Party on the Hill!

Well, yesterday was predicted to be the last day of sledding for us folks who live near the coast. And after a week of talking about it, my mom decided to toss around the idea of having a sledding party. This is hard to do because everyone works...and everyone would have to brave the roads to get to our house. Since yesterday was likely the warmest all week and the rain was predicted to come, it seemed like the conditions would be as good as they could get without our snow melting. So, after several phone calls and much convincing (my dad was being a scrooge) we decided to plan on meeting at our house at 7pm. That was actually the earliest time everyone could get here! Anyway, at around 5ish, the sleet started to fall off and on, but we didn't let that detour our plans. Everyone eventually made it, and we were sledding by 7:15. Even Daniel...who decided to brave the trails from his house to ours on his 4-wheeler with no headlights! He taped little flashlights to the front and wore a headlamp! What a nut =)

I was happy to see that my Uncle Don came with Heidi (who had spent the night at our house the night before...and had already had her fill of sledding with the kids) and brought 2 lanterns. What an awesome idea THAT was! We had gone sledding at night the two nights previous, but we being towed by the 4-wheeler, and didn't need lights. I wasn't sure how we were going to safely get several people on several different sleds down the hill without some sort of light...Uncle Don saved the party! I tried to take a picture of the hill in the dark, but it didn't work so well. Below, you can sort of see the 2 lanterns on each side of the slope...

The sleet stopped, and the rain started to fall just as we were getting started. But, there was no wind so we stayed quite warm as long as we had enough clothes on. My mom, dad, and brother were a bit late in coming. Mom brought 7-layer bean dip and put it in the oven when they got there. Dad was one of the designated "pushers" as he was either too chicken or too "old" to go down himself.
There were several sleds to choose from, so several people would be at the bottom of the hill waiting for a ride up from Adam who was towing us all back up with the 4-wheeler. We tried our best to get as many people up in one trip as we could. Pictured below from left to right...Henry, Sophie (Chris and Elise's dog), Chris, Daniel, and Heidi.

In the back from left to right...Don, Heidi, Dad, Chris...and Elise, Mom, and Soren on the sled.

Adam was on the ATV the whole time. He got in a couple of runs at the end when 1/2 the group had gone inside to warm up with chips and dip.

Despite the rain, it turned out to be a good time. In this family, we're all about the memory-making. We try our best to take our "togetherness" opportunities when we can. I feel so blessed to live so close to my family and hope that their spontaneous spirit never runs dry!