Can I upgrade to Mountain Lion from Snow Leopard? I'm currently running Snow Leopard (10.6.8) and I never upgraded to Lion.

However, the features in Mountain Lion have me intrigued and I'd like to upgrade.

Am I allowed to upgrade straight to Mountain Lion from Snow Leopard, or do I need to somehow upgrade to Lion first?
Yes. As long as you're running the most up-to-date Snow Leopard version (10.6.8), you can directly upgrade to Mountain Lion, as detailed on Apple's 10.8 Upgrade Page. Just download from the App Store and you should be good to go.