Sledding

After several inches of snow fell a few weeks ago, the kids had a lot of fun sledding down a minuscule hill in our backyard.  I don't think you could even call it a hill.  It is a very, very slight slope up to the back fence.

Joel and I watched them laugh and shriek and cheer out the window.  "Those poor, deprived kids," I joked, "They don't even know what sledding is really like."

So we decided to fix that.  Apparently the happenin' sledding spot in our town is hole five of the golf course. There were some pretty good hills.  

The kids were thrilled to have a real experience sledding.

They are lucky to have a fun father who shows them the ropes.

Everett and Joel are on the same page: the faster, the better.  

Like father, like son.

Everett takes sledding very seriously.  He comes up with strategies to increase speed, increase spin, or increase the exhilaration by doing something dare-devilish.

Everett taps into the maximum amount of fun to be had.

William, while more cautious, enjoyed almost every aspect of sledding.

Except the roughness and speed.  He tolerates it but doesn't love it.

But William discovered that riding with Joel as a partner is the best way to go.

As long as it's with Papa, the occasional spray of snow just adds to his fun.

William will always speed down a hill if he is sitting on Joel's lap.

And Everett just enjoys the suspense: crash with that boatload of people, or no crash?

(William would agree with the term "boatload."  He calls his sled a boat and will not let anyone convince him otherwise.)

The crashes are not William's favorite, but he always gets right back up and runs to do it again.

William's favorite part of the day was his patient father who pulled him repeatedly up the hill.  The incline was too great and poor William's clunky boots were just too unwieldy.  He never could make it up very well on his own, but it was sure fun to watch him try!

Ashley loves sledding.  Her thrill comes partially from fear and partially from exhilaration.

Is that excitement or fear?  

And she always closes her eyes to brace for the rough landing that never comes.

And then Ashley is the picture of serenity.

Sometimes she just preferred to relax.

Sometimes she'd run to her own rhythm.

Occasionally I'd look over and see Ashley swirling around in her creative mind.  What does she think about?   I'd love to know.

But she and William made a pretty good pair.

And everyone kept coming back to their papa.

What a fun guy.

At the end of the afternoon, the kids and I stomped their names out in the snow.

Everett got fancy with his uppercase E.

James had fun too, I think.  At least, he didn't complain too much.  He wasn't too keen on the snow, so into the front carrier he went.

When we went sledding again a couple of weeks after this day, James again was not thrilled about the snow until I showed him we could eat it.  Then my bottomless pit went after it until his hand got too cold.

Sometimes I wish we could go sledding year round, and then I remember how much I like being able to go out of the house without locating a million gloves and boots and making sure everyone goes to the bathroom before we put on our snowpants.