Return of the Snowhill

Many seasons are arriving daily. Holiday season, winter season, shopping season, and now 'King of the Hill' season. Our early winter downfall cooperated with our friendly snow plow driver to produce our yearly cul-de-sac snow hill. The kids always look forward to the mountain of snow just outside our door.

I don't think it is as big as last year's pile, but it is definitely earlier. Last year, we didn't get heavy snow until March. We'll get more mileage out of this year's snow.

Much of this afternoon was spent playing 'King of the Mountain' with the kids. I successfully defended my title as 'King' of the hill. Just because I outweigh the kids three to one, doesn't mean I'm not still 'King'. They do have the advantage of being able to outlast me though. Once the game went past ten minutes the 'King' was getting a little winded and abdicated his thrown.

After the Monarchy was overthrown, it was time to move on to a new game. I got out Number One Son's snowboard. This was a gift from Gramma and Grampa about three Christmases ago. N1S didn't show a whole lot of interest in it and usually got frustrated early with it. When I got the snowboard out this year, N1S still wasn't on fire to use it. Sweet Pea, however, was ready to rock. I said, "Why not?"

I strapped her in and started her down our hill in the backyard. I held her hand all the way down. I was surprised, but she had pretty good balance. Once N1S saw how much success SP was having, he was willing to give it another try. I helped him down the hill once and he was hooked. They took turns going down the hill since we only have one snowboard. I stopped going down with them on the third time. Their goal was to make it to the bottom of the hill without falling. In one afternoon, N1S made it to the bottom a couple of times and SP made it three-fourths of the way by herself. They were pretty proud of themselves and so was I.

I took one run down the hill myself. I made it almost halfway when the board went sideways, dug into the snow, and brought my face rapidly to the snow. That was the one and only time.

Now the kids and I can't wait to take the snowboard to our sledding hill. I know N1S is going to try a jump and I'm going to have the camera waiting.