Sledding Down The Mini Mountain

Since we don't usually get a ton of snow around here on a regular basis my girlfriend and I decided to take the kids to a small hill located a few miles away. When I say small hill I do mean small hill. We live at the tip of the beginning of the thousands of miles of flat lands where folks use the land to grow feed corn and soy beans. Anything resembling a bit of a hill is quite frankly an anomaly for my kids.

So, imagine Ava's complete glee when she saw that I had packed her sled and had driven her to a mini mountain with free reign to slide down as many times as she'd like...with the caveat that we would go in when her woosie of a mother got too cold to take it any more. Which, is usually in the range of about 45 minutes. Here they are, Ava and her friend E. The calendar says they are three weeks apart in age...but we suspect they may have been separated at birth. Kidding. Snow bunnies, I tell you. They hopped on their snow gliders and handled the mini mountain like pros, even when an oversized inflatable raft with no less than 5 teenagers came flying at them while trekking back up to the top again.

Of course little Liv wanted in on the action. I panic'd and had visions of those same teenages slamming into her little 30 pound body. This is the face I got as I explained the finer points of a possible trip to the emergency room visit resulting from 170 pound teenagers hitting 30 pound three year olds at 20 miles an hour. She didn't seem to appreciate my mother bear attutude and promptly told me to kiss off.

I relented and in the interest of compromise and hopped on the sled sitting behind her so she could put her pedal to the metal and feel the need for speed.























Here's a tip if you try this at home. Don't wear boot leg jeans while quickly sliding down a hill...your ankles will get very wet and very chilly very quickly. Must check to see if pink snow pants are made in my size. Hey, if the stay puff marshmellow look can work for cute little Liv, I'm sure it could work for me as well.

This is what we looked like at that all too important 45 minute mark. Me, grinning through the 15 degree wind and Liv telling me "I go home now. I coooold." We toughed it out for another few minutes so Ava and E could take 2 more runs down the mini mountain. Then of course I really felt awful when Liv spiked a 104 degree fever later that night. Ummm, perhaps she was being quite serious about the "I go home, I cooold," comment. Don't forget to vote for me...mother of the year. It's now Monday and Livi and I have been inside these four walls slurping Motrin and Delsym ever since.

Ava, with the immune system of an elephant could have stayed out all night and begged to go back for more. Ahh yes, I told her I'm happy to bring you back the next time it snows 12 inches, my little winter white stuff bunny...which will hopefully be around 2012.