Monday, January 10, 2005

Sledding on a Snow Day

For a woman who grew up in California, winter in the midwest is something out of the movies. When I was a girl, the snow was something that you went to and then came home...as in, we're going to the snow this weekend. You could find the snow in the mountains (Big Bear in my case). You went to the snow. You came home when you were done with it.

In Michigan, you don't go to the snow. It comes to you. It finds you where ever you are. And it stays. There's no hiding from it.

For my boys, this is a good thing. Snow means sledding, building snowmen, snow ball fights, snow angels, and eating snow cones. For a mom, this means helping your kids put on snow boots, snow pants, winter jacket, mittens, hats, scarves, and then taking off wet snow pants, wet jackets, wet mittens, cold hats and scarves and hanging everything to dry until the next outside adventure.

But, it's still pretty fun being the mom of boys who love snow...you see their pink cheeks and smiling faces while their running around, playing and falling in the snow.

Last Wednesday, R had his first "snow day". That meant that he didn't have to go to school because there was too much snow (6 inches fell overnight) for safe traffic to school. So, Mike took the boys to a local sledding hill that he had heard about from a neighbor. Boy did they have fun -- all of the boys, including Dad! They made about 20 runs down the long hill, trudging back up each time for more runs. My husband called me when they were done and they were all hyper and excited on the phone. It was about noon and luckily I didn't have any meetings, so we met at the Pizza Hut across the street from my work and I got to hear their sledding stories while they were still fresh. They were already at the restaurant when I walked in -- decked out in their snow bibs, rosy cheeks, and sweaty heads with hat hair :>

T proudly talked about how brave he was going down the hill by himself. R talked about the fact that he went "super sonic fast" when he went down the long hill. Dad beamed with pleasure that he was able to share such a fun experience with his boys -- an experience that he remembers fondly from his childhood in Wisconsin. I was happy that we were able to share that lunch time together. It made me smile all day.


1 comment:

CaliforniaGrammy said...

So I want to see R going "super sonic fast!"
What a fun way to keep up with the Smiths!
I'm so happy that Mike can relive his childhood too, while raising my grandkids!
Love you all!