'Tis the season...

for sledding that is! We were lucky enough to have plenty of snow over the holidays, and it lasted long enough for Rick to be off work and home to enjoy it with us.

Our first adventure was taking the kids cross-country skiing. Rick and I have been many times before, but this was our first attempt to take them with us. Ryan was ready for the adventure, but it was the the girls we were worried about! We prepared well--and off we went to our nearby city forest. It offers a variety of snow activities--a great sledding hill (as good as you get in Michigan I suppose!), toboggan run, and cross-country skiing trails. All of these things are free, and they do have equipment for rent if necessary.

We decided to pull the girls behind us in their little red sleds, which proved to be very successful. Emma even fell asleep and took a nice little nap through the forest. Kate dragged her hand through the snow, and sang little songs. Ryan did SO well. We got him on his skis, then turned around to get the girls situation. We hadn't given him any directions, but when we turned around, he was already off and getting the hang of it. In the end, he was racing me to the finish! We did about a 4 mile loop, and can't wait until we can go again. So, so fun!





New Year's Eve was the perfect opportunity to go sledding, and it turned out to be such a great day to do it. The girls loved being pulled around on their sled, and even more so loved going down the hill with mom or dad. Ryan was up and down that hill like an old pro, and it was so fun to watch him try new ways to go down. Rick and I took turns going with the kids, and even managed to go down together! Afterwards we had hot chocolate by the fire, and warmed up before he heading home. What a wonderful day!