Step one:Sleep in. (This is great!)
Step two:Fire up snow blower for the 4th time in 24 hours.
Step three:Make pancake and bacon brunch for the kids and I.
Step four:Out the door with our sleds to Highwoods Park Hill.
I'm always looking for a good, local sledding hill. I found this one a few weeks ago. It's funny that I didn't remember this hill before. Ethan played baseball on the field right next to it all summer. This hill is big, steep, and clear of trees. Perfect for sledding. Even with the 8 inches of powder snow slowing us down, we still went pretty fast. I was also reminded of the rule: The better the sledding hill, the harder it is to climb back up. Ethan went down first. He raced straight down like water through a straw. Then Emery and I had our turn. I'm not sure who, but someone in our sled, weighed us down and we got buried in snow half way down the hill. When you are buried in snow, on your back, it is not easy to get back up. So I finally rolled myself over, got my boots under me and watched Ethan pass me on his way back up the hill.
"Come on, Dad.", he yells.
So we all got back to the top for another run. Ethan rocketed down again and went even farther this time. Emery and I attempted our second run. I leaned back in the sled this time and we got to the bottom of the hill.
"Yay!", we shout.
Then I looked back up Mt. Kilimanjaro and sighed. The kids at the top looked like ants in snow pants. "Well, I guess we'd better start back up, Emery."
"OK, pull me in the sled, Daddy. Weeee!, Emery squealed.
"Yeah, right." I talked her out of that idea.
We started walking. I soon realized that 4 year old legs struggle a bit in deep snow. So I put my head down and dragged Emery and the sled uphill. I climbed until exhaustion forced me to rest. I then realized I wasn't even half way up yet. It's a good thing I did look up, because I had to dive out of Ethan's way as he shot by on his shin-breaker sled. I said to myself, "Come on. I'm only 38 years old. I can conquer this hill. Let's go Emery! Emery? Where are you? "
"Dad! Up here!, she hollers.
"I'm coming.", I grumbled.
I huffed and puffed my way up the hill. The closer I got to the top, the steeper the grade became. My cheering section finally got me to the top, where I collapsed into a sled.
Then Ethan said, "Next time you go down, I'll pretend to be the rescue dog on the hill and rescue you."
If I go down again, the only thing that will rescue me is Spring. Ethan kept sledding and Emery discovered it was more fun to just roll down the hill, becoming a snowball along the way. We stayed for about an hour and then snowshoed our way back across the baseball diamond and playground to the pickup. We got home, put in the DVD, Ice Age II and made popcorn. We had a pretty good work out. I hope the kids are ready for an exciting afternoon of naps.
All worn out........
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