My mother thinks she would medal in Olympic sledding and has been quite eager for the photos of this outing. She was sad we had rain while she was here. Readers other than my mom might choose to scan/skim (skip?) the following, as it is unlikely anyone else is interested in 14 photos of our sledding adventure.
After our first run, Edward learned to bury his face inside his jacket, as the fresh snow really kicked up as we sped down hill. This was less of an issue as our sleds continued to pack down the snow and other sledders joined us. However, by the end of the outing, Edward said he wasn't cold except for his cheeks, and we had to talk about how it's hard to cover cheeks and still maintain vision and breathing.
Here we see the boys getting a push off from dad and a "catch" at the bottom from mom (with camera.) We didn't have any disastrous wipe outs/sled flips, but we did try to have a parent at the bottom each time in case of such an eventuality. We did have one near repeat of history as Daniel's rope got caught under his sled as John gave him a push off, causing him to curve into the sled Ed and I were riding. It was too late to stop our forward motion, so we just all slid down together with Daniel's sled facing backward and me hoping our sled didn't tip toward him, causing me to relive Mom's famous sledding take-down of my brother P.J., circa 1981.
These are some happy sledders.
I call this photo "snow butt" as this is how Daniel spent most of the morning.
Some shots of Mom and Dad in sledding action.
After a trip down the hill with Dad, we see Edward carefully making his way back up. As I noted, the fresh snow was slippery, and he sometimes opted for crawling when the footing wasn't working well.
Daniel got pulled back up hill in the sled a few times, but that was really hard to manage and plus, we were really hoping to wear the boys out beyond comprehension, thus facilitating long afternoon naps (a.k.a. "me time" for mom and dad.) So we started helping him walk up hill, and it actually worked out better than I expected. It was slow going, but he didn't complain and no one ended up slipping back down sans sled.
We're almost there!
We made it! Here's what we look like going down.
After about 30-40 minutes of climbing and sledding, the boys opted to head for the nearby playground rather than climb the hill once more. They "snow plowed" these two slides and then took many more FAST trips down, skidding of the end and plopping in piles of snow.
You can kind of get the idea if you play this short clip about 25 times in a row:The end of the outing. Tired and happy, cold cheeks, but otherwise not complaining.
Daniel's mittens have fallen off about 42 times despite being tucked into the cuffs of his jacket. Discussing this later with my mom, I was reminded that putting adult socks on the hands/arms before the mittens and jacket can help keep everything in place. When Aunt Nora visited on Tuesday, we used this method and it worked like a charm. One stipulation of Aunt Nora's participation in sledding was that there be no photographic record, so you'll have to use your imagination.It was much colder on our second outing--only in the low teens--but we still managed to stay out long enough to justify the effort of getting ready. However, in all the pre-trip fuss, I forgot to change Daniel's diaper. After about 30 minutes of sledding, he announced, "I pooped." Nora and Ed stayed to sled while I took Daniel home to change, where I discovered he had not pooped, but that his over-saturated diaper had soaked his shirt and pants under his snow pants. Poor guy! Talk about Mom-guilt!
We mixed up some hot (warm) cocoa to take in sippy cups as a bribe to get Edward back in the car. He was very concerned that I pulled up next to the hill in a No Parking zone to get out and let them know it was time to go. "Mom, if a policeman saw you, you could get a ticket!"
The rest of the week was fairly uneventful. We did not make plans for New Year's Eve, which turned out to be a good thing, since Edward vomited in the New Year. I knew he wasn't right at dinner, and while he was snuggling with me reading books afterward I asked John to toss us a blanket, sensing we could be headed toward disaster. We managed to make it all the way through the bedtime routine before tooth brushing finally sent him over the edge. He was a little freaked out at first, this being unfamiliar territory (thank goodness!) He kept asking us why it happened, and we were hard-pressed to explain to his satisfaction. By the second go-round he had figured out how to aim for the toilet. The next morning, he told us he had taken himself to the bathroom to throw up overnight, but didn't flush because he thought it would be too loud. We were skeptical, but the evidence presented itself. We both felt bad to have slept through this entirely, but he didn't seem bothered. Our New Year's Day tradition is to stay home in pajamas anyway, so we were all set for the day. Lots of Gatorade and a few bananas later, all was forgotten.
Thankfully, Daniel was not visited by the same germ, because we had plans to visit with John's grandparents, aunt and cousins the next day (Jan. 2.) We made the trip, all healthy, and had a really nice time together. Edward brought his Zingo game and the cousins all played together. A great way to round out the holiday festivities.
