Shredding

 After waking gloriously late this morning, we made the last-minute decision to head to Oregon for some sledding.

The weather was warm enough to have us shedding our coats every chance we could.  However, the warmer temperatures also made for some pretty dangerous ice.  It was so hard, we could walk on top of the snow every step of the way.  It also meant that we got micro-fissures if our skin rubbed against the icy snow.  It also meant our sledding was faster than ever!

Tyson was the first to try sledding on his belly.  I was a nervous wreck when I saw what was happening.  No sooner had I realized that Randy wasn't holding him back but encouraging him than he was off down the hill.  Talk about heart attack watching his face zoom close to the ice.

It's hard to get depth in a picture, but this is the bowl of Andie's Prairie.  The other side is much, much steeper.  You can see just how tiny the people look on the other side.  You better believe that Tyson went down that side a few times.  If I was nervous watching my kids go down this side once we realized how icy it was, it was nothing compared to watching him go down that other side.  He zoomed down fast and ended up sledding all the way up to where we were standing!  Randy grabbed his hand, propelled him around, and threw him back down our side of the hill.

We found it was more fun on the inflatable tube going at those speeds.  It's usually said that you "shred" down the mountain, but the ice did some shredding of its own on our tube.  We got in as many runs as we could before the tube was pretty much useless.

I had to giggle at our procession to the car.  Mira was strapped to a sled carrying our coats, gloves, and goggles, Shelby was pulling Tyson, and I was lugging around the deflating tube.

"The girls are doing all of the heavy lifting!"

We weren't very far down the mountain when we noticed flashing lights and a line of taillights ahead.  We weren't stopped for too long, though.  After the icy conditions we found at the sledding hill, it's not too hard to imagine how slick the roads were once the sun started to dip below the moutain.

As we came around a bend, I noticed the fog and cloud cover we'd drive below up head.

Goodbye, blue skies and sunshine!  The next two pictures were taken within five minutes of this one.

(2:47pm)

It was fun to be spontaneous.  I usually like to plan better and have the car packed for day trips like this.  The rush to get on the road after sleeping in only added to the excitement.  It was a fun day spent with people I love most in the most beautiful of settings.  I'm the luckiest girl in the world.