Outside or Bust

Today was the perfect outside winter day.....mild temps hovering around 30 degrees, virtually no wind (a VERY rare thing here on our point), and a blanket of fresh snow from yesterday. Despite a wheezing 3-year old, and my own stuffy head, I promised myself and my kids that we were going to play outside today no matter what. So finally, at about 4:15, we donned our outdoor apparel....Bob even let me borrow his coveted snowsuit which I was drowning in, but at least it kept me warm!....and ventured out our back door into the great outdoors.

Sledding was slick through the snow....to quote Michael, "It is perfect out here!" And it really was. Our tumbling was cushioned by the new snow, and the ice layer below kept our sleds moving, propelling us down the hill, over the sidewalk, through the wetlands, and more times than I care to recount, smack into a tree that decided to pop up there this year. Laura was not too thrilled with the fresh snow flying into her face during each descent, so after 3 runs, she gave up her sled for the swingset instead. Michael was getting quite agile on his snowboard by the end of our session, and Crispy was giving it a try too...in fact, he was making it 3/4 of the way down the hill before tipping over! Jonny got to experience sliding down the hill on his bare belly during an unfortunate mishap involving a run-in with my oncoming sled. Funny, he didn't really want to try that again. After a "broken leg", a "broken hand", a "broken foot", and a "broken back", we decided to call it a night....it was also getting dark, and the snowmobilers were getting precariously closer to us as they zoomed through the wetlands, out to the lake.

Crispy and I climbed the hill to the front yard and sat on a snowbank across the street to watch the light show....it was a rare opportunity to have the cul-de-sac alone without a variety of onlooking vehicles. We could not hear the music from our location, but we know these songs so well that we surprised ourselves by being able to sing along with the light show....pretty cool, for us! Being now very dark, our cheeks were pretty cold, so we headed inside to get orders for Chinese food from our favorite in-town restaurant. Now THIS was a good vacation day!