DULUTH – It was before breakfast and Carrie Bettendorf noticed three of her children were missing. The mystery didn’t last long. Her daughter, Della, texted a photo from the family’s 1-mile groomed classic trail through their yard.
Of course. A bit of pre-breakfast skiing.
“That’s how they’ve all learned,” Carrie Bettendorf said.
Della Bettendorf, a senior on the Proctor/Hermantown Nordic Ski racing team, is near the middle of the family’s 12 children, all of whom were initiated into the sport via pull sleds across the snow until graduating to skis once they could walk.
As their family grew — the oldest, Hannah Olson, is 25, and the youngest, Bjorn, is 6 — so has the line of Bettendorfs on the trail. It’s one of the ways this tight family spends time together. In the offseason, they run.
For more on the Bettendorfs, click here to read this story on startribune.com.
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