Sledding on Saturday

Friday night it snowed 9". To tell you this was surprising would be an understatement. The forecast, the last time we heard it had said less than an inch of accumulation. 9" is a tad bit more than 1". But it made for a great day!

The kids, who have library fines, had to work off their fine by shoveling the sidewalk in front of the library. Cool, got the snow blower running and cleaned the drive as the kids were gone. About right when they got back the belt on the snow blower shredded so we had to go to town. What a great excuse to go to the sledding hill!

We loaded up and drove the 12 miles to the smallish town north of us. The roads were covered in snow but weren't bad. We stopped at the hardware store where I bought myself a pair of mittens (25% off) but no belt. Then stopped at an auto part store where the normally priced $4.00 belt in our big town was $13.00. The price of convenience I guess.

We then headed to the sledding hill. We were the first ones there! Virgin snow! The kids had fun. Since they were the first ones on the hill they ate their fair share of snow. I know what people say about snow but we live in Iowa. I grew up eating snow, Cool grew up eating snow, the picklets are growing up eating snow. It is a fact of life.

For the longest time we were the only ones there. Cool and I sat in the van, me reading over a unit I plan on using and Cool listening to a program on the radio. The picklets would look in our general direction sometimes but most of the time were oblivious that they had parents much less parents sitting in the van waiting for them.

The parks department has an annual sledding party and Saturday happened to be it. So, while the picklets were sledding, the guys from the P.D. set up hot cocoa and cookies. The picklets (and us too) enjoyed a cup (or two) to warm our bones.

We went for lunch in town and then dropped the picklets back at the hill to sled while Cool and I picked up some groceries in town. The hill was packed! The picklets got another hour or so sledding and then we all enjoyed another cup of cocoa before leaving to head home.I am not sure where the time has gone. It seems like just last year we had to slide down the hill with the picklets because they were too small to go by themselves. Now we can drop them off and leave for an hour. Makes me happy to know they are so trustworthy but sad at the same time.

© 2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines