brother Brent Wyatt, 17, sister Jessica Wyatt, 13, and parents Karen and Gregory Izdepski. The ski race was one of dozens of events at Operation Purple Military Family Retreat in Jackson Wyo., March 19 to 23, which was designed specifically for military families to reconnect after one or both parents have been deployed. Capt. Gregory Izdepski, Rapid Reaction Squadron at Air Force Space Command, had been deployed from June 2009 to January 2010.
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