First Sledding Trip

We got hit with another snowfall, and this time I just had to take the girls sledding. The snow was nice and deep, and it was a balmy 35 degrees. Plus, the sledding hill is about two miles away, at the most. This seemed close enough to justify driving in that nasty weather, but just to be safe I recruited Uncle Jon to go with us.

We get to the hill, and Jon realizes he has forgotten his boots. You can't very well sled in tennis shoes, so he headed off to get his boots. I labored up the hill prodding my two-year-old, carrying a sled and a portly 16-month-old. (Okay, maybe she only seemed portly since I was hauling her up the hill in all her snow garb.) We get to the top, all pile into the sled, and down we go. Naturally, being the caring, concerned mother that I am, I dragged my foot or hand as best I could to keep us from picking up too much speed. We get to the bottom, and I ask Elianna, "Was that fun? Do you want to go again?" She shrugs, "Sure." She did not seem impressed. So, we climb up again, and I am secretly wondering when the heck Jon is going to get there to help me haul them back up the hill. We get to the top, and Elianna turns to me and says, very seriously, "Mom, you make me go too slow. Can I just go down by myself this time?" I was shocked!!! Here I thought she would be terrified, and she was BORED. So, I loaded her onto the sled, and gave her a push. Down she flew!!! Then she was hooked. She must have climbed up the hill (all on her own, carrying her sled!!) and gone down about 20 times. Jon came back shortly, and then we were also joined by two friends from church, Josh and Faith.

Selah was not so impressed at first either. After about her third trip down she started to grin and say, "Whee!" all the way down. Personally, I think she had it made! Not only did she get to ride down with someone, but she got CARRIED up the hill each time. I tried to make her walk, but she would lean back and yell "Owie! Owie! Owie!! Up! Up! Up!" Nothing hurt, but I got enough dirty looks from people that I just picked her up to keep her quiet. (She always yells "Owie!" when she doesn't want to do something.)

Here is a video clip of Elianna on a solo trip:

And of course, you know if I went that SOMETHING had to go wrong. I was telling my friend that I was taking the kids sledding, and she tells me she can't sled with her kids, because it hurts her back too badly. I assured her my back was fine, I never hurt it sledding, blah, blah, blah... I get on the sled with Selah, and we take off. We're cruising along, Selah is saying"Wheee!" in her little voice... Yeah, we're having fun. Have you ever seen those little demon-possessed kids who pile up snow on sledding hills to make a ramp? They put all this work into it, then go down about 27 times and never hit it anyway. Well, apparently, some little demon-possessed kids had done so on this hill, and I hadn't been astute enough to notice... until about one second before we hit it! (For you Napoleon fans, I kept hearing Napoleon asking Pedro, "You ever take it over any sweet jumps?") Yes, there I was, in all my mom-ly glory, catching air with my 17-month-old in my lap. My brother was delighted to catch this on tape, and although it doesn't look like we flew very high, let me tell you my back/butt was complaining that night. There goes yet another Mommy of the Year award. I think I'm pretty close to being banned from those awards for life. Here's the video for your viewing pleasure: