So after I woke up and saw nothing but "closed" on every school and church activity, I crawled back in bed for a much enjoyed extra hour and a half before starting our day. I had said that if
the weather permitted I wanted to take Kaylee sledding with her new sled, so that was the first thing I had planned for the day. We got bundled up, and since we couldn't drive my car, we walked down to the local park dragging her sled behind us. She'd climb piles of snow wherever she found them and wander around, and it was a pretty morning for it with the sun breaking out on the snow. But we ran into one problem. The snow was completely unbroken on the hill, and it was so deep that when I tried to push the sled down it, the sled would just go an inch or two, dig in and stop. The pitch of the hill wasn't steep enough to overcome the loose depth of the snow. I pushed that sled one push at a time all the way down the hill, then walked back up and did it again, about 5 times or so, trying to forge a path that would allow the sled to finally get some momentum. No way. 
So after all that bundling, all that walking, and all that effort, Sledding Part One failed. Not that Kaylee cared too much, she was having fun just being out and about and playing in some pretty deep snow. So we hiked it back home, ate lunch, warmed up, had some hot chocolate, and waited until Steve came home in the Jeep so we could drop him off at work and then take the Jeep out and about for Sledding Round Two. Glenndale's driveway was plowed out, but the snow was up about past the door knob, and the road out to the airport was so narrow and whited out that you couldn't really tell where the road even was at first.We pulled up to the hill at the other park, and apparently that was the place to be. The top of the
hill was simply swarming with bundled-up kids free from school after one doozy of a snow day. We all had the same idea. I walked up with Kaylee, she hopped on her sled, went blasting down the hill, and the speed demon in her was reawakened. She went down on her rear, legs stretched out for awhile, then she went to her belly, then to her knees. Next she stood on her feet but held onto the side of the sled, like a skateboarder/snowboarder performing an aerial trick. Finally she stood up on her feet on this sled and went down. Then she went down backwards. Then she went off a little snow ramp someone had made close to the bottom of the hill that would launch the kids a bit in the air. We were at 
this hill until 5 p.m. with her just going up and down and up and down. There was ONE tree anywhere close to this hill, so of course at one point Kaylee ran into it. Fortunately she was unhurt, but as she was lying at the base of the tree pretending to be unconscious, two little boys *really* slammed into the tree-I was standing there when the littlest boy up front, maybe 4 years old, hit the tree face first. I had tried to deflect their sled, but they were just moving too fast. Kaylee decided she wasn't hurt when she saw him smack. (I'm really kind of surprised sledding hasn't been 'outlawed' yet. After all, kids are going very fast down a hill with no helmets all around other kids and other obstacles such as trees and rocks. I wonder how many more years kids will be able to do that before it becomes another lost pastime.) Then she wanted me to go down a few times, so I did, and she said "Huh, I guess you aren't chicken after all!" As If. ;) She took a picture of me, too. I did not go down standing on the sled on my feet. I told her that I weighed a lot more than she did and was higher off the ground, and that if I wiped out, I'd hit the ground harder than she would and it would hurt me more. But mostly that if I stood on her sled, I might break it. Which got us into a discussion of weight distribution and why it wouldn't break her sled if I sat on it but could if I stepped on it. See, school may have been out, but there were still a couple of science lessons today, including trajectory, acceleration, and drag. So there we go. ;)Mental note to self: I'm not sure the arctic gear rated for forty below zero is a good thing to get your kid after all, unless you want to be outside in the snow ALL DAY LONG. The girl never got cold! After several hours, me in my non-arctic-gear got a little chilly, so I told Kaylee I was going to sit in the Jeep and warm up for a few minutes. As I was warming up, I looked over at the line of cars sitting there next to me, and there were adults in all of them, just sitting there watching the kids and the hill. I started laughing... I was bundled up pretty well myself, but it was my fingers, even in big ole gloves, that got chilled-the rest of me stayed nice and warm. Kaylee got a kick out of making friends by running into them, literally, and just had a great time all day. I took way too many photos again, two pages actually, of course.
When we finally got home, Kaylee ate a massive amount of food, I guess to counteract all the calories she burned off going up and down hills and hiking through parks today. Three servings of oatmeal, a bowl of orange slices, and a piece of thick crust cheese pizza downed with two glasses of milk! I was impressed, I just had two pieces of pizza and a Diet Coke. Oh to have her metabolism. :)
We picked Steve back up at the office and came on home, because Kaylee's Awanas was cancelled for the night too. She has a two-hour delay tomorrow morning too, meaning a little extra rest for the wicked after all. :) We'll have to make up all these snow days at the end of the year when it's nice and warm and Spring, but for now I have to admit the occasional break in the middle of this depressing winter is kind of nice.
Oh, and when we pulled into the driveway for the last time today, our entire driveway was plowed out, our front sidewalk was shoveled, our back sidewalk was shoveled, and in front of my garage was shoveled. One of our neighbors has a HUGE snowblower, and he did our driveway for us without even asking, and a friend came over and took care of the sidewalks for us. What a wonderful surprise!
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