Sledding Day

On Martin Luther King Day we all had the day off.  Actually, Dode had the day off for American Indian Day because his employer, the Tulalip Tribes, has renamed the holiday, but irregardless of what it's called, the main fact is that we we able to do something fun!  We took the family sledding to the sledding hill near Snoqualmie Pass.  Because the Dicksons aren't very good at doing things small, we invited all our friends at church to join us.  No one took us up on the offer but we had enough hot dogs and hot chocolate for a lot of people!

As we drove out of our driveway Monday morning, I told Dode that I was pretty surprised because I was actually excited to be going.  Most of the time, when we go on a family activity, I'm forcing myself to have fun because I realize all the work and chaos that go into doing things as a family.  Sledding takes a lot of work, outfitting 7 people to stay warm outside in the snow all day, planning for food and drink for everyone, but all that didn't matter, I just wanted to go have fun.

We'd been experiencing a long dry spell in Western Washington so the roads were dry all the way to the parking lot.  We arrived, pulling our cargo trailer with all our stuff, to an absolutely jam packed parking lot.  We went all around the parking lot once and couldn't find a single parking spot for a vehicle, much less one pulling a trailer.  On our second round, a few spots had opened up but nowhere that would accommodate our van and trailer.  We ended up parking along a snow bank in what I'm not sure was an "official" spot.  It ended up being a perfect spot because the children could exit the vehicle and head right to the snow without having to go through the parking lot.

Our area, a fine mess

We unloaded and successfully navigated through the chaos of getting all the children (including my nephew Gabriel) dressed in their warm things.  Right about the same time we were unloading, someone broke their femur on the sledding hill so it was closed while they got her off the hill.  The children were able to play in the large snow field right next to the van while we waited for the hill to re-open.  William found it fascinating to watch the three ambulances and the paramedics from a distance.

We'd been experiencing a weather inversion for a week.  What that means is we weren't getting above freezing down at sea level while up in the mountains there were in the 50's and 60's.  When we got to the mountains around 11:30, all the snow was a sheet of hard ice.  As the sun kept beating down on the hill, the ice softened up into "corn snow" and got nice and sledable.

You never know what kind of snow conditions you're going to encounter so we brought a new sled and all our inner tubes.  The sled was the best way to get down the hill.  Isaac liked to race me down the hill, me on the inner tube and he on the sled.  He'd give me a bit of a head start but would inevitably crash into me as he went down the hill.

William wore his helmet all day, sledding or not.

Dode was never really able to enjoy himself because there were so many people on the hill and he was afraid of crashing into someone.

view of the very busy hill

It was a perfect day (Dode would say the crowds made that impossible) and we had the entire time to play.  It worked out wonderfully because the teenagers got tired of sledding in the middle of the day and hung out in the van for a while.  When they decided to play again, we said, "Go for it!"  Usually it seems like once someone is ready to play again, we're saying, "Sorry, it's time to go home now."

Gabe and William take off

Gabe kept Isaac busy because he enjoyed filling his clothes with snow and then needed help getting that snow out once he got cold or it started melting.

We dropped Gabriel off at my mom's on the way home and fed all the hungry children hot dogs.  Dode had to park the van a ways off because there is nowhere in her development that would accommodate our extra long vehicle.  He surprised me when he got back with some teriyaki on my seat.  I hadn't had meat in a while but it sounded good after our cold day.  As soon as I cracked the lid, children started exclaiming, "I smell teriyaki!"  Dode and I shared it on the way home.  Dode says the one thing the children will remember about our day was that mom and dad had teriyaki and refused to share.