Monday, February 25, 2008

What Sledding Taught Me

So we finally had a winter day that was decent enough to go out and actually ENJOY the snow. When we got home from church, we put the boys down for quiet time. Noah pitched probably the biggest temper tantrum in his life and then fell asleep (which he has done only a handful of times in the last three years) for two hours. Aaron never fell asleep, which is unusual. Sort of a role reversal day, I guess.

At about 3:30, we decided it was probably time to wake Noah up so he would sleep at night. After much cajoling, he finally came around and we decided we had to get out of the house.

After more 5 year old whining about finding his saucer sled (which I think is buried under two feet of snow in the backyard) and 3 year old whining about going on a sled by himself, we made it into the car and about three minutes away to a local sledding hill.

Here's what I learned at the the sledding hill...

Noah is a daredevil. Mind you he still has a bit of a broken hand. But that didn't stop him from trying to ride the sled down the hill like a snowboard (He saw other kids doing it). He made it half way down before wiping out. I didn't get a picture because I was too freaked out about him injuring his hand again. It was also important to him try head first, backwards, and lying down completely so he couldn't see a thing.















I learned that 3 year olds really can slide down a huge hill by themselves without wiping out and love every minute of it.



















I learned that it is really hard to take good pictures as people are sledding down a hill very fast.















I learned that my baby is growing up and likes to be more independent than I am comfortable with. He would rather do it by himself than wait for the family.



















However, I did get a couple of shots of my happy boy between runs.
















I learned that sledding is as much fun for the Daddy as it is for the kids.














I learned that when you're tired of climbing the hill OVER AND OVER again, it is just as much fun to throw snowballs at the ones you love.















I learned that if you're the family photographer, there will be no pictures to prove that you DID indeed go down the hill quite a few times..


And best of all, I learned that any day spent playing with my three boys is a good day.















Have a great week.

11 comments:

Courtney said...

Oh how exciting and fun. I'm glad you guys had a good time.

Anonymous said...

Love this post, Kristi! Looks like such a fun time : )

I learned many of the same lessons on our sledding adventure... particularly how hard it is to watch your 'baby' morph into daredevil... don't think I'll ever get used to that one!

Anonymous said...

Wow, this looked like a great time! And I'm always the one taking the pics, so I have to remind myself to take a self picture every so often!

xoxo

Deb said...

I can just see your boys as 'daredevils' - it's so funny because my girls are the complete opposite (so far). It looks like you all had a great time! :)

Melissa said...

OH that looks like fun. I have thought about going sledding as a family, but since we only have a 4 month old I worry about her getting hurt.

Melissa G said...

What a wonderful afternoon you had! Looks like a lot of fun.

Betsy, short for Elizabeth, formally known as Esther said...

Sure does look like fun!!!! I remember having a blast sledding when I was a kid, in spite of the frost bite.

Hillary said...

What a fun day! Hooray!

KC said...

What a fun time.. Love all the pictures..
Saturday night I was thinking.. Sunday afternoon would be a perfect time to go to this big sled riding hill in the town I grew up in.. We had a ton of snow here at our house and this is only 20 minutes from us.. ONLY while at church on sunday morning it got up to 35 outside and the snow started to melt.. I took the kids to my parents house after church we ate lunch and headed out to the hill.. ONLY to find all the snow had melted off the hill and it was all green with grass.. but all the little hills around the place still had some snow on them and the kids were determined to sled sunday.. so we spent an hour or so sleding down a some what snow covered hill and at the bottom of it was mud and grass.. I'm hoping to put a video of it on my blog tomorrow or Wed. but it is so funny to see the grass in the video. We might have to try the big hill sometime this week seeing how we are to get 4 inches tonight and 10 inches tomorrow night.. hope it's not bitter cold and the roads are clear enough for me to make it to the hill.
So glad you had a great afternoon.

Becky Frame said...

This is SO GREAT!!! You're a good family photographer. You really captured the moment(s).

You used a phrase I use all the time. "My three boys."

:-)

Dreams and Designs said...

I LOVE this last pictures. It's so poignant!