Don't tell Bonnie Schmidt and Ginger Vetrano they are old. These two 80-year-old friends don't have time to think in those terms.

They are too busy walking five miles a day, practicing yoga, doing sit-ups and dancing.

Schmidt from Pasco and Vetrano from Kennewick have been kicking up their heels with the Seasoned Steppers for more than a decade.

"I love to move to the music," Vetrano said. "It keeps me from rusting."

Schmidt gives her friend a high-five and adds, "Me too! I'll dance with a broom. And I love cabaret dancing and all the glitzy costumes."

Vetrano and Schmidt dance three times a week for about an hour with the Seasoned Steppers, which is directed by Beth Trost and includes more than a dozen other women.

The troupe, whose members are all older than 50, also dance a couple of times a month at various dance exhibitions across the Northwest.

But dancing isn't the only thing these two women do to stay healthy.

Vetrano practices yoga and aerobics. Schmidt is an avid golfer and walks or runs five miles a day and conquers more than 100 sit-ups.

Neither one thinks about how old she is most of the time, except when the occasional bout with arthritis flares up. They love dancing with the Steppers and having Trost teach them new moves.

Schmidt and Vetrano also say there is not much they wouldn't try if it struck their fancy.

Vetrano also square dances with her husband, something they have been doing since her kids were little.

"We (she and husband James) learned to square dance between my last two pregnancies, stopped for the fourth and started again when we moved to Kennewick in 1966," Vetrano said. "We never stopped after that."

Vetrano grew up in Massachusetts and is a retired registered nurse. She also is a staunch activist in the League of Women Voters. She has four children, 12 grandchildren and two great grandkids, who also keeps her on her toes.

On her 80th birthday, which was Sept. 13, Vetrano said she received letters from all her children that brought tears to her eyes.

One of her daughters perhaps described her mother best when she wrote, "Mom, you're a red flame of energy."

Schmidt is Nebraska-bred. Her family moved to Idaho when she was 16 and then to the Tri-Cities when she was 19. She was married to Lyle Schmidt until his death 12 years ago. "I'm too busy to be lonely," she said.

Schmidt was a secretary to five presidents at Columbia Basin College since 1966 until she retired in 1985. She has two children, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

These octogenarian dancers are prime examples of how getting older doesn't mean you need to have a bucket list, Trost said.

"They are very vivacious in their own distinctive ways," she said. "Both are involved in their communities, and they look for ways to improve their causes and make their voices heard."