Sled-scapades!

I have to say that I am fairly proud of myself at this point.  Against my better judgement (and that of the man in the store parking lot) I bought a sled for the kids on Wednesday.  There was snow in the forecast for Thursday and even though it has been as dry as the Mojave Desert here this winter I gave it a shot.  For some reason when weather.com forecasts 100% chance of snow I feel we've got a shot.  Luckily, they were right.  If they had been wrong I would have been pulling my children on the asphalt in the middle of the street regardless.  The female mini would have NEVER let me live it down and guilted me with her sad ass face to do so and I must admit I probably would have caved.  So I was taking a pretty big meteorological gamble with this purchase.  And being that snow isn't even sniffed in the forecast for the next two weeks it could have been a LONG go of it.  I envisioned actually having pulled them sans snow so many times that the cement would have eaten a hole through the bottom of the sled, rendering it unusable.  Fortunately this will not be the case as now they have a previously associated requirement for use of the sled...snow!

Honestly,  I was a little nervous about this next part.  I don't know where the thought came from but I foresaw pulling my kids in the snow to be a back-breaking experience.  I am so out of shape that I wasn't sure I would make it.  So I came up with an idea!  I figured, I have 2 kids at 30+ pounds each equalling roughly 70 pounds total...this is more than half my body weight...no WAY I could pull this sleigh alone.  Hubba is out of the question as he is away slaving at the salt mines.  There had to be another helper....THE DOG!  It was the perfect crime!  He's got tons of energy and as the 3YOG so nicely pointed out "that is what dogs are for Mommy...pulling sleds!"  This kid watches too much Diego!  So I get everyone bundled up, and ready for our arctic adventure.  An hour later we are ready to go.  I get the dog outside and bridled up and he is just fired up because he is finally going to get to go for a walk.  I first start out with the bungee chords.  HA!  That was a huge flop.  The dog looked at me like "You CAN'T be serious!"  The kids were yelling "Go Titin! Goooo! Vamanos!" and he just stood there heavily peeved, trying to bite off the chords.  I tried to coerce him and he snubbed me again.  So I moved on to a less rigid pulley system.  I found a really long rope to string through the front which I then attached to his leash.  I served as the go-between in the situation and let the horsey run in front while I ran in the middle to ensure that if the kids went flying I stood a fighting chance of catching at least one.  This arrangement he was ok with.  So we started to joy ride....

We ran while the kids launched over previously shoveled walkway piles.  They served as mini jumps for them.  They waggled on the ice, skid around corners and weeeeeeeed the whole way.  We sang "Jingle Bells" at the tops of our lungs (the neighbors must have LOVED us) and quickly changed the lyrics to a "one dog open sleigh."  Every time I looked back the kids had more snow piled atop their heads and bigger smiles atop their faces!  They both looked like they had just won the lottery.

At about a quarter mile I thought I was going to throw up.  This is the most running I have done in a looong time.  Mama don't run.  More of a water kinda gal.  And since having the kids well, let's just say when I run I don't exactly come back as dry as I left.  So I reserve running for times of emergency or immediately following a usage of the facilities.  I don't like to leave things up to fate.  This is usually the first ingredient in a recipe for disaster.  So needless to say I was a bit winded.  And being that the dog was pulling twice his body weight he was a little fatigued as well.  He started to sniff more and slow his clip to a mild speed.  No longer the "run like I'm being chased by a water buffalo" rate.  I then noticed a strong odor...clearly this little trip was taking it's toll on the poor pup.  The Titin Toots were killing me...being the go-between I could go nowhere for a breath of fresh air.  I was stuck.  He clearly needed a poop break.  This was my cue to end out little excursion and send this sleigh home.  The kids faces were bright red and I felt it was a respectable maiden voyage.  When we got home daddy came pulling in the drive only moments later.  We took another couple of spins in the "coupe."  I pulled them sans dog around the front yard.  Got going around a tree at a fairly respectable rate of speed and dumped the whole load.  They both went flying face first into the snow.  The 1st fall they thought was pretty funny.  The 2nd fall...not so much.  The Moose came up with a snow wash of the likes that I don't think I have ever seen.  Being the mean mom that I am, I tried to take a picture but most of it had melted by the time the camera was ready.  Hubba and I were laughing so hard it was almost mean.  Then I went to snuggle the little guy and he was back in the game.  Amazing what a little pity can do to a man.  Words to live by, no doubt!  

Post Snow Wash

Then Hubba took the reigns and led the princess down the street, around the corner and down a fairly good sized hill.  I've never seen this girl so happy.  She zoomed down with speed, precision and knowledge that she has the best dad who ever walked.  Metaphorically, a dad who would literally "pull her" through anything--it was quite a sight!  Leave it to me to spin a moment of glee into a serious life revelation...

All in all it was a great day.  I somehow managed to burn our crock pot dinner--don't know anyone in the free union capable of burning something in a crock pot but here I stand with my crown!  But we made our kids happy, ran the life out of our dog (he is STILL sleeping), I learned a little about physics, learned a lot about life and had the kind of day that I will look back on in 20 years and smile about.  As I was putting Mya to bed last night I asked her what she was going to dream about.  She replied "I am going to dream about all of the wonderful things we did today!"  Couldn't feel more blessed if I tried.  Happy New Year to one and all!  Much love, prosperity and health to you in 2011! 



                                                                                             Snow Angel :)