a sleddin’ we will go

We had been planning to go sledding on Tuesday. However, the weather was throwing a curveball. Chance of snow in Portland, and getting really cold. The town shuts down with snow, so, I wasn’t optimistic we would get to go anywhere, except maybe sledding at the park. Well, the snow never arrived in much quantity, and fortunately everything mostly dried out before the cold hit so we weren’t battling a giant skating rink, so we decided to pack up and hit the mountain.

Little S was sufficiently excited. She helped make “puppy chow”. Although she asked what it was and told me she didn’t like it. Then I told her it had chocolate and peanut butter and she said “that sounds so yummy”.

Well, the roads down here were pretty good, save a few icy spots, the roads closer to the mountain were more treacherous. Big S hauled out the tire chains and got us chained up and safely on our way again. What a great guy. Once we got into areas with snow at the side of the roads, Little S kept saying “Wow. Look at all the snow!” After a really long drive, we finally get to a sledding hill. Get bundled up and ready to go play in the snow.

As Dad learned last winter when he took her skiing, one of her favorite things to do is eat snow. Convincing her NOT to eat the snow off of her boot from the parking lot took some work, but we finally got to some nice, fluffy, safe to eat snow.

 

Well, the allure of snow and sledding SOUNDED good to Little S. But the reality of it held much less appeal. It probably didn’t help that the sled was so slippery

Mommy and Sofia took a few runs on the sled, and at the bottom, she wanted to go again, but walking up the hill wasn’t much fun, and riding in the sled up the hill wasn’t fun either since she kept falling out of it, and it was at some crazy, bumpy angles that worried her. One of the problems with really deep snow and a 2.5 year old. Deep? how deep? Well, the dog got into a hole and had to get help from Big S to get out

We really didn’t bury her in the snow. It was that deep in some spots.

Little S was quickly tiring of this, and probably cold too. We knew it was bad when she was asking to go back to the car and take a nap! We did convince her to put her skis on for a few minutes though

But, she was pretty much dead weight with rubber legs and my back is paying the price today. A promise of hot chocolate and puppy chow perked her up and motivated her towards the car, where we discovered something new about her. At first we were worried it was frostbite, but as we watched, we think the color just changes from her apple-cheeked redness back to it’s normal color in a very obvious way

If you look closely, you’ll see white circles on her red cheeks. The circles grew until her cheeks were the same color they normally are.

Despite her tears, frustration and spending lots of time in the snow, not on it, when you ask her if she had fun sledding and skiing, the answer is a definitive “yes” and she can’t wait to go again. Hopefully next time will be even more fun!